God stop Friday

Ok...I've got two things for my God stop Friday.

And, thank you to our sweet friend, Patty, for hosting this each week.

First thing I'm going to tell you about are my darling turkey friends down the street. I'm not talking neighbors, as in people, when I say turkey friends.

I mean honest to goodness baby turkeys....that are now 2 days old. And, they have a story behind them regarding their momma.

Ya see.....our people neighbors were at their farm and they were bushhogging (no idea how to spell that word). I hope you know what bushhogging is because I'm not explaining other than he was cutting the fields with a tractor.

The grass was REAL tall and REAL thick. It was almost like straw or hay up to your knees. I was told that you could lose a car in this stuff it was that thick. Well, needless to say, their oldest son was on the tractor trying to clean things up. He is going along and then.....bump.....he knows he has run over something and gets off the tractor to see what it might have been.

To his complete shock, he sees the momma turkey.....sorry, but he had run over the precious momma, and her nest of eggs. AND, her nest of eggs. What amazes me is what happens next.

The son, forgetting everything else, scoops up all 9 of her eggs....without a single crack....and takes them to his aunt's house. She is a teacher and all teachers have an animal incubator, don't they? She did. He then took them home to quickly get them incubator. An hour has gone by at this point and the eggs are still hot by the time they are ready to put them in the incubator. That's some serious heat that a momma gives off to her eggs when she is laying on them.

The family didn't know how long it would be before they started hatching so they waited and watched.

But, what's precious to me is that momma knew how long it would be before those babies of hers would be born. She knew it was soon. She saw that tractor coming. She knew she had to "take one for the team" as my husband said. She knew it was all about protecting those babies.

And, she did. She took one for the family in order to save those babies.

Well, one by one, over the next 24 hours, those baby turkeys pecked their sweet little selves out of those eggs. I was able to watch the last one go through the process. That little guy worked so very hard y'all. He poked and poked and poked a complete circle around the fat part of the egg. And, finally, he pushed that thing open and plopped that wet head on the incubator floor like he was just worn out. And, I bet he was.

It was the most beautiful thing I'd ever seen lately. I stood in amazement wondering, "how did you fit in there?" And, "you worked so hard buddy."

By this time, his brothers and sisters had been transferred to a temporary cage type thing with a heat lamp on them. And, yes they come out able to walk. So, he is all by himself in the incubator for the next 8 hours. He can't be moved too soon.

He is moved the next morning with the others and is immediately shunned. Yes, he was. I felt so sorry for him last night. He is the runt and he is shunned. We were told that they may not all make it....due to sickness or others pecking another one to death. HORRIBLE. Just horrible.

I talked to that cage last night and said normal things that you would say to a cage of baby turkeys..."Be nice to your brother. He needs you right now. You are family. Be sweet. Why can't y'all just get along?"

Only time will tell what will happen to these turkeys. The family has a plan for them in the next week. It's kind of hard to raise turkeys in a neighborhood.

Only time will tell what happens to the runt. My heart is soft toward him. I saw him come into the world and fight so hard out of that egg.



Ok...real quick because I know that was long....

God stop #2 was supposed to be about having fun this week. Just wanted you to know that I raced my kids down the street last night. Raced them people!! Raced them with running legs.

I kept thinking..."I'm not as fast as I used to be. I'm not as fast as I thought I was." I got beat big time. But, we sure laughed when we were done.

It was fun and funny! Family and fun should go hand and hand.

Thanks for stopping by and learning about my turkeys. :)

Hugs and blessings~