Turkey blog- Tatiana’s Epic Love Story- first egg

Throughout the day I periodically gather the pasture birds for snacks. I do this to keep them oriented to a central location where they know to get resources so they won’t wander too far looking for food, and also to check in for a quick head count.

Today I could not find Tatiana anywhere. She is loud for a turkey, perhaps because she was raised with ducks. I could not hear her. I got worried and started to search for her. I called for her. Only silence. Her constant presence by my side when I am outdoors was suddenly absent. I felt a pang in my chest. If anything happened to her, I would be so sad. The risk of letting birds pasture near to the forest is that you cannot control everything that happens. We have many predators waiting for an opportunity for an easy meal. The benefits are too numerous to mention so we do take that risk.

I searched and searched for her. I finally spotted her between the porch and the main house. She made no move when I called her and no sound. I worried that she might be sick. I walked around the side so I could see her and I understood her absence and her silence. She was standing looking dazed over her first egg. I know that I do a fair amount of anthropomorphizing my animal friends but I do believe there are some fairly universal shared experiences to being born female. One of them is physical pain. I walked back down the hill to give her some space. I didn’t make it all the way back to the flock before she came running after me, loudly, back to her usual self. I gave her an extra handful of freeze dried grubs. We should up her protein.

Later I told my family what had transpired. We went and retrieved her egg from under the porch. We saw that it had a small smear of blood on it. It was such a tender moment for me. In her one perfect egg I felt her hope for the future, her strength, her love, and her pain in my own mothers’ heart.