We have a new turkey!

We actually have 4 baby turkeys right now but that's only because we are keeping 3 for someone else till next week. We are not sure which one will be ours even though I feel the white one is the best and most friendly. However that one will be going away and we have to keep one of the dark ones. :-(

We had the idea to put them together with the new baby layers, hoping that since they are all babies they will get used to each other faster and there will not be a need for us to build a separate house for the turkey. So far it has not been working out so good. The chickens, especially Brownie, are pecking at the turkeys' backs and when the turkeys hide they actually go as far as looking for them in the corner just to get a peck. Can you see Brownie viciously eyeing the white turkey?

I will be googling what to do but so far we are keeping our fingers crossed that they will get over the introduction and become friends. I feel bad for the turkeys because they look a bit scared. Anyone has experience with this kind of friendship that happens early on? I know that adult hens will not like anyone new in their flock but babies.

We might have to go to Trader Joe's...

When I was all caught up on blogging, I was behind on my garden... Now the garden looks great but my blogging is suffering... Go figure...
So let me just quickly catch up here with this short post - update on our turkey situation. The white turkey had to go couple weeks ago, as it's leg was getting worse and it couldn't even get to the food. It weighed over 20 pounds, which was just amazing to us... and it fed 2 families and guests for two dinners (well, with some side dishes and extra meat dish). Now we have our grey turkey left and this one is just too awesome! It follows us everywhere around the yard, and wants to get inside the house as well (it tried it out once when the kids thought it would be funny to let him in...)

The other day, I am washing dishes when someone knocked at the back porch door... No one would ever go that way so you can imagine how much I freaked out! I slowly peeked around the corner with a wooden spoon in my hand (I don't think I would use that on an intruder... I just happened to be washing it). And this is what I found...

Turkey making a mess out of my shoes, hanging with the dog, and knocking with it's beak trying to get in the house (like pushing it's whole body against the glass door)... Ok, how can we eat this guy? Someone will have to trick me into it, I am getting hooked...

I am including more shots of turkey hanging out on our porch - his favorite spot to make a mess!

If you click on the "turkey" label underneath this post, you can see all my turkey updates...

Turkey update

Look at them grow! Finally they seem like they are growing. For many weeks they looked like they were stuck in one place but now I see the difference.

Turkey says hi! He is clearly waiting to attack my camera.

And give it up for Thanksgiving, who is all better!You can still see the cut on his left foot but the good news is that he is walking again and growing at the same pace as his friend.

Ok, I have to leave because now they are both clearly planning an attack on my shining lens. (Did you notice someone stealing food in the background?) :-)

Treating Thanksgiving's Bumble Foot

As you know from one of my previous posts, we now own two turkeys. I still have no idea what is the breed and I hope to find out because they are extremely calm and friendly and I am all of a sudden not so sure how will we ever eat them for Thanksgiving dinner. Especially after this happened.

One day my husband found "Thanksgiving" in the coup, sitting on the ground, trying to get up but couldn't. We found out his foot was swollen to triple the usual size and started to panic a bit. We were worried it might be the disease they could get from chickens and then die from it. After some research, we figured out it was no such thing, it was "only" Bumble Foot, which is a bacterial infection and inflammatory reaction on the feet of birds. It could be caused by a cut, which happened in our case. It got inflamed and the whole foot swelled up and he couldn't step on it. Thanks to some internet videos we found out how to treat it on our own. Here is us playing vets to Thanksgiving:

First, we filled up a bucket with warm water and poured Epson Lavender Salt in it. Then we dipped Thanksgiving in. He really enjoyed this soak, can you tell?

Next I had to dry him and make him feel comfortable so we can clean his wound and treat it. (I realized I am starting to call them "him"...) This position worked.

While I was holding him, my husband cleaned the wound with hydrogen peroxide and put some Neosporin cream on it to help with the infection. Then he wrapped it up in gauze. You have to change the gauze first every day but then when it gets better, once in two days is fine.

He built him a small shady shelter because the weather was terribly hot here. We gave him water and food right next to his head and were happy to find out that he had good appetite and started eating right away. You also have to put new hay under the bird daily because he is pooping in one spot, under himself. This is Thanksgiving panting in the heat.

Hubby even installed a fan in their coup.

And here is Turkey keeping him company. He didn't stop calling his friend the whole time we had him in a garage.

New addition to our family

Please say hi to Thanksgiving and Turkey! yes, I know this might be a bit too harsh to name my two new babies that, but that is what they are so far. And I never told the kids that that's what I call them. Officially we are calling them girls just like all the chickens (even though we are not sure what gender they are ;-)

They are 5 weeks old turkey babies and generally they are very tame and love to come close to people. They don't like my silver wedding ring too much but my white oversized watch doesn't bother them a bit - go figure ;-) You should see the hissing and pecking that goes on when my silver ring comes close to them. This is Turkey charging at my ring...

How are they getting along with the chickens you ask? Not so much... So far anyway. When we brought them in, chickens acted like chickens, that is scared to death trying to get as far as possible from the two new birds. They were tripping over each other just to try to escape. Look at this, this is Thanksgiving trying to make friends with our black girl. The chicken looked like she was pretending not to notice - if I ignore her, maybe she will disappear ;-) At this point the chickens are glued to the wall because there was no place to escape.

You have to give it to Turkey! Look at her letting the girls know who is the boss! BOO!

But yesterday the chickens got comfortable to the point when they became a bit aggressive and we had to separate them. 

 Now I have to learn what a turkey needs in order to thrive and hopefully be happy in our chicken house. I will check back in couple of weeks on how they are doing - or if we still even have them. 

spinach turkey omelet

Here is the promised recipe for your delicious breakfast



2 tablespoons water
fresh spinach
2 eggs
garlic salt
1 tablespoons butter
cheddar cheese (grated)
turkey (lunch meat)


Wash spinach and drain in a colander.

Place it on the pen with 2 tablespoons water and cook, tossing until completely wilted.

Place it back into the colander and squeeze out as much water as possible.

Chop spinach and place it in a bowl along with eggs.

Sprinkle with garlic salt and whisk together.










Put butter on a pan and melt it. Place the egg mixture into the pen and spread all the way to the edges of the pan. Cook it until the mixture thickens. Using wooden spoon or spatula, push the edges toward the center so that any uncooked eggs flow underneath. Cook until the eggs set.

Place turkey and cheddar cheese on top of the egg mixture and fold omelet in half using your spatula. 

Serve immediately with side of your choice. I chose toast and kabanos (polish sausage - oh so good, and you can get it in any Polish grocery store).