Recent content by Birchymm

Some quick background, I have two meat turkeys that I kept after last year's Fair, because my kids couldn't stand to see them go somewhere else. Regardless they are about 10 month old, both hens and have gotten along fabulously until recently. The last few days I've noticed one of the hens has...

My turkey is panting and drooling crazily, and her extra red skin under her beak is red and inflamed. I don't think she has anything stuck in her crop, because it doesn't seem to be enlarged. She's just sitting in one spot struggling to breathe and drooling. I'm trying to figure out how to take...

Excellent info, thanks! Right now they just perch on my porch rails, and I doubt I will get them to do anything else, no matter how comfy and warm I make it! I will still be trying, though. I saw other places that 2X4s work best. My idea was to make a small half wall from wood for some wind...

So, I saw another thread regarding the feeding of a BB turkey as a pet and I stopped her high protein diet right before fair, since all of them were getting pretty big. Of the four I bought for my son to show, one got really big and was processed prior to fair, he took two to fair thinking one...

Thanks for the quick responses!! I called home and it sounds like my wife has already taken matters into her own hands. Sounds like Tom is already on his way to the freezer as we speak. I just hope the other three make it to fair!

SO, we are trying Turkeys this year for 4H. We got 4 chicks and all are about 3.5 months old, and huge! They are market birds, intent on being sold at fair in early August, when they are supposed to be mature. I am assuming the largest one is a Tom, only because he seems to be apart from the...

Exactly! Haven't buried the hoses yet, and I'm still a little anxious about burying the tub with the pump in it. But so far so good, seems to be working well, though the water is still murky and dirty

The half 5 gallon bucket laying on the side was my attempt to slow down flow to the drain, I cut it at water level and filled it with lava rocks to catch some debris. That really didn't work, so I removed it. Benny is watching carefully to see if we keep messing with his pond or not!

Draining from the bottom into a holding tank, then pumping up a hill into the filter before waterfalling back down. Not really sure why I felt it necessary to drain out first, I think that mentality was left over from the original plan and I never changed it. Now there is a hole in the tarp...

Haven't gone to a vet, as I don't think there are too many bird vets in my area. I have dogs, so am pretty versed on what we have around. After some therapy it looks like she is at least moving it at the hip and seem to move at the knee now when swimming. Her movements look closer to what...

SO this is still an issue. Even though I went to one pump, the water still drains into the holding tank faster than it can pump out, until some feathers clog the drain, then it works pretty good for a few days, then the pump basin dries up. I remove the feathers and the vicious cycle starts...

Well, I went and bought a real incubator because there was just no way of keeping the homemade incubator at the proper heat and humidity. I disposed of all the eggs that I had, except one duck egg. All of the eggs I disposed of were mush, except one and that was the oldest egg of the bunch and...

Please excuse the underwear model holding my chick! Yeah, pretty happy its hen, the legs are kind of white, with a darker color on top, you can kind of see in the pic. She's got a pretty good disposition already and is a very pretty bird. I can see both a barred rock or cuckoo marans...

This is the best pic I could get of it. The leg is just limp. My reading of spraddle leg, is that it just kind of goes out to the side or straight back? I put band aids on both feet, as I've seen that a good way to straighten out their toes, which the other operational foot needed. He/she...

I came by this chick in a strange way. A vegan friend of ours received some eggs from a friend of hers and of course, instead of eating it, she incubated and hatched it! She knew we had chickens and gave it to us. I have no experience with RIR chicks, but that's what I was told it was and...