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So yesterday morning I was woken out of bed by an unfamiliar sound outside of my bedroom window. I got out of bed, looked out and saw a big white Turkey. When I left my chickens out, she kind of just made herself at home with them and was there all day, last night when I cooped my guys and girls up, she hopped on the roof of the coop and was still there this morning.



Now we live in a farming area, but I am stumped as to where she came from since we are surrounded by other new homes, none of which have chickens like we do, or any other kind of birds. If she walked from over a half mile away what would have made her walk that far in the first place and now suddenly just stay here???

If this is now "our turkey" how can I get her to roost safely inside the coop?? She is pretty safe on top of the coop, but once winter comes it would not be a good place for her to be. Any suggestions???


OHHHH! and on a side note, we got our first chicken egg yesterday! Little Silkie egg :)

 
KJ6485 said:
So yesterday morning I was woken out of bed by an unfamiliar sound outside of my bedroom window. I got out of bed, looked out and saw a big white Turkey. When I left my chickens out, she kind of just made herself at home with them and was there all day, last night when I cooped my guys and girls up, she hopped on the roof of the coop and was still there this morning.



Now we live in a farming area, but I am stumped as to where she came from since we are surrounded by other new homes, none of which have chickens like we do, or any other kind of birds. If she walked from over a half mile away what would have made her walk that far in the first place and now suddenly just stay here???

If this is now "our turkey" how can I get her to roost safely inside the coop?? She is pretty safe on top of the coop, but once winter comes it would not be a good place for her to be. Any suggestions???


OHHHH! and on a side note, we got our first chicken egg yesterday! Little Silkie egg :)

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Congrats on the egg! Turkeys actually are fine in the bad weather. They are crazy like that.
You could use a net to catch it, and put it inside at night.
 
KJ6485 said:
So yesterday morning I was woken out of bed by an unfamiliar sound outside of my bedroom window. I got out of bed, looked out and saw a big white Turkey. When I left my chickens out, she kind of just made herself at home with them and was there all day, last night when I cooped my guys and girls up, she hopped on the roof of the coop and was still there this morning. Now we live in a farming area, but I am stumped as to where she came from since we are surrounded by other new homes, none of which have chickens like we do, or any other kind of birds. If she walked from over a half mile away what would have made her walk that far in the first place and now suddenly just stay here??? If this is now "our turkey" how can I get her to roost safely inside the coop?? She is pretty safe on top of the coop, but once winter comes it would not be a good place for her to be. Any suggestions??? OHHHH! and on a side note, we got our first chicken egg yesterday! Little Silkie egg :)
Click to expand...
Congratulations! First, you'll have to wiggle your way into this turkey's heart with treats and once she gets close enough to you, pet her a lot. Eventually, you'll be able to pick her up in the evening and put her in the coop. She'll figure it out eventually :)
 
LittleMissPurdy said:
if i am understanding this correctly...

#1-sexlinked barred birds(males) will have more white "area"..and true will be "thinner" area.....

#2- true breeding barring is the same on both male & female...

****" females contribute a barring gene on their sex chromosome, but the presence of the that chromosome means the male progeny are barred, but any females are not."***

Is this why Black sexlinked males have a dot on their heads? or am I totally lost ?...I hope not.

You do realize, WHEN i get a rooster, ( don't tell DH though), but WHEN I get one...I am going to be asking a LOT of questions!! hahaha....I will give you a waning so you can hide, promise
wink.png
....I do love genetics, my problem is "brain troubles"..hahaha, seriously though, If I don't write things down..poof..they are gone.
I do appreciate you divulging your knowledge, thank you.
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Barring is both sexlinked and partially dominant. The 2 properties are can work together. The sex linked property means that females have either 0 or 1 copy of the barring gene:
0 copies - black bird, no barring visible
1 copy - barred bird, like a barred rock hen

Males, OTOH, can have 0, 1, or 2 copies because they have 2 similar sex chromosomes.
0 copies - black bird, no barring visible
1 copy - barred bird, like a barred rock hen
2 copied - barred bird, like a barred rock cock

If you look at a pic of a pair of barred rocks, you will see that the cock, besides a larger comb and other rooster characteristics, looks much whiter than the hen. This is the effect of the 2nd copy of the barring gene. A barred breed cock must have 2 copies and be extra white in order to produce all barred female offspring. A barred rock cock with only 1 copy of the barring gene would produce half barred rock daughters and half black rock daughters, regardless of whether his mate is barred or not. The female's barring gene has no effect on her daughters at all, it's all from the father's genes for sexlinked traits like barring. It is impossible to create a black rock from a pair of barred rocks (where the male is double barred as he should be). But it is simple to create a true breeding strain of barred rocks from black rocks if you have a single barred bird. It could take several generations if you start with a barred hen, but it is very doable.

A few results of this:
1) a pullet can never be double barred (extra white, like a good cockerel)
2) true breeding only happens if the cock is homozygous (2 copies, extra white, in the case of barring) and you have a matching hen (single barred).
 
When I went out to feed the flock this morning I spied my newly laying leghorn sitting in a nesting box!! It made me giddy to see her there. Is that normal!?! Lol...I'm becoming crazy chicken stalker! I'd have four more horses if I could afford it so I'll collect chickens instead!
 
KJ6485 said:
So yesterday morning I was woken out of bed by an unfamiliar sound outside of my bedroom window. I got out of bed, looked out and saw a big white Turkey. When I left my chickens out, she kind of just made herself at home with them and was there all day, last night when I cooped my guys and girls up, she hopped on the roof of the coop and was still there this morning. Now we live in a farming area, but I am stumped as to where she came from since we are surrounded by other new homes, none of which have chickens like we do, or any other kind of birds. If she walked from over a half mile away what would have made her walk that far in the first place and now suddenly just stay here??? If this is now "our turkey" how can I get her to roost safely inside the coop?? She is pretty safe on top of the coop, but once winter comes it would not be a good place for her to be. Any suggestions??? OHHHH! and on a side note, we got our first chicken egg yesterday! Little Silkie egg :)
Click to expand...
Congrats on the turkey :gig and the egg! :woot I'm anxiously awaiting on our Silkie's first egg, she's been squatting for about a week now.
 
LittleMissPurdy said:
I realize this is way behind...we just had our eletric turned back on last night close to 11pm...very bad storm rolled through/ big limb from neighbors year is now in our yard..firewood!!
Corn..we buy 50* bag(s) from a farmer  to help the girls out all winter. Plus they have it for "treats" all year. It is crack!!
It is the shelled corn. A good supplier is well worth any trip, it is always dry, smells sweet.  We pay 8.00 a bag. small farmer, nice to help out. keep ours in a metal barrel that has a locking lid-no pests.
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Ok. Thanks. So excuse My ignorance. Are you saying you get your corn cracked. It's not just whole corn? Is there an easy way to crack it if you get whole corn? Maybe I'll need to go buy from feed store. I know a farmer I could get from but he had someone else he gets to grind it and with budget was trying to avoid the middle man. But might not be possible.
 
I bought two 1 year old Cream Legbars yesterday from super nice lady. She hatched them out but needed to down size. I'd love to have some darker blue eggs from Ameraucanas but blue is blue and one laid today, despite an hour and half drive to a new home

400


Brown egg is from my 8 month old Red Star and the white is from my newly laying leghorn
 

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