What is a turkey’s nest I hear you ask? Â Yep, ok so I don’t hear you asking that question but I feel you should definitely know what a turkey’s nest is… it is riveting stuff so stay tuned. Â Oh and it has nothing to do with Turkeys which is unfortunate because I love a good feed of turkey.
So strap yourself in because this is going to blow your mind. Â A turkey’s nest is in fact basically just an above ground dam of sorts. Â See – you are impressed aren’t you?! Â Now, lets talk water storage because that really floats my boat… ha ha ha – you see what I did there.
This is a turkey’s nest:
Look at those cute little ducks there. Â So as I said, it is kind of like an above ground dam…. the sides are built up, a bore is drilled, pipes & a motor are installed and bob’s your uncle. Â We have a dedicated bore runner who’s sole job it is to keep all of our turkey’s nest full of water (post on the bore runner to come). Â The water is pumped from the turkey’s nests into troughs, this could be one or a few troughs, depending how many paddocks surround the turkey’s nest.
This photo below shows an aerial shot of a turkeys nest (the round thing) and if you look very closely to the right and left you can see the troughs and even some cattle coming in for a drink…. you may have to squint.
Once the turkey’s nest is built it is then fenced to prevent cattle getting into the enclosure and around the bore/motor ensemble. Â Â The water lying to the side of the turkey’s nest is called the burrow pit, this where the dirt was taken from to form the sides of the TN (I am so sick of saying Turkey’s Nest so have created my own acronym). Â The water in the burrow pit (in the picture above) is from the overflow of the TN. Â If the nest gets too full before the motor either runs out of diesel or gets turned off the water goes out a pipe and into the burrow pit. Â Look here is what the nest looks like just after it has been built…
Oh dear lord, I am sitting here in shock…. how the hell do I even know any of this, seriously. Â WTF (Mum that means “Why the face”). Â What the hell is happening to me people… I am scared. Â Don’t tell me my next calling in life is Bore Running. Â What a treat that would be.
Ok back to the riveting topic: TN….
In the picture below you can see the cattle standing around the burrow pit and the TN in the background.
Ok, I think that will do for today, don’t you?  I am happy to take  questions because I know you are probably all just wetting your pants with excitement over this post… just calm down, take a deep breath and ask me anything you like because it turns out I am quite the expert on water storage in the outback, ha ha ha ha.
Have a great Wednesday my friends.
Love, love, love reading your informative posts, we can all learn something everyday. You made me smile today.
So glad to hear Sandra because honestly when I sat down this morning to write that post I thought… what the hell am I doing… no one wants to hear about this boring stuff… glad you enjoyed and and if I made you smile then that is all that matters. 🙂
Hi Miss Chardy – great post! But you know there are Turkeys Nests and then there are Turkeys Nests! I think I will now adopt your acronym! Our TN’s start life as an above ground steel tank to hold water for the stock. After a few years (depending on the quality of the water) the steel tank starts developing holes all over it. We then cement the inside of the tank. After a few more years more holes appear. We then cement the outside of the tank. A few more years down the track the jolly old tank breaks out in holes again – this time we get the dozer out and push lots of dirt up all around it to plug the holes up and voila that’s our TN! Cheers Zenonie.
Hi Zenonie – yes, we used to have poly tanks at a few bores on the last place we were at… none here though. Wouldn’t it be just easier in the long run to build a turkeys nest to start with? Probably a lot more $$$ though. Thanks for sharing this with us. 🙂
And to think I got to 48 and didn’t know about TN’s,lol. My life is nearly complete, lol. Seriously interesting about how things work in the outback. Are there times where having enough water is a problem? How many cattle? are on your property? Are they all together? Makes me turning on my tap and feeding my 3 little chickens in the backyard seem very different. Keep the posts coming, love them.
