Hatching out a great idea

For those customers of ours that savored the taste of our heritage breed Narragansett turkeys for their holiday festivities last year, you know that it's something worth waiting for.   Waiting is something that we had to do a LOT of last year in our efforts to actually get the turkeys to our farm.  Narragansett turkeys are listed as "Threatened" by the American Livestock  Breeds Conservancy, http://albc-usa.org/cpl/narragansett.html and as such, are not readily available.  We went through two hatcheries that listed as having them available and were delayed by the first hatchery two months! Slower growing then the franken-bird Broad breasted white, July was much too late to reach maturity (and subsequently, the platters of our customers holiday tables) so we reluctantly cancelled that order.  Hatchery number two promised early June and even then, that was getting late.  Delayed until the second week in June, our precious birds finally arrived!  We began our search MUCH earlier this year, but had a backup plan.  As some of you know, one of last years Toms skipped out on his platter appointment. (Good survival instinct.)  Lonely and following us around much too closely, we searched out a mate to keep him company.  We brought home a beautiful Narragansett hen Mabel and hoped that he'd find her more interesting than us.  It worked.  Here at Wild, Wooly and Horny, the latter prevailed and our two half wild turkeys mated.  Then we waited.  And waited some more.  This late winter Mabel began laying eggs and about a month ago, she began to sit.  (More waiting) One week ago, our plan came to fruition as she began to hatch out beautiful, fuzzy little chicks.  One by one, they emerged from under her protective wings.  Here's a photo of the new chicks and the wonderful mother hen Mabel that hatched them out. 

We still ordered some that are due to arrive next week (fingers crossed) but some are already running about - hatched here naturally on the ranch. 

Until next time...Jarrod and Carie