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igorsMistress

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Premium Feather Member
11 Years
Apr 9, 2013
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My Coop
My Coop
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We raise chickens for dual purpose. Our first flock was just a few layers, but we added some larger birds to start breeding for meat as well. Then I saw a Turken and did a double take. I thought someone crossed a turkey with a chicken; I wanted a dozen! They were so ugly they were cute. Unfortunately Igor didn't find them at all attractive and said no way. My whole family thought I was crazy, so I gave up.

After losing a few of those bigger birds to heat during the summer, I was able to convince Igor that Turkens would be a good fit despite their appearance. Not only do they have naked necks, but less overall feathering. A huge advantage for our climate, not to mention plucking.

We added two Turken pullets that fall, and the following Summer our beautiful boy Fugly (pictured above) was hatched under a broody. He was a Turken/Bresse mix and a great rooster. I'm sure you can guess where the name comes from,. I found him beautiful, but Igor did not and the name stuck.

Sadly, Fugly and his flock got sick with an unknown illness shortly after we hatched a dozen chicks this summer. We suspect but have not confirmed Marek's. We felt the best decision would be to put the older birds down so we did it all at once, and now we're starting over.

Fugly had a sweet disposition that won Igor over and our love for this wonderful breed lives on because of him and the two hens we had.

This thread is about our new adventure in raising dual purpose birds with our primary focus on Turkens, but other breeds may be added from time to time.

I hope you'll join in with your own flock stories and share your experiences as well.
 
Our current flock members, we no longer name our chickens because it makes them pets. These are all Turken crosses, some with Jersey Giant but others I'm not sure.

The dominant rooster. I had 6 roosters to choose from. This guy wasn't the biggest of the males. He was selected because he didn't try to rape every pullet in sight when the more dominant boys were removed and I've never seen him beat up the little guy like the others did. He never grabbed a pullet by the feathers just because, didn't try to sneak up behind me in the coop and wasn't constantly in my space when I went outside.

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Here's the little guy. I hope to breed that nakedness into future generations.

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The flock, one of the black pullets came from an egg I hatched from Fugly and his favorite hen Nyx, a black Nn

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This was before we processed 4 roosters last weekend

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The chicks. One is an EE we got as a friend for the older Nn who I brought home because it was alone. There were 4 hatchlings on8/17 but one was culled, unable to hold itself up or walk well and pipped too high on the egg to get out without assistance. I don't babysit, I'll help a little bit but after that they're on their own. The EE has two extra toes on the side of each foot that I didn't notice when we got it. They seem to be causing problems with walking so we're debating on how to proceed there. Possibly remove with a dremel, it doesn't seem to have any control over them and they don't move. Turken/Bresse cross for the Nn babies.

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We have 3 eggs in the incubator due to hatch 8/25. One is a Turken/Bresse and 2 are Dorking/Red Ranger crosses.
 
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