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June 07 - Disaster Strikes The term "pecking order" can only really be appreciated when you have witnessed one bird peck away at another.
There is a real hierachy with birds and although nature is a wonderful thing, it can be very cruel.
It had been just over a week since we'd stocked up with new birds and they all appeared to be settling in nicely.
However, a couple of the turkeys had started to pick on one of the others and repeatedly pecked the poor sod until his face was a bloody mess.
As a result, we put him into a quarintine enclosure to keep him safe.
That night, a stoat arrived and killed 3 turkeys and 2 geese.
When a stoat kills, it doesn't actually eat the animal, it drinks the blood, so lying all around were headless carcasses and severed heads - this is quite a distressing site, especially as we thought of the terror that these birds must have been in while being attacked.
Our previous experience with a stoat a couple of years before had the locals telling us that "lightning never strikes twice" and that stoats quickly move on to different hunting ground.
So, Dan checked the boundaries and fencing - all of which appeared to be intact. Coupled with the local knowledge that "lightning never strikes twice" we headed back to the weekly livestock market.
Dan told the "bird man" the story of the stoat and purchased another 4 geese and 4 turkeys.
Imagine our surprise when a few dyas later, we awoke to a total massacre - we lost 3 more geese & 6 turkeys!
It was definately a stoat again - if not the original one, then certainly it's brother!
The joke of it all is that when Dan went back to the market (again), the poultry farmer felt so sorry for us he gave us some free turkeys!
But the horror wasn't over.
In fact, within a matter of days of bringing home the 3rd batch of turkeys the stoat struck again!
Walking around the garden with a dustbin sack picking up various body parts and trying to put them back together to ascertain how many we'd lost is not a pleasant task.
In fact, we found this episode quite soul destroying and has to be the lowest point of our "good life"
Clearly, the ducks weren't pleased with what was happening so they moved out to the field behind - unfortunately, they were no luckier because they met their maker thanks to the combine harvester!
In total, we lost 28 birds - it wasn't only the money side (although it certainly wasn't cheap), it was the fact that we'd lost so much potential meat.
28 birds is more than enough for a year and we'd lost the lot!!! View The Blog Read All Turkey Stories |
