I grow beets for my birds. Mangle beets can get up to 20 lbs and produce tons of greens. I harvest the largest beet greens while they are growing and then throw the beet in for them whole when it's large enough. They peck at it like a flock block and eat it over a few days.
I plant comfrey because it's a wonderful plant for the birds and for your garden. It concentrates potassium, calcium, iron, magnesium and several vitamins in it's leaves and is therefore usually grown as an additive for your compost pile. You can also line the planting holes of potatoes with...
Turkeys forage much more than chickens so if you have winter forage available they wont eat much feed. But if you do feed 100% grain, be prepared to go through about 1 lb of feed per day per bird depending on size.
Dip and swish for a count of 20 at about 145 degrees then try to pull out a couple of wing primaries. If they come right out you're done. If you have to tug to get them out then dip and swish again until they come out easily. Pretty much the same as with chickens.
Before we got chickens everyone said they were QUIET, peaceful pets. No book, no article, no one we talked to EVER mentioned the egg song going on for a half an hour at sunrise, or the hour long cackle/screaming that they do when another chicken is in their favorite nest box! No one mentioned...
Turkeys need 10 sq feet of space per bird inside the coop minimum. They also need a run space of 20 sq feet per bird. Turkeys need 2 feet of roost space per bird that is 2 feet from the wall to give their tail feathers room. They want to be as high as possible so don't be surprised if you...
I haven't used that medication, but until you find out how much to give please give him cayenne pepper.
Mix a heaping teaspoon of cayenne pepper into a half cup of water and shoot approx 5 ccs down his throat once every other day for a week. Also mix a tablespoon of cayenne per 10 lbs of...
You should start seeing eggs very soon. Look around because she may be hiding them! And it may take a few tries for them to get the mating right so don't be discouraged if it takes a while for the tom to hit the mark.
I don't believe it's a good idea to try turkey poults with meaties under a chicken. The turkey poults need a little more heat than the meat birds and need a little more babying to get them to thrive. And even if you don't currently have blackhead in your soil, the meat birds can bring it onto...
It could be early onset blackhead so check his stool. He looks like one of my turkeys did when he started to get it; feathers aren't quite as nice as they should be and laying down most of the day.
If you see any sort of yellowish tinge to his stool then mix a teaspoon of cayenne pepper with...
My turkeys all have Russian names too!! Boris, Ivan, Sasha, Nickoli, Marta, Nadia and Natasha. And like you, my Natasha has laid down for me too. She's saying she would like to mate and since she sees you as the dominate "bird", she's laying down for you to let you mate.
When she does this...
Back on topic... I've heard that turkeys can "save" sperm from the tom for around 10-14 days. I think I may have been watching the Dirty Jobs episode where Mike is a turkey inseminator (which is the reason I now breed my own!) I would separate the hen from the unwanted tom for a month to be...
All Scovies:
Fred
Ethel
Hazel
Gertrude
Maude
Mildred
Mabel
Vera
Penelope
Astrid
Iris
Virgil
Virginia
Don't know why but the older names seem to fit Scovies...
Kevin is great to work with and his birds are fabulous. I live in a small out of the way area and my poults were in shipping for 4 days. Lost 75% which was heartbreaking. He replaced them for us (although we had to order additional birds to reach the 15 minimum order). For the second...