We have had a lot of fun raising different types of fowl on the farm, they all come with unique traits and challenges. Recently we added turkeys to the flock, they are funny little things and they can be pretty absent minded at times. About two weeks ago the graduated from the brooder to their new digs in a newly remodeled shed. After about a week of being cooped up we allowed them to free range, figuring they had homed to the shed.
I need to stop doing that, figuring on birds and their tiny brains.
Those turkeys love to range, they go all over and forage like champs, I love watching them. But something happens at dusk, those turkeys forget where “home” is and bed down wherever they feel like it, the potato patch is a favorite, a cozy corner by some fences, under an old sage brush. So about dusk Dadzoo and I take a stroll down to the turkey shed and look for our lost birdies. Dadzoo has become quite the expert at herding turkey with two long bamboo poles, I think it comes from his years if experience being a dad to a whole bunch of kids. Have you ever herded 7 children down a crowded church hall after services? Dadzoo has! Dadzoo, he’s a man of many trades, and turkey herder has been added to the list.
Fun fact: did you know that turkeys make the sweetest chirping sound and they will call until every last bird from the flock is safely together.
“How oft would I have gathered you…and ye would not” takes on a whole new meaning now!
Yes, I remember when we had turkeys ranging on our property in CA. We had to take them back every evening. They had fun gathering around Glenn when he was building something and when he would make a different sound they would all ‘gobble, gobble’. Funny birds!
I wonder if I can add Turkey Herder to my resume. But the list on my resume would be a lot shorter than the one Aimee would have on hers. She amazes me with all the stuff she does and knows. I just wing it.