Relaxed Farming - our farm in your classroom

Turkeys have a reputation for being a little 'dim'! It's something to do with their rather small head and the subsequent lack of space to contain anything other than a very small brain!!! We would have to admit that when compared to chickens they are a little lacking! A classic example concerns their ability to NOT understand how to get themselves from behind a gate or fence when they either walked through a gap or jumped up and over in the first place. We have seen turkeys spending considerable time walking back and forth along the length of a fence looking to get to the other side when if only they explored a metre or so further, they would see the huge and wide open gateway!
And here we have Katherine, our other female Bourbon Red, wondering, somewhat aggressively (as the middle photo shows) who on earth is the 'stranger' looking and squawking at her through the window. It was probably very confusing for her that the stranger neither backed down nor bullied her into backing down... We were not sure what the outcome might be other than hours of squawking at herself, so we interrupted and encouraged her back into the paddock (she had actually jumped out over the gate to come and glare at the stranger in our conservatory, so probably would not have been able to get back anyway!!).
What turkeys seem to lack in the brain department, they make up for in entertainment value and actually we find them incredibly endearing. They are delightfully inquisitive, make a wondrous range of sounds and both male and female displays are fabulous to see.
But back to today where the poultry, along with their alpaca guards, were able to spend the day outside (no rain today and no standing water). It was just as well the boys were out there as once again Mr Fox thought he might try his luck. We happened to be just walking passed the paddock and were greeted with the sight of a fox on the grass and the sounds of shrieking poultry. We were no more than four-five metres away, as were Jupiter and Neptune. We all turned and not liking what he saw, the fox was off. Great news except for the fact this was NOT the fox that came in last week, this one was smaller and younger. So now we have TWO day-time foxes after our poultry!!!! Hmmmm...