A century of Turkey talk 2000-2100.

[duluthralphie]

I am starting a new thread in hopes we get everyone together on one thread for turkeys instead of several "turkey talk" threads.

If I fail, so be it.

Rules here are simple..

1. have fun
2. BYOB
3. at some point mention turkeys. if it goes a tad of topic, who cares.


I currently have a dozen, I think, eggs in the incubator they should hatch May 1. I hope.

I have one turkey Ethel and her mate JJ free ranging. She has a nest, but who knows where. ( these two are red slates)

I have been thinking of buying a tracking device to hang on her neck to find her eggs. Amazon has some for 12 bucks.

I have 4 blues in a pen and am collecting eggs from the 3 hens, I am getting 1-3 a day, I have yet to figure out their timing, but they are young'uns.

The Tom and 2 hens are self blue the other hen is a splash, which means I should be free of blacks this year.

I am a little worried about the free ranging turkeys, They are roosting on the fence for the blues, I have game bird netting covering the blues, I worry the reds will fall off the fence or step on the netting and get caught,,dumb birds...



Finally just to show something on the start of the thread... I offer you my little video I took yesterday of the worlds dumbest rooster and the worlds dumbest tom..


The rooster actually started this after fighting with my other rooster who refused to put up with his nonsense. I should mention no birds were hurt in the filming of this. At the end when you hear me say that's enough, I broke them up and shut the gate. They are both too dumb to know they could have flown over the gate to fight again..

BTW my drink of choice tonight is water on the rocks....

 

[memphis]

I cant believe this! Just had a knock at my door. Cable guy. I don't have cable. Next door neighbors cable was out & they fixed it only one problem. My turkeys wouldn't let the repair guy get down from the pole. In the far corner of my yard there is a telephone pole. Its actually right over the 6 foot fence in my neighbors yard.. BOTH birds were perched on the fence watching him. Annie was barking, Daisy was just curious. They were actually sitting down enjoying themselves. Guy on the pole started yelling at me to "Get those birds! I can't get down. They will attack me!" His two companions were hysterical. Girls came when I called. The perils of having city birds.

 

[duluthralphie]

I might be getting rid of all my turkeys, Not by my choice.

As you know I am NPIP. I monitor for any illness and keep a meticulously clean pens and cages.

I am also honest to a fault. I follow the rules laid down by the state and USDA to the tee, in regards to sales of my birds and eggs.

I went to sell a turkey to a gal the other day, when I looked into the pen I saw this:

My first thought was MS. Then I thought "no". There are no watery eyes or dripping mucus.

I recently changed bedding. Because I am cheap I could buy bags of chips 20 cents cheaper at the local feed store over TSC, if I bought 20 bags at a time. That is not a big deal I normally buy 20 at a time. The bags were marked "medium flakes"

When I opened them I was disappointed. They were more like sawdust than flakes.

I have been using them as a base and putting the TSC flakes over the sawdust. I was and am hoping it is just allergies.

I contacted my USDA vet and sent her the picture. She says it looks like "mycoplasma". They came out Monday morning and we tested all my turkeys.

I asked her when she sampled the one in the picture if she saw lesions. She said she did not. A good sign. She was also surprised the poult did not seem distressed or ill, but was active and healthy other than the swelling.

I have learned a ton about mycoplasma in the last week. Did you know the estimates are 50% of all chickens carry the organism?

It is a primitive bacteria, it has a cell membrane but no wall, making it act somewhat like a virus yet not. Most bacteria are defeated in the body by breaking the cell wall. The bacteria then dies.

When a person with chickens says some one sent them chicks with MG or MS, they are most often mistaken. MG or MS is always there it is just a matter of your chick being overcome with the bacteria because of a huge number of bacteria cells the body cannot defeat or the chick is weak and cannot defeat it. Mcyoplasma will spread vertically and horizontally in a flock.

Waterers are a primary nursery for mcyoplasma. I think in my case this was the problem. The cage/pen this turkey was in has about 12-15 chicks and 3 poults. I have a large 4 gallon waterer in there. It is one with a large brim for them to drink out of. My cleanliness became a problem too.

I have very thick chips on the floor. No matter how high I put the waterer the chicks managed to throw chips into the drinking brim. I was constantly cleaning them out. Because of my schedule the last couple weeks I did not disinfect daily. STOOOOOPID>>>\\

I would simply clean out the chips and fill when needed. I think with the hot weather we had it incubated the MS, if that is what I have.

I could have and some people say should have no reported the illness. I cannot do that. It is not in me to risk someone else's bird health for my benefit. I do not regret (overly) notifying the USDA. If you get a bird or egg from me, it will be healthy or it will not leave here.

