Recent content by Thomasturkey

It looks like a Silver Dapple. Not Black.

Is anyone going to the Poultry Auction on Sunday? Sunday August 14th at Mikes Livestock Auction. It is located in Mira Loma, at 10410 old Limonite way, Mira Loma, California 91752. Auction Starts at noon with miscellaneous stuff. The poultry usually starts a hour or two later. I will be...

If you want to drive up to Mira Loma, I am selling all ages, every color this Sunday. http://inlandempire.craigslist.org/grd/2483479322.html

Quote: My 27 Porter poults that died the first week, were eating and drinking. They would be fine one minute and dead the next. Is that what your finding happened?

None of the poults were dead on arival. They lacked livability. Livability can be genetic. It did not even look like shipping stress. I receive a minimum of 500 turkeys poults a year and thousands of chickens plus everything I hatch and never had losses like this. I am very experienced in caring...

I bought 30 turkeys from Porters last year. I ordered in the spring but he sent them in the heat of the summer. After one week, there was only 3 alive. I never seen poults drop dead like those did. Porters does not Guarantee Livability. All Major Hatcheries will give you 72 hours after you get...

Do you remember the story of the three little pigs? I built my turkey shelter/nesting area out of straw. It is 8 bails of straw lined up two at each side like a hollow square. Two pieces of 8X4' plywood goes over the top. The way the bailes are butted together leaves a opening like a door. They...

Quote: I can't believe something like that actually exists! You can see this does not hurt them. Chicks bounce. If they filled those buildings with chicks by hand without spreading them out, they would pile and die. This cannon method of shooting the chicks in the building saves lives.

I no longer have Guinea because they tormented my turkeys. They would chase them until they got heat stroke and died. Other people say I had mean Guinea. I think with any animal they are unpredictable and have some mean ones. I have had hen turkeys chase my roosters. For some reason they hate to...

The You Tube Video did not bother me at all. That is the hatchery for commercial farmers for eggs ands meat. Even if you wanted you could not get your chicks from them, unless you’re a farmer. The video that I like is "The Chicken Cannon". It shows how tough these chicks are.

This young hen should be the same color. Molting increases with age. Also those last poults should be molted too.

Your tom is heterozygous (one dominate gene) for the black gene. He would be split for bronze or blackwinged bronze. He is a molted with a red gene or two. The first poults where bronze based. The second poults where black based rusty blacks.

I keep a few dozen adult toms that free range during the day and sleep in the pen at night. First breeding year toms do the most fighting. My older Toms do not fight as much. They seldom fight to the death but they do spend most of the day fighting. The fights are the most active in early spring...

Every page on Porters website is a genetics lesson for those that want to learn. He added the genetics page too. Some people do not know about his Turkeys Genetics board on Yahoo. My favorite book is Turkey Management...

It is a lot easier to keep your turkeys dry if you brood them apart. If you brood them together use a wire mess bottom. I also feed my turkeys 30% starter. I feed my ducks water fowl feed that is lower in protein. My turkeys are brooded much longer than ducks. Mine all get along and sleep in my...