Tucker the Plucker

Previous to this morning, Shy Tommy (our turkey) was a handsome fellow. Now? Not so much.

Why?

Well, unfortunately, Tucker's a plucker . . . (and something ELSE that rhymes with plucker, too).


With both of us still sick, Tom got up this morning and let me sleep in (it was the first complete night of sleep I've gotten . . . actually IN OUR BED . . . in over a week). He went out to do chores and didn't see Tucker for a while. Next thing, he's slamming into the house with a bloody turkey clutched in his arms hollering, "Tucker got Tom!"

So, how did this happen, you ask?

Tom the Turkey prefers to sleep up on the highest point of the chicken house (yup, outside). My guess is that his flight down OFF the chicken house this morning was a little . . . long, and he landed OUTSIDE the fence. Enter Tucker the Plucker. (I guess we should be grateful that he prefers to pluck rather than kill.)

Anyway, fast forward past the betadine (I need more) and Tom grabbing the chick brooder (which also serves as impromptu "sick bay"), and Tom the Turkey is comfortably (we can only hope) settled into Tom's (the Husband) office.

Unfortunately, he has company.

When I went outside to do some chores this afternoon, I saw a bloody, tail-less White Faced Black Spanish hen huddled outside the fence. Imagine a repeat of the above steps plus the surgical (okay, I used scissors) removal of a hanging piece of . . . meat.

This chicken was one of the few, I'm sure, who has preferred to make her way up the old ladder propped against the chicken house (where many of them like to - excuse me, LIKED to - sleep at night), up onto the roof, and from there onto the overhanging branch of a nearby tree . . . and then into the crook of the tree. Which is well outside of the chicken yard fence. A poorly executed dismount was her downfall this morning, too, I suspect.

So now, Tucker has been FIRMLY chastised and his rear paddled a couple of good whacks (but only when he was caught "in the act" with the turkey, of course), the branch has been cut that was overhanging to the chicken roof, the ladder leaning against the chicken house has been removed, and even the butcher stump (which was high enough to provide a launching pad to the top of the roof) is GONE! No more sleeping on the roof.

Both of these pictures are less than great, but I wanted to post some pictures to help with the si`````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````` (Argh!! It's SO hard to type with a cat walking on your lap and the keyboard!!) Anyway! I wanted to post the pictures to help with the illustration of the mayhem. That's what I was trying to say.


In this second picture (if you lean way back from the monitor and squint your eyes!), you can see how BIG the turkey is . . . in comparison with the hen. We were (are) absolutely STUMPED as to why Tom the Turkey didn't give Tucker WHAT FOR! I mean, he's WAY bigger than Tucker . . . or at least equal! The only thing we can figure is that he just hunkered down and went into shock when Tucker got 'im. Poor things.