I am not just "NPIP Equivalent" I am NPIP. I check for all the diseases all the time, even those not required for interstate shipment. I am stressing this not just to tell you I am great, but to let you know if I have it anyone can get it.


In Minnesota any mycoplasma requires depopulation of the flock. It is a draconian method of control that does not work. Many states do not require this. It is assumed to be in every chicken flock in the country in some states. It does not effect eggs or meat and is safe for humans.

The reason, as best as I can ascertain, is because of the large turkey farms we have here in Minnesota. The primary effect is it slows the weight gain on the birds for a few weeks.

Because Turkey farms are huge business here in Minnesota they want to eliminate all the MG or MS they find. The big farms get reimbursed by the government if they destroy a flock. Guess who doesn't?

if you have 10,000 turkeys and they do not gain 1/2 pound week for 4 weeks the farmer/corporation has lost 20,000 pounds of turkey... So mine will die if it is positive. Even though I am 75-100 miles from a turkey farm.

I could go on, but won't if you have other questions ask and I will tell you what I know.....

I do know, even though some of you poo-poo NPIP as ineffective, it is the best insurance we have right now, people willing to put up with NPIP most likely are following other health guidelines too.

If you buy from ebay or non-NPIP you really are rolling the dice. Even the large hatcheries will send out Mycoplasma chicks. I believ it was Ideal that had them. I have only gotten chicks or eggs from two places since going NPIP, Cackle and Porters.

I assume like everyone else should the mycoplasma was here and always will be. Turkeys are more susceptible to it than chickens. It is a danger of raising turkeys and chickens together I did not know about. I thought blackhead would be the downfall..


Anyways,, enough for now..
Thanks for reading all this, hopefully it will not scare too many of you away from me. I will let you know what happens.

The one thing I will not do is drop NPIP and sell chicks or eggs.

 

[memphis]

Ha! Finally got one!!

 

[memphis]

Asleep in my lap! Lapper in training!!

 

[shawluvsbirds]

She always enjoyed keeping up with what Mason was up to.

The coonie curl she'd say.

 

[R2elk]

I admit that I am old and senile and my short term memory is nearly non-existent. I have been confused lately when counting the eggs in a current turkey nest. To my knowledge there was only one hen using the nest but it seemed like there were 2 new eggs in it daily. I tried to pass it off as me being unable to properly remember how many eggs there were from the day before especially since I wasn't writing it down anywhere.

Beautiful sunny day and the weather forecast says we are done with frost until fall. I was out planting my first tomato in the garden. I though I had heard a turning where the nest is but I could see all of the turkeys that weren't already on nests. Mystery of the extra eggs was solved. The Wild hen has been coming in and adding an egg daily. I checked the nest to see which turkey was making the noise and it was the Wild hen. She has become accustomed enough to me that when she saw me she started to leave the nest but immediately went back to it as soon as I backed off.

 

[R2elk]

Four turkeys were all laying eggs in the same nest which also went through the 20°F night without the eggs being sat on. The bearded Blue Slate hen finally went broody and kicked all the other hens out. At some point a skunk got into the nest so I trashed the few eggs remaining and gave her a whole new batch of eggs while she was off of the nest. The skunk kept coming back and she ended up down to one egg. I refreshed her egg supply so that she had eight eggs. I assume the skunk got one more egg because during the few times that I saw her off the nest she was down to seven eggs.

Today is due day for the hatch. She was very alert last night and this morning but was not talking. When I checked on her a little while ago there were 3 Sweetgrass poults visible. When i got back with the camera, there was only one visible. While maneuvering to try to get some pics, she stood up and I was able to see 5 Sweetgrass poults. One of them has the darkest stripe up its back that I have ever seen on a Sweetgrass poult.

 

[OneMountainAcres]

Ok, you asked for it! Pictures of the penciled flock! I may have taken WAY too many lol

This guy will probably be Thanksgiving dinner

And this one may make a journey to the swap since Phil gets breeding rights to all the penciled ladies

Lil and Eve in the backround

This girl has very little color on her

Remember that bratty palm poult that used to jump on my head? This is Duchess. She's just about all grown up now but still loves to pick on me. She just got done picking at my shorts for attention here.

I love this one's coloring. Very much pastel

Phil, showing off

Mister is pretty rough looking right now. He needs to grow in some new feathers!

Sweet Pea, Preening

And Pebbles, hanging out

Can't forget Romeo

The baby of the bunch. She's the smallest in the turkey pen and the last penciled That I hatched out this year. She's bonded to a group of chickens and tries to escape every day to hang out with them. I had to clip a wing so she couldn't anymore. She comes crying to me every evening, complaining about having to sleep with the turkeys!

 

[Molpet]

Just had to post this