AquaNew’s corporate headquarters has many wild turkeys outside. Each one is our wild pet and Rob feeds them sweet feed and cracked corn several times a day. I will be working in the office and suddenly there is a loud bang on the door! It is a large tom turkey fussing with his reflection in the glass front door.
Years ago Martha Stewart talked about heritage turkeys as being “a good thing” … she likely was talking about flavor and nutritional value on her cooking show. We started using the cool term “heritage turkeys” whenever we had guests and the turkeys were on parade. The best is in the spring to see the first flock of adorable gray “puff ball” chicks, sometimes more that thirty of them, bouncing across the grass while following a couple of hens.
I recently found out that we were correct in using the term heritage turkeys. The definition is turkeys bred without human interference. Believe me that Rob and I are not involved in interfering with the turkey love behavior! They are lovely birds with the distinction of being heritage, heirloom, a historic breed and free-ranging within the wilds of Myakka Island.
Sometimes we hear about barnyard chickens that suddenly stop eating and drinking which means toasted feathers for them. Their owners tell us that they use a dropper to slide some Polarized Water down their throats. It seems to kick start the chickens back into action again.
One of our favorite stories is about another pet turkey named Ben Franklin. His gobble sound was strained plus he had lost interest in the barnyard hens when we visited our cousin in Virginia. She had returned from the vet with Ben and there was no treatment recommended to get Ben out of his malaise. Rob gave Ben some Polarized Water to drink and the next day, we woke to Ben’s strong vocalizations and zest for life again.
Wishing everyone a delightful Thanksgiving and a special blessing for the wild things!