Wild Turkey Feathers... Oooops!

Wild Turkey feathers from our turkeys.

Again, this is not my picture and I borrowed this because it looks just like our feathers.

I am really missing having a working camera.

And really thankful that the internet has a picture of everything on the planet.

Pictures do make things more interesting!

We have a Tom and two hen Wild Turkeys.  And no, they are not "wild"... well, they are not tame either ;)  ... but rather that is the variety.  They are the same that you find in the wild.  They are quite beautiful birds..... which is why I feel so bad about removing the beautiful feathers....

Note to self:  Don't grab a turkey by the tail feathers even if you have a large handful.

So here's the story:  I was going to let the chickens and ducks free range, but we are told that if the turkeys get out we will never see them again.  We have been told they will fly away and never come back.  I am not sure I believe this.  I tend to think that just like the hens, roosters, and ducks they would come back to their home.  I could be wrong.  Either way, we were trying to prevent losing them, so for their SAFETY I was trying to catch them to put them in our smaller inner pen that is in the chicken yard.  This area has a separate door that can be closed to keep them locked away while allowing us to leave the chicken yard open so the hens can come in and out and lay their eggs.  Let me just say that the turkey hens are HARD.TO.CATCH.  As in... we have never touched them other than the day we brought them home over three weeks ago.  I did catch them, but now they are missing a lot of feathers.  As I reached out and grabbed the first hen I grabbed all of her tail feathers and she tried to run.  As she jerked away I felt all her feathers gently release into my hands.  Ugghhh!  That was not supposed to happen.  Now we have a bird with a naked rear end.  Poor girl.  And now, she thinks I was trying to torture her.  I was merely trying to keep her safe.  After capturing her and releasing her into the inner pen we went after the second turkey hen.  Sadly, we jerked out some of her feathers, also.  The next day we free ranged the hens, rooster, and ducks, but we did NOT torture the turkey hens again.  We just left the chicken yard door open less than a foot wide, so the hens could get in and out, but the turkeys could not. 

Another adventure to learn from.  I find there is always much to learn from all these creatures.  This day it was:  Do not grab a turkey by it's tail feathers! 

Hopefully, they will grow back fairly quickly.