A rafter on a fence

It was a dark and cloudy morning. I didn’t think it would ever get light. I had a cup of tea and caught up on my email, waiting until I could see well enough to do my chicken chores. By then it was raining. No time for a bracing second cup of tea when I got in, though. I was late, late, late. I hung my wet clothes here and there to dry and hopped in the shower. Shoot! It was Tuesday, the day I haul the extra produce to work. We have nothing but cherry tomatoes left. I looked the trays over quickly for split ones and dumped them in two bowls with lids. I was brushing my teeth when my cell phone rang. Then the home phone rang. Who is calling me when I’m trying to get out the door?

I checked the cell phone. There was a message from Terry telling me he was going to try the house phone. I called him back with no small irritation.

“The turkeys are out on the fence by the gate. It’s pretty crazy. I know you like to put pictures on the Internet.”

Well, okay. I had nothing for the blog this week because I was at a conference all weekend. What’s a few more minutes? I multi-tasked by taking up one of the bowls of tomatoes to put in the car when I went up to take the picture. And there it was—a rafter on a fence. Maybe they didn’t like having their feet in the wet grass.

A rafter of turkeys on the fence

I only counted 16 in the rafter this morning. I would not be surprised if cars have taken a toll, along with coyotes. I haven’t seen any bodies by the road, but I don’t ever drive to the north.

As I moved to get a closer shot, the turkeys started wandering off.  One of the turkeys on the fence started flapping and knocked off one of the other ones.

The turkeys get restless as I approach

I tore myself away and went to work.

Tonight when it got dark, we moved the pullets into Coop 1. I took them one at a time from their roost in Coop 2 and handed them over the fence to Hilda. Terry opened the inside door to Coop 1, and Hilda installed each pullet on the roost. Chloe went first and managed to give me a good scratch on the palm of my hand. She didn’t break the skin, but it still hurts as I type this.

The plan for morning is to open the coop at first light. We fear that if the hens wake up while the coop is still shut, they will peck at the pullets, and the pullets will have nowhere to run. We shall see.