Getting to know Copper & Holly - New Team Members for 2021
So. We've got a new addition to the Autumn and Christmas Barn this 2021 season...can you guess what it may be? That's right! TURKEYS! *eeek*
I've been desperate to have pet turkeys for some time now - I love the way they gobble-gobble-gobble and had dreams of them wandering around the Christmas Barn, in amongst the trees, chattering away to whoever had come to see them!
It's been quite a long journey, though. Firstly we had to find out a little bit about them, then we decided to go down the hatch-them-yourself route. This involved finding somebody who would post the eggs out to us, and cranking my mum's incubator back up for the season. The eggs arrived, all twelve of them, and just look at how pretty they are! Within a couple of days we knew that one of the eggs wasn't fertile, and the hatching date came and out popped 7 little pet turkeys.
Typically, we went on holiday just after they had hatched, but from a couple of weeks old, they were put out into the pen on to fresh grass, and they've been as happy as Larry since.
They're very cute when they're little, but it's surprising how big they grow and how quickly, (a bit like kids really) and here they are now at just under 3 months old. You'll notice that there's not 7 shown here. Four of them have gone to their forever home just outside Usk, and we have just the 3 left: one stag (male); and two hens (female).
Having three pet turkeys meant that we could name one each, and so above is my named creation, much to the disgust of Gwilym and Holly, JEREMY. After Clarkson. I kinda feel that there's a resemblance there, and I think the name suits him! Rather stupidly, we didn't make a note of what breed he was supposed to be when he got the eggs from the breeder, but we think that he's a Royal Palm. We'll be able to identify him better when he's fully grown.
Holly had decided that she liked the little brown girl, and so named her COCOA. As above with Jeremy, we can't remember what breed she was supposed to be either, so we're plumping for now for the Bourbon Red. She should be easier to identify when she's fully grown too. And we can remember definitely having eggs from 2 different breeds to try out. Whilst Cocoa isn't the worst name in the world, I'm not sure it's very turkey-like. What do you think?
I think though, Gwilym excelled at the extent of his imagination when he named his female pet turkey TURKEY. I know, right? Needless to say, both Holly and I think this is the worst name EVER for a pet turkey, especially a girl. As this is the same breed as Jeremy, we think that this one is also a Royal Palm.
Jeremy is however, doing a great job at looking after his girls. They're in a coop in one of our paddocks at the moment, and Jeremy has started to develop his gobble-gobble. They're certainly a chattersome group, and we love working up in the field in the evenings listen to the pet turkeys talk away!
When they're a bit bigger, they'll need to be moved to a bigger pen. They're a little jittery at the moment, but we're hoping as they get heavier they'll not be quite so flighty. We won't be able to have our pet turkeys in the Christmas Barn if they try to fly away all the time!
But, the big question is, do you like the pet turkeys' names? If you reckon you can do better, drop me a comment below, and who knows? You may come to visit our Christmas Barn and have our pet turkeys named after your suggestions!
- Annabelle Summerfield
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