Oh god, there is so much I didn’t tell you in this post isn’t there… if we didn’t have TN’s and Bores we wouldn’t have cattle and we wouldn’t have a job…. so the water is one of the most important things on a cattle station, if those cattle don’t get enough water they will perish and there goes $$$$. So I will be doing a sequel to the TN post – but it will be focussing on Dan – our Bore Runner, he is on holidays at the moment so I will do it when he gets back. Having enough water isn’t the problem, it is having enough grass – if we don’t get a big wet season we don’t get the grass we need. We have oodles of water but it all comes from bores, I think we have over 50 bores on the place. We have (well the company we work for has) 16,000 head (approx) and they are spread over 1.7 million acres (I know – get your hand off it Darryl, ha ha ha). It takes 2 days minimum going flat chat to get around every single bore/TN on the place. Ok, it might take longer than that but what would I know. Hope that helps Belinda. 🙂
I’ve never considered myself a city girl as I’ve never really loved the busy city life but it’s where we live and I’m sure the same is for you being in the country. You must get used to knowing so many things and not realise all the information you have retained. I suspect that I’m not unlike so many who have no idea how things must work and what is needed to be done very day. It’s so great to learn so much and with the best humour. Keep it up.
PS I would love a post on groceries and how you order etc, what you have to think of in advance and more on your ‘Woolies’.
B.
HI Belinda…. yes you are so right. Now, as for our ordering… I am pretty sure you have probably read these posts… but in case you missed one… have a look at: https://misschardy.com/2015/05/25/outback-cattle-station-how-do-we-get-our-groceries/ and https://misschardy.com/2015/02/13/life-on-an-outback-cattle-station-supermarket/
I grew up with a family run market garden [vegetables only] a short drive from our house and an egg farm within walking distance. So although I am a ‘city’ girl, I’ve got more knowledge than most on some stuff but I’ve never heard of a Turkey’s Nest before today! With such a big property you would certainly have more than one, but I’m also curious as to how deep you have to drill to reach the bore water?
I’m also curious why you don’t have chickens? They eat kitchen scraps and give you eggs, so it’s a win-win situation. My partner and I have actually been talking about setting up a chicken coop in our backyard, as our council will allow us up to 6 chickens; which is a totally crazy number and I think that 2 is more the size that I could cope with right now!
Gee Mish, I think I am definitely going to have to write a TN sequel, I missed so much info. The bores holes are all different depths with a lot of them ranging from about 100m – 160m. Yes, we certainly have more than one bore, I am not sure exactly how many but I think it is around 50 – 60 bores. Our neighbours probably have double that plus more, so we are small fish. Now about the chickens… it is a touchy subject… I definitely want chickens and think they may well be on the horizon along with a big veg garden… Mr Chardy doesn’t think I can keep them alive… but hey – I have managed to keep 3 kids alive so I reckon I would go ok. 🙂
Oh Chards your last comment about keeping the kids alive cracked me up!
50-60 bores is a lot of work and I look forward to your post about Dan, your bore runner – he sounds like he is a busy boy indeed. My partner is having similar reservations but his are based around the actual free time we both have to look after them; I’m sure he’s concerned because he works 80 hours most weeks, I’m working full time and studying … and while the idea of our own chickens and fresh eggs sounds fantastic … I know the reality is quite different, so we are still in the ‘planning’ phase.
Oh I am hearing you Mish… it is all well and good while you are there to take care of the chooks but it is when you go away – you have to make sure you have someone to look after them etc etc. Our Jack Russell is also quite the concern… the chooks would have to stay in their pen the whole time or they would get eaten by Rosie! 🙂
So interesting chards! Seriously really love this stuff!
SO glad you do. 🙂
Hi Danielle, I knew what a TN was but didn’t know the workings of it so that was interesting, I just read your rissole recipe and instead of using ordinary old breadcrumbs I use Tandaco seasoned stuffing mix, my butcher put me onto it. With regard to keeping chickens don’t expect any help from Bobbie she has a dislike of anything with feathers! haha
cheers Meredith
Ha ha ha ha. I like the stuffing idea in the rissoles. Rach- our cook – used garlic seasoning (for putting on steak) in her rissoles the other night and they were so yummy. So lovely to hear from you. 🙂
Great post! Maybe you could name the next post Dan flew over the Turkeys Nest! Pardon the pun. We also have a crazy Jack Russell called Bella and nothing that comes into our yard is safe. We do practice rotational grazing as I call it with them though.
Couple of days late, but god i got a laugh…and actually found it quite fascinating too. Thanks ☺
Thanks Fiona, glad I could make you laugh at such a boring subject, ha ha ha.