In Kansas turtles are very common. They frequently live and nest in my orchard and gardens that are not plowed. In Kansas every last inch is plowed by corporate farms. The others frequently raise cattle. Neither one is great for turtles. We raise hay on about 75% of my land. We could raise hay on 100% of my land but i dont believe in that. Diversity with orchards, ponds , brushpiles, woods etc. are needed to preserve the land for future generations. These turtles and many birds etc. Depend on me and my friends or others in the community to live. Imagine if every field was bailed 3 times a year for alfalfa instead of once for brome. Imagine if every field were sprayed so heavy as to eliminate everything but alfalfa. Imagine if every field was plowed 2 or 3 times and double cropped every year. This common box turtle would dissapear. In my property they multiply like crazy. Blackberries are a great food source for them. Many birds like thrushes and quail populations increase here. In this case this turtle as you can see is in the pear orchard. Notice the dirt on that turtles back? He over wintered in my orchard and recently came out. Imagine the euphoria a fruit eating turtle feels at my property when it finds windfall pears bigger than it is. If you look at these old photos Clarkinks older fruit and vegetable growing Projects in Kansas you will see me feeding other turtles. Who knows maybe this turtle is the ones i fed the grapes they couldn’t reach. Perhaps this turtle is a product of those grapes that turtle ate. Sometimes when im raising cantaloupe i have to relocate these turtles to the blackberry patch because they are bad about eating holes in my melons!
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