Turkeys In A Twizzle

Saturday 12th May 2018
The Turkeys Hatch

A few weeks back our hen turkey started sitting on her eggs. So it was no surprise when she started to hiss and be much more protective when I ventured into the turkey enclosure yesterday. And it was no surprise when I saw discarded egg shells and three little heads poking out this morning.

The surprise will be how many there are and what colour. The male is mostly Lavender and the females are mostly Bronze, but since they are being bred for meat and not show we are not purists when it comes to fancy feathers. The important thing is that they are not double-breasted monsters and that they will be slow grown, as nature intended.

For now I shall leave well alone. They probably won't venture off the nest till tomorrow and there may well be more eggs hatching under the hen.

The Silver Stag behaved himself too. He gets close enough to feel a little threatening but trusts me enough to just stand close guard.

Earthing Up The Spuds
I left the turkeys alone and turned my attention to the potatoes. They are all starting to poke their leaves through the surface, so there is the small matter of earthing up to be attended to. I have learned a few short cuts when planting my spuds. No longer do I dig back-breaking trenches for them, but instead I just plant each tuber as deep as I can with a trowel. For the past few years I have then pulled the earth up over them with a draw hoe to create ridges. This is important to protect the leaves from late frosts and to prevent the new tubers from turning green through exposure to light. They often grow surprisingly near the surface.
This earthing up process often requires repeating as the potatoes grow more, or as the chickens do their best to make the earth flat again. They are banished from the veg garden for a few months now, but several of them still venture over gates and fences for a bit of a scratch around. They will learn the summer rules once they have been chased out a few times.
This year I am trying a different process, only earthing up as the new leaves appear. On the new potatoes I am using compost and old bedding straw to earth up, hoping that this will slowly release its goodness into the soil below. The chickens are finding this even more delightful to scratch around in, but it is lighter material and easy to pull back into position. Once it settles down they will leave alone.