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Wednesday, 26th February 2014

Our optimism that for a few days, we might get away with not putting the alpacas out with the poultry was VERY ill-founded!! We had a phone call at around 4pm from a neighbour who rang to say he had just scared a fox from our paddock (he happened to be walking past on the footpath above us) but he could see that a chicken was down on the grass and there were feathers everywhere. We rushed down with our hearts in our mouth and despite there being hundreds of feathers all over the paddocks (literally hundreds), the chicken, who turned out to be a cockerel, was in shock but actually uninjured! We picked him up, gradually felt his breathing return to normal and carefully put him in the house to hopefully make a full recovery.
Today we have had very little rain but the poultry paddock was still very soggy from yesterday and last night and we were really worried that the alpacas would poach the ground so much (turn it to mud) that we would lose a lot of the grass. We now have no idea what to do in order to keep our animals safe but also not trash our land. It is pouring down now as we are writing this (midnight) and tomorrow is set for heavy rain!!!
Problem number two which is not going to go away either is Napoleon: our male turkey. Unfortunately he has become very aggressive and yesterday caught Jack unawares twice, leaving nasty wounds on her legs from his beak. We have been aware for a while that his natural inquisitive nature (turkeys are known for being very nosey) has perhaps become a bit too much. Joel and Arthur have commented that they have had the occasional light peck from him but his behaviour yesterday was definitely an attack and regrettably once a bird has turned in this way, it is very unlikely he can be turned back. We have discussed why he has become like this and feel it is a combination of the fact he is tame enough not to be fearful of us BUT not so tame that he enjoys the attention he gets from us, alongside the fact it is now the time of year when turkeys start mating so he is going to be naturally 'protective' of his 'girls'! The photos show him in full blown: 'I am top turkey' mode: a stunning sight but not when it is accompanied by aggressive pecking of his human owners!!! The question is what do we now do?