A century of Turkey talk 2000-2100.

[stephcraig78]

Hey gang!! Well I finally broke down and let myself go to our local animal swap. Made the even bigger mistake of bringing 4 of my kids with me. We came home with 2 turkey poults, 2 lavender orpingtons chicks, 1 silkie and the last one is either a frizzle or a sizzle. They last two are about 3 weeks along with the turkeys. The two orps are babies- maybe a week at most. Hoping one of the poults is a Tom-I picked a narri and my daughter picked a black Spanish(that's what the woman selling them called it) and with any luck I'll get a rooster from the silkie or frizzle. Guess the orps would be alright to get a rooster from too. Just gonna make sure I domesticate all these birds so I don't end up with more that I have to chase down to touch. Makes doing anything with them very difficult. So gonna work harder to handle them more often and "tame" them so to speak. If there's any way to tell what sex these breeds are let me know. Thanks!

 

[stephcraig78]

 

[JRNash]

My chickens look like that on camp day

 

[memphis]

Stephcraig...too cute!!

 

[memphis]

Flashpoint...Daisy is