Days 64, 65 and 66 - Number Eleven

First order of business on Monday morning was to check to see if Number Eleven had lived through the night.  Happily, she did and was stumbling around in the box Mike had made for her.  (We can't really tell if it's male or female, but we're saying it's a girl.) 

Heather managed to get her to eat a little and take some water and then we put her back in the box and let her warm up and sleep.  We checked her several times during the day and she seemed to be doing okay, cheeping and stumbling around, and her head didn't seem to be flopping around as much as it had the day before.

It had rained through the night Sunday and into Monday morning and Honky and Desdemona sat out in the rain with the other poults under them.  Both mothers were soaking wet and the poults were following them around the turkey enclosure and getting wet - not good for little turkeys to be wet and cold.  So Heather and I put screening across the front of the turkey hutch to keep the little ones confined in a dry space.  Then we had to get the 10 poults and their two mothers into the hutch!  I scooped up three and Heather got four and we put them in the hutch.  Then I guarded to door to keep them in while Heather chased down the last three.  All the while, the mothers were calling the poults to come to them and the little ones were cheeping furiously and trying to get out of the hutch to get to their mothers.  Finally, Heather caught the three poults and we got them all into the hutch.  Within a minute, Honky and Desdemona found their way into the hutch and we secured the screening over the doorway.  We gave them food and water and by the time we left they were all pecking away at the food.  It rained off and on the rest of the day, but at least we knew that the little turkeys would be dry.

Tuesday was warm and dry and Eleven had lived through another night.  Heather wanted to take her out of her box and let her run around on solid ground rather than the towels and padding that were in her box.  The office upstairs in the house gets the morning sun and was really warm so we took her up there to play on the carpet.

At this age, their natural instinct is to burrow into their mother's feathers for warmth and security.  She kept on trying to crawl up Heather's sleeve.  And when the sleeve was not available, she tried to get under Heather's leg as she sat on the floor.

In the afternoon we took her outside into the sunshine and put her down in the grass.  We cut the bottom out of a box to put around her and then got one of the other poults and put it in the box with her.  She followed the other little turkey around and tried snuggling up to it.  Her walking was so much better and she wasn't having any trouble holding up her head.  We decided to put her into the turkey hutch along with the other poults to see if the mothers would accept her.  And of course they did.  As soon as we put her in the hutch she walked/stumbled over to Desdemona and snuggled right into her feathers!  Later in the afternoon when we went out to check on her, it was hard to tell which poult was our little Eleven.

Wednesday we went back to working on the house.  We have one more coat of paint to put on the laundry room and downstairs hall area.  Mike has finished priming both bathrooms and they need to be painted, as well as all the interior doors.  And then we're done painting - at least until the holes in the ceiling of the kitchen are fixed.  

The garden continues to grow and of course there is now the bug problem to deal with!  Here is a picture of Heather mixing up some organic caterpillar repellent to spray on the grapevine.

We've also made a herb tea mixture with a few teaspoons of eco-friendly dish detergent that will be sprayed on all the other vegetables as an insect repellent.  

So much yet to do and so little time left before I leave for home : ( 

But I sure am looking forward to hugging my little grandsons : )