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Well, a very late follow up... Stormy was the only little turkey to hatch out of all 24 eggs. He/she hatched out during a very bad storm, took him about 2 hours once the pipping started going well. It was so fun to watch! I video taped it. At the end I had 6 viable eggs set to hatch two days apart. Two other babies pipped - one died in the shell. The other I tried to help out after 24 hours, but it also died. Two did not pip at all. One turned out not to be fertile after all.... So... after buying all that equipment - I got one little turkey! But what a baby! It's so sweet! I had to drive 2 hours (round trip) to Topeka to buy Stormy two little pals, as he peep peep peeped all day in loneliness and I couldn't take it after about 2-3 days of listening to it all day long at the office. So now there are three. Two are still nameless at 4 weeks old. I'll have to see what their personalities turn out like. They are all Royal Palms, so they will all be beautiful. Last night I got Stormy out of the playpen and she was laying in my arm snoozing while I petted her. The other two were quite upset. The bigger one flew up and landed on the edge of the playpen and walked around looking at Storm and thinking... hmmm, that looks comfortable! The smaller one, seeing freedom with the lid off the playpen, flew past the first and landed on the bedroom floor with a very startled look on its face. Then came right over and curled up on my other arm. They drape their long necks over my arm and close their eyes and relax and sleep. The larger one I got down off the playpen to let him walk around. He promptly came over, crawled up my arm to my shoulder and started making strange noises and playing with my hair. I hope they weren't "love" noises! LOL... Then I had to get him down off my head. These little babies have hardly been handled, but they are just like little puppy dogs! They are all so sweet! I think I will favor turkeys over chickens any day! The pen is finished! (Thanks again, Kim, for the help last night!) What an ordeal. The chickens have been staying outside since last Saturday night. I have hung a light for them near the ground and surrounded it with hardware cloth so they won't get burned. They love that light! It's been in the 60"s at night and they aren't used to the weather yet, so they gather round the light at dark and keep warm. The turkeys will probably be about another 3 weeks, then they will be staying out there too... I think I will miss them! Right now the chickens are pecking on them and chasing them around the pen wihen I take them out. In a few weeks the turkeys will be larger than the chickens, we'll see what happens then!
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