Stealth Turkey!

I talked to my Mom yesterday, it had been awhile...but since I stay so busy most of the time, if I don't call fairly early in the day, I forget.  I called and she didn't answer so I just left a message and she called me back later...I had not fed the animals yet, but we talked for awhile.  My husband came home from work and helped me get everyone taken care of.  He fed the section of poultry that has the Stadium, the Condo, the Turkey House, the Growout pen and half of the rooster pens.  It is in this set of rooster pens that we put a Bronze turkey.  The turkey was there when he fed them.  I remember the turkey was there when I was gathering eggs in that section.  Funny thing is, the turkey disappeared between then and when he went and put them up last night.

I was worried about the turkey when he told me he wasn't in the pen.  How could it have gotten out?  He looked in other pens and didn't see it.  I went out to look around more, checked other coops, other pens, called for it...no response from any of the turkeys...usually when I say turkey, turkey really loud the males gobble back...not last night.  I even rechecked the rooster pens, lifted the tarp up and looked under it in case it had gotten between the shade cloth and the tarp somehow...no turkey.  I came back in the house and we talked about it...if the turkey got out somehow it was probably up in a tree somewhere bedded down for the night and would be out in the yard walking around by himself in the morning.

The turkeys have been fighting a lot because of mating season so we separated three of the five out and put them in different areas.  Two turkeys are in the rooster pens and one in the Growout pen.   They don't roost with the roosters, but either sleep on the ground or one of the pallets.  They are much larger than the roosters, so it is pretty easy to tell the difference even in the dark with a headlamp on.  Yeah, it doesn't sound very fair to the turkeys, staying in lockup...but neither does getting their snoods ripped, their feathers yanked out or spur wounds from the other male turkeys.  I already have a wounded female in isolation because of wounds and them fighting over who gets to mate her.  She has been on my porch for a couple of months.  I had her healed up and put her back out in the yard and she was ripped back open, the skin was too thin I suppose.  So she is back in the hospital ward.

Anyway, my husband went out to let all of the poultry out of their houses and noticed that the turkey was back in the pen!  So how?  Lol, the only explaination is he went into stealth mode last night...unless he learned how to unlock the gate to the pen?  Who knows?  I guess I will take a closer look today and see if maybe there is a secret hiding place I have not found...or maybe he dug a hole under the pallet that I have not seen?

My husband found a snake in one of the rooster pens...the first snake we have seen in the chicken area.  We have had a lot of rain and they have been publishing warnings about snakes.  I thought it was probably a Rat Snake or Water Moccasin, but after doing a little research I think it is a Yellow Bellied Watersnake.  It doesn't really matter any more...it is a dead snake.  It was about three feet long and a blackish gray, had a yellow belly and smelled like a skunk...I did not know any snake could smell like that.  The chicken pens are close to the little creek that runs through our property, I was afraid it could have been a Water Moccasin and since they are poisonous, well...dead snake!  It think I probably would have freaked out if I had found it.  It makes me want to carry a machete around just in case.  I am pretty good with one of those, I use one to lop branches off when I go out and limb trees or cut paths through the woods.  I got pretty good whacking branches off with one chop.  I am not sure if I am good enough to hit a snake in the head with my gun from far enough away so that I don't get bitten.  I took the dogs for a long walk in the woods yesterday, I may start including both in my arsenal I take out with me.  That and some target practice may be in order.