Em Holding Baby Turkey, photo by ybonesy on July 17, 2007, photos © 2007 by ybonesy. All rights reserved.
Jim and the girls almost had me fooled when they told me that baby turkeys are called “turklets.” So I googled the word “turklet” and found this entry in Urban Dictionary:
turklet isn’t defined yet, but these are pretty close:
1. gobblet A baby male turkey. As opposed to a turklet, which can be either male or female. I would kill that turkey, but think of its poor gobblets.
Our brown girl turkey, Eagle Eye, has six freshly hatched babes, and our slate gray turkey, Azul, is sitting on another eight or so eggs. We might end up with a “rafter” of turkeys, which, in case you’re not familiar with that word, it’s what you call a bunch of turkeys.
Oh, and baby turkeys — they’re actually called “poults.” Here’s a link that tells you what other animal babies are called, now that you’re surely dying to know that information.
No offense intended to your turkeys, but…
Turklet: What you eat for the entire week following Thanksgiving.
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Good one, Sam. In little bites, between leftover dinner rolls, with a spoonful of dressing.
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I had no idea turklet was a word. And BTW, how did I miss seeing these little buggers when I was at your house last weekend? They are adorable. And how big do you think a rafter of turkeys is?
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Apparently, turklet *isn’t* a word, although turtlet is. My WOTD entry is tongue-in-cheek. We can start using turklet via the internet and create a baby turkey sensation.
We just found the baby turkeys yesterday morning. They might have hatched over the weekend, but we didn’t know it since Eagle Eye had them in secret hiding place in the yard. Then, wa-la, they were suddenly in the coop.
Hmm, my guess is a rafter is about 12 turkeys. Anything bigger would be a rafton (smile – it’s a Spanish language joke, except I’m missing the accent).
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lol, okay, now I’m really confused (but I kind of like it that way). 8) I could have sworn that the Urban Dictionary says turklet is a word. But then those are all made up words. So what is real?! I’ll hang in the twilight zone.
Oh, I see, Eagle Eye had them in a secret hiding place for safekeeping. Good girl.
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Yeah, I think “turklet” and “gobblet” are made up. The real word, “poult,” is too boring. Although, it sure did make me think about the word “poultry,” and why do baby turkeys have the same root when chickens seem to be a much more common type of poultry? I’m sure there are oodles of references out there, but I’m too tired to look them up.
Eagle Eye is funny about sitting on her eggs somewhere out of sight. She did that last year, too; she moves out of the coop and into thick brush, where I would think she’s more at risk of losing the eggs to racoons or skunks or even snakes. (Once we found a snake curled up around a nest of guinea hen eggs — this near our old house). But Azul is sitting on her eggs in the coop. Azul is more domesticated; we’ve had her the longest. I hope hers hatch. She once hatched a chicken egg that we put under her after her own eggs never hatched (they weren’t fertilized; this was before we had a tom), and she and the chick were mother and child. It really is about bonding, not blood.
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What a sweet story about the chick and the turkey. It would make a great children’s story, especially with your illustrations, or photos.
Thanks for the link about baby animals. I like to expand my vocabulary in all directions. Awareness expands along with it!
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OK. I have to ask: Are these turkeys pets? And do they bite?
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Yes, these are turkey pets. (My grandparents raised all their birds for eggs and meat, so it’s a bit strange to me that we have three chickens, one duck, and now a rafter of turkeys as pets, but I’m outnumbered in my family.)
They are all gentle so far, although the tom turkey (the big male who recently drowned in the duck’s swimming pool) was aggressive toward my daughters. Azul, who is the gentlest of the two big females, lets us catch her and pet her.
We have had one really bad mishap with a rooster, and now we no longer keep any roosters. His name was Lindo and he attacked me, hitting me with his spurs right next to each eye. I almost lost both my eyes as a result — he came that close. I was very lucky!
I’d like to sell the new brood at the Growers Market. I’m sure the girls will have a fit when I propose that idea!
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Sorry about the drowned tom. And the rooster incident sounds horrible!
But I hope your girls win the Growers Market battle. 😉
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Oh man, I need some help here. We can’t have eight turkeys, and who knows how many Azul will hatch!!
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[…] slate blue turkey who on Monday hatched a batch of 11 poults. Eagle Eye is the brown turkey who a few weeks ago brought seven baby turkeys into the world, proceeded to step on one of them, lost two to […]
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[…] in our household, but they’re really called poults. They’ve grown a lot since the last post about them. I imagine they’re about 16 years old in people […]
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[…] do with our newfound interest in our turkeys, so we’ve struck a compromise. We’ll keep the two mamas and one tom. That way we can have more turklets next year, now that we know more about what […]
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[…] June 14, 2008 by ybonesy Last weekend my friend Jana came over with her son Dez, just to hang out and take shots of our newly hatched turkeys. (Yes, it’s that time of year again.) […]
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They are so totally cute! I see baby turkeys and the parents all the time in my backyard! I wish that i had one cuz i would so much time in to caring for it!
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[…] by one of red Ravine’s readers during a lively conversation about what to name our 11 “turklets.” These turkeys are so advanced that they took it upon themselves to learn amazing turkey […]
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ybonesy, I just read this post again. Look at how adorable that baby turkey is! I can’t remember now — what happened to Eagle Eye, the six freshly hatched babes, and your slate gray turkey, Azul? I know there have been a few mishaps related to the wilds of nature. But can’t remember now what happened. I know Gray Tom and Black Tom are still alive and well. Saw it on your latest turkey post (LINK). 8) Oh, and on this turkey post, too (LINK).
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[…] Word Of The Day: Turklet […]
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[…] Word Of The Day: Turklet […]
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