What a dramatic day we had a few days ago. I have a favorite turkey that hubby and I invested in several months ago.

When we went to the market to pick out our turkeys, one stood out. She had beautiful white feathers edged with brown designs. She was so graceful and beautiful. We knew we just had to bring her home.

A month or so ago our girl started laying her first clutch of eggs. After laying eleven, she began to sit on them.

A few days ago, and a few days in to her sitting on her nest that she chose in the grasses (our turkeys and guineas are free range) hubby and I were playing soccer(football) in the front with little Zechariah. (well, the soccer of a one and a half year old… Mostly hands)

We heard a rustling and clamor from the grasses and out ran our beautiful turkey quite distressed. Albert immediately grabbed a rock and got in to a high position so he could view the nest beyond the tall grasses.

To our amazement, there stood a big black spitting cobra trying to get our girl’s eggs. Albert hit it with the rock and proceeded to attempt to kill it as it slithered quickly away in to a nearby burrow. I grabbed Zechariah and hurried inside leaving Albert and a few neighbor men to continue in their attempt to kill the menace. (this snake presents a presant danger to my children and we cannot play hippie on this one. This is the second time we have caught him around that area )

Our beautiful white turkey began to stumble around and within minutes was not able to walk. She succumbed to the cobra’s poison within around twenty minutes. There was nothing that could be done but to attempt to salvage the eggs.

I quickly contacted a missionary friend who lives in another area near town to request we bring our ten remaining eggs (yes, the cobra got one of them). She was more than happy to help us out, so I packed up the eggs in a warm wrap and headed to her home to start the incubation process before the eggs had a chance to cool too much.

By the time I returned home, Albert and the other men had cleared all of the brush on the side of the house, even in the neighbors yard(with his permission of course). Fires had been set in several burrows to drive out the snake, but unfortunately there is quite a network of connected underground tunnels and both snakes and mongoose seem to have no problem escaping out a back way.

The brush being cut back is a protective measure to discourage the snake approaching the house.

I am so grateful, despite the grief that I feel at the loss of my beautiful turkey, because God protected my son(whom I don’t allow to play in the brush, but he is a slippery bugger and sometimes ends up in places he is not allowed) and we were able to take some protective measures for the future.

What a reminder of the things that can happen. I’ll be researching with local hospitals to see which, if any, carry antivenom and for which snakes so that if an emergency ever comes up with a human we know where to go. As far as we are from town, there would be no time to waste in case of emergency