A century of Turkey talk 2000-2100.

Molpet said:

Well I can't find this hen and her lone poult this morning. I assume something got them. Or she's hiding somewhere. There was a storm last night and I was out there checking fences a few minutes after sunrise. No sign of a struggle, she was in a knee high weedy area 100x50. I would think there would be smashed weeds if not feathers. It was almost 60f this morning and 65 now.

Never know what the best thing to do is. I don't want to deal with a brooder. I want them to eat and I get attached if I raise them.
A year or so ago, I locked one in with a few couple day old poults and 2 got trampled.
I guess I should have given them all to the Good Mama. She is sitting in the crate with babies running around, already drinking from the vertical nipple waterer. I don't know how many she hatched I gave her 11, she had a couple hatched shells but I never see more than 7 out at one time.

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kfelton0002 said:

I sure hope she turns up. My Narragansett hen, Sassy kept her little chicken around the woodline for the first several weeks of its life, acting very leery of us and being secretive of the chick. She isn't normally afraid of us, just hissy when you handle her. She taught the chick to fear us and now I cant get near it. Lol. If I let Sassy raise poults, it will take a shotgun to catch them when they grow out. Maybe your hen is being secretive with her poults and keeping them hidden. It would make sense. I hope that's the case.

I agree its hard not to get attached to them when you raise them in a brooder. I have to decide which I'm not keeping and keep an emotional distance if I plan on eating them. I don't name the ones we don't intend to keep. No feeding from the hand or unnecessary handling. I still get sad though. They are quirky, sweet birds (most of them are sweet anyway.)

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Molpet said:

So far still no sign of them.
The good mama has at least 14 poults. 11 from the missing one. There's 3 eggs she moved off of and I gave them to another who had one. The hen that had one was laying across the road and came back with a shoulder missing feathers. I locked her in a few days and she started laying in there.

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kfelton0002 said:

I'm sorry if you lost her and her poults. That is tragic. Do you have any LGDs?

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Molpet said:

No lgd
Known chance I take with semi free range. That's why I have too many, I thought it would make predator loss easier emotionally. Still stressful.

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kfelton0002 said:

In so sorry. I don't care if I'm up to my eyeballs in birds, losses to predators make me mad. I love my LGDs because they keep away most predators. We still get the odd possum or coon that get desperate enough to steal birds here and there tho despite having the dogs since they are confined to the goat lot. But it isn't too often, and they don't mess with my turkeys. Or haven't so far anyway.

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