This seems to be the time of year that our chickens and turkeys fear the most. Each year, at the end of October, a new face suddenly appears in the poultry yard.
“LOOK! It’s back again!”
Usually the turkeys and chickens are only too happy to consume any of the summer and winter squash that we offer them.
This Boston Marrow was devoured by the turkeys in just a few hours
However, for some reason, carving a face into a pumpkin initially incites a tremendous amount of suspicion among the birds.
“Hey you, who are you, and what do you want?”
“…and why are you in MY yard?!”
“You don’t belong here…scram!”
If you saw our last turkey post, you know that J.J. does NOT take kindly to strangers in his yard, and even if intruders are bigger than him, he usually succeeds in getting his point across.
This time though, J.J. just didn’t know what to make of the strange goings on.
“Are you deaf? I said…SCRAM!”
“BOOOOOOO!”
“WHAAAAAAAA?!?!?!?!”
Apparently, our carved curcubits have turned our Tom turkey into a chicken!
In fairness though the chickens, although leery at first, are usually less timid than the turkeys, and the first to venture forth for a closer look.
“Who’s the new guy?”
As you may recall from previous Fowloweens pumpkins don’t usually survive the chickens for long.
“I don’t trust him…he’s too quiet”
Our Golden Laced Wyandottes, though, aren’t usually afraid of much. This hen decided to take a closer look.
“Silly turkeys, see, he’s not THAT scary”
Before long the rest of the hens wanted to see what all the fuss was about.
“I wonder what it’s for?”
“Hello? Anyone home?”
The turkey hens though were still quite scared, and afraid to get too close.
“Oh, be careful! It’s not safe!”
I didn’t realize I’d carved such a scary pumpkin this year!
At some point though I expect the poultry will remember that pumpkins are actually very tasty. After all, this is what they did to the last one…
“I told you we’d wipe that smug expression off your face!”
If I was this pumpkin, I think I’d be more than a little scared.
It looks like he’s still smiling though, for now…
We’ll have to see what happens over the next couple of days. In the meantime…
Happy Fowloween!
That is a pretty good scary pumpkin face! Those chickens look mighty interested, though. From the looks of the last one, those chickens are pretty good carvers themselves!
I half expected that Golden Laced Wyandotte was going to stick her head in his mouth! I actually hoped she would, that would have made for a great shot. I am wondering though if the girls will do a little carving of their own on this one though…so far they seem to be ignoring it!
We should have done a Halloween blog hop… so fun to see everyones posts today. Those chickens are hilarious!
I think a Halloween blog fun would be fun. Maybe next year?
Great pumpkin carving! It’s been my experience that the term “chicken” as a substitute for “wimpy” only applies to our male fowl- our hens are *always* the first to check out the new thing (unless there are goats around), while the boys hide and wait for the all clear.
I love the curious chicken face expressions!
I agree, usually with new things the boys are much more afraid to investigate, much preferring to let the hens stick their necks out first. I suppose that’s pretty smart from an evolutionary perspective. That said, when it comes to animals in the yard, J.J. is usually pretty quick to charge, so that he’s afraid of an inanimate squash is quite amusing! 😉
This is so funny,…your captions have got me laughing… especially the “WHAAAAAAAA?!?!?!?!” …and the three turkeys looking is so comical!
I never heard the term cucurbit, either, so I learned something. Thanks for the laugh and all the photos of your cute chickens.
I think J.J. got within about 4 feet of that pumpkin when I first set it down, and somehow managed to completely spook himself. He spent a good couple of minutes flapping and gobbling all over the yard. I wish I’d had the video camera handy 😛
Too, too funny. I love what your hens did to last year’s pumpkin. Betcha this one shares the same fate.
I hope so! I’m curious to see how the expression gets re-sculpted on this one 😉
Ha! That picture of everyone lined up on the wall performing an inspection is pretty fantastic:)
I could see the hens lining up from my office window, so I had to dash out to snap that shot. It was pretty funny to watch 😀
Great looking pumpkin! But I bet it won’t survive for too long.
There have been a few inquisitive pecks, but so far this pumpkin seems to be holding its own. If they don’t start working on it soon, I may have to split it in half to encourage them.
I loved this post! Great photos and funny captions! Animals are fascinating to watch, and they probably have more emotions and thought processes than many people would suspect.
How funny Clare…and yes that is one scary jack….I wonder if the face does scare them.
Great carving job, that is one scary looking pumpkin. no wonder the chickens are thinking twice about approaching.