Meet Houdini Our Broad Breasted Pet Turkey

Meet Houdini, our pet turkey that was meant to be Thanksgiving dinner. I’m sure you can take a guess by her name she’s a master in escape! When she was just a hatchling she could figure out how to get out of the brooder. 

I’d go into the coop in the morning and all the other turkeys would be in the brooder but not Houdini, she’d be out poking around doing her own thing. I have no idea how she’d get out but she did.

As she started to grow she became very unique. She follows me around like a dog and lets me carry her. Every night she was the only bird that didn’t want to go into the coop at dark. She’d hunker down on the front deck and I’d have to go carry her to the coop for the night. 

She’s also a pick pocket. When I’m out in the garden working she somehow is able to get my phone out of my back pocket and I find it once it starts ringing out laying in the yard. If anyone comes over she finds a way to sneak up on them and pull items even from their front pockets. She’s so good at you’d think she’d been taught to do it. 

Late spring I picked up 4 turkeys, 2 white and 2 brown from Family Farm and Home. I may have let them free range too early and one of the brown turkeys turned up missing. I named the two white ones Tom and Jake and the only brown one left Houdini. 

I’ve never had a turkey with such a personality and I just didn’t have the heart to take her to the butcher (or as we call it around here “going on vacation) so she’s became my pet. Tom and Jake were the two that went on vacation and ended up in the freezer.

As you can see by the photos she likes to take rides in the wheel barrow. Anytime I get it out to work in the garden she thinks she need to go for a ride. And don’t even think about opening the hatch to the car or the truck door without standing guard. She’s quick and can’t wait to get in to go for a ride. Let’s just say no one wants turkey poop in the car.

She’s also learned how to help with the laundry on the line, and when I say help it’s the exact opposite. She reaches into the close pin bin and pulls them out one by one and scatters them around the deck where our close line is. She also takes the already dry folder laundry from the basket and flings that around the deck.

She’ll untie your shoe laces before you even know what’s happened and when you open the truck door she’s standing waiting to rummage through the door pocket for something that interests her.

She’s also learned how to knock on the door until I bring her a treat, her favorite is fruit. She’s relentless and wont give up so I go ahead and give her what she wants, LOL. 

I have many tales about this turkey and I wont make you hear them all. She’s entertaining I can say that! I’m convinced she’d come into the cabin if I’d give her a chance.