A century of Turkey talk 2000-2100.

[R2elk]

I hope my light brahmas become great mousers when they're all grown up because as it is now, ALL of my birds will watch a mouse or chipmunk just still up to the food dish, grab a meal and walk away.....

A couple of years ago voles tunneled into the guinea coop. I decided to wait until the spring thaw to deal with them. When I looked for them in the spring, they were all gone because the guineas ate them. This summer a field mouse made it into the coop for a couple of days. I found its half eaten body in the middle of the second day.

 

[memphis]

My turkeys eat small rodents too. They also attack cats. Twice they've had neighborhood cats cornered. Full display, heads down, marching toward the unfortunate cat. I've had to intervene twice. Didn't expect that..

 

[CindyinSD]

The post that you replied to is no longer valid. While recessive slates are very rare , they do now exist in the U.S. because Porter's Rare Heritage Turkeys did import some.

Thanks R2! I’m wondering about them. Do they sell anything but feathers? I was looking for places to shop for poults, but couldn’t see that Porter’s offered day-olds, or eggs either... not that I’d want to start learning to incubate on super special, expensive eggs...

 

[CindyinSD]

Turkeys can be a PITA. I went out to lock the doors on them early yesterday as we were going away for the evening. They had spent most the day inside, so I thought it would not be a problem. It was.

They had decided to go outside just before I went to close the door. They were all withing 100 ft of the door. I gave up on the idea of closing the doors early.

I went inside checked waterers and feed, gathered eggs and talked to the chickens. The turkeys being jealous types, decided to all come inside. I got my hopes up, that I could shut the doors. I started to work my way through the flock towards the door. They have a tendency to gather around me like Secret Service around the President. I can hardly move without stepping on one.

As I got closer to the door a few from the advance party snuck outside and gathering around my exit point. It was not going to work, I had to leave the doors open. As I headed to the house, they decided to race me to the deck. They do this because they know how much the WW enjoys birds on the deck.

As soon as I got inside they ran back to their coop. When we left there were 5 just outside the door. I know they wanted to lure me into trying to shut the doors early again. I did not fall for it. The doors stayed open until well after dark!

Ralphie, you’re an amazing storyteller. You constantly crack me up. That is a great gift to have and share.

 

[CindyinSD]

Memphis & R2... Great to know about your experiences with poultry-based rodent control!

I didn’t even know chickens, etc. would go after mice until I read the “Little House” books to my mom a few years ago. DH still isn’t sure he believes me. We have such an invasion here of rodentia it’s truly awful.

Coyotes are on the rise, but have yet to catch up with the vermin-type varments. Maybe it’s because they’re too busy hunting in packs like wolves and bringing down huge buck deer. Well, maybe they’ll leave my chickens alone anyway. They’re in a run for now and I’ll have electric poultry netting around them in spring (except for the Buckeyes who have to be free to chase vermin.)

Memphis, you had me giggling over the poor cats. We can’t have a cat... DH wouldn’t stand for poor kitty spending nights in the cow shed, and I’m allergic, so no house cats for us. He even worries about the cows spending the night in the cow shed (even though they’re furry bison-like little heifers who quite like the cold weather.) I offered to let them come inside, but he wasn’t THAT concerned.

I want the turkeys for meat and for breeding. Hopefully they’ll be tame enough to work with without falling in love with them. I like pets, but it’s bad enough I’ve let the cows become pets. I’m planning to butcher calves—I’m gonna have to A.I. the girls to some kind of mean, bu-ugly bulls though... because that’s gonna be tough if the babies look like the Highland babies I’ve seen pictures of.

I ordered 4 each of Narragansett, Black Spanish, Bourbon Red and Heritage Standard Bronze from Cackle Hatchery. Only, having read further along this thread since then, I realize none of these are likely to be very hefty by next November, so I’ll try to get some BBW from Runnings or TSC. I was going to try another hatchery even though I was happy with Cackle’s chicks and their service last fall... just to try someone else out... but Cackle had most of what I wanted and the others had sold out of a lot of the spring birds already by the time I decided to order. Cackle’s website is also a lot more intuitive for me, even though they all have their shortfalls.

 

[memphis]

Well...sounds like you've ordered heritage breeds. So if you fall in love with them you won't get your heart broken!

 

[R2elk]

Thanks R2! I’m wondering about them. Do they sell anything but feathers? I was looking for places to shop for poults, but couldn’t see that Porter’s offered day-olds, or eggs either... not that I’d want to start learning to incubate on super special, expensive eggs...

In recent years Porter's has only been advertising combination packages of day old poults. It is not currently the season for them to advertise those packages. If you want to order something specific, go to their site and click on the Contact Us button and tell them what you are interested in. At this time, I am not aware of them selling the recessive slates to the general public. He has posted the opportunity for select individuals to join in the recessive slate project.

 

[Crazydoglady99]

Thanks all!!

That probably would be neither of the 2, the others (still walking around inside my house are definitely more friendly. I mean, they are all friendly, the little ones more so.

 

[OneMountainAcres]

Merry Christmas everyone!

 

[rjohns39]

Merry Christmas to all