In preparation for the scheduled delivery, the coop floor had been scraped clean of the deposits left from the last brood of turkeys.

The smell of fresh, new shavings scattered throughout the turkey coop added to the anticipation of the baby chicks being delivered.

My brothers, my sister, and I helped build cardboard circle pens up and down two aisles the length of the coop. We filled the water jugs and then filled the feeders with grain.

A large heat lamp hung above each pen to keep the poults warm. Everything was ready.

When the baby turkeys were a week old, the debeaking crew would arrive at our farm and we would help them debeak the turkeys.

Each crew member sat on a stool. They would pick up a turkey and cut its top beak off. The crew was fast. They used a small tool that looked like fingernail clippers. My job was to push the turkeys toward them so they could work quickly.

It is necessary to debeak turkeys. If a turkey has a sore or if it is different in any way, the other turkeys will peck it to death. With their top beak gone, the turkeys are unable to hurt each other.

Turkeys and people are alike in this way. When we see someone who is different or who acts in a way that we don't understand, we sometimes peck at them, just like turkeys do.