First Annual Cinco de Mayo Turkey Hatchathon- Join us! Set Day: Easter

[superchemicalgirl]

Awesome. I'll keep you in mind since you're localish.

 

[debs_flock]

My surviving hatch was one RP hen, so she got the Thanksgiving pardon. However, I also bought a batch of slates & RP from Porter's, some of those will be finding their way to the table/freezer shortly. Way too many boys and who needs 15 turkeys!

I am keeping a breeding trio of each, so I should have eggs this year.

Deb

 

[Arielle]

lol, I bought 20 turkeys from Porters, plus hatched my own. Makes for a wild mob looking for mom when they get out of their pen!!! THey folow me to the car, and when I close the door, they don't know where I went, they look around trying to find me. Makes me feel sooo guilty. But it works so I can do errands and they can free range for a while.

Interesting creatures.

 

[ChooksChick]

SCG, no real clue what to charge- I'll have to see what's normal, but I imagine I'll just go cheap for the hatchalong veterans.

Arielle, I have had great fun with the Porter's site and have found that there's actually a sex-link turkey I can make, among other neat things. What fun!


I did have one of the Royal Palms processed, and he seemed huge to me, but only came out to about 12#. The lady at the processing place told me they had a broad-breasted Franken-Turkey come in at 50# once...holy WOW!!

What kind of luck have you all had with them roosting in the trees at night? I'm terrified they'll get munched, but it's not as if they are small...do raccoons go for them? What about owls or bobcats? I lost a hen to a bobcat through the fence in the middle of the day when someone was standing 20' away on the phone with me a couple of days ago. I think predators are pretty desperate in this area of the country due to the drought.

 

[dsqard]

Renee, if you are worried about them roosting in the trees, try clipping their wing feathers so that they can't fly.

 

[karimw]

I've had raccoons take broody hens, but never one from up in the rafters in my big open barn. When they decide not to return to the coop, they roost on the big wood beam in the back of the photo. That's a good 25 feet up. That isn't to say they couldn't though. I have one singleton July hatch female who moved out of the coop permanently and so far she's been OK up there.

 

[Arielle]

I worry too when they head for the trees. We know their schedule so DH will catch the young ones and get them put in a coop when a storm rolls thru.

Otherwise I am taking DIdi's advice and clipping wings, this weekend if I can rope DH into helping. OTherwise just the kids and I to do it. A roaming mob of 3o really is a mob!!

When out this morning to find two extra grown turekys . WTH?? When I tried to corral them into a dog crate they took to the sky. One flying over the house then back again into the old dead pine to be with its buddy. Guess they are wild?

 

[karimw]

I worry too when they head for the trees. We know their schedule so DH will catch the young ones and get them put in a coop when a storm rolls thru.

Otherwise I am taking DIdi's advice and clipping wings, this weekend if I can rope DH into helping. OTherwise just the kids and I to do it. A roaming mob of 3o really is a mob!!

When out this morning to find two extra grown turekys . WTH?? When I tried to corral them into a dog crate they took to the sky. One flying over the house then back again into the old dead pine to be with its buddy. Guess they are wild?

30!!!! Yeah, 15 was enough for me. They are so cool though!

 

[Arielle]

I raised them and they are so friendly-- many like to be patted. DH has been tagging the males with a blue legband. At 3 months they look like mini males with puffed up feathering and fanning tails. THey look adorable.

 

[ChooksChick]

I raised them and they are so friendly-- many like to be patted. DH has been tagging the males with a blue legband. At 3 months they look like mini males with puffed up feathering and fanning tails. THey look adorable.

Yeah...8 is plenty for me. I them in a covered area now, as I just wasn't enjoying the challenge of getting them to be at night. They really were picking spots that were just not appropriate for roosting unless they were intent on becoming a snack, like on top of the 9' roof. Or on top of the 6' chicken coop...or 8' up a tree. Really??!? You can do better than that, silly birds.

I'm going to sell the pair of Royal Palms, and then the others can all stay with the Bourbon tom. I've finally cleared all of the chickens out of that coop, so it's alllll turkeys, allllll the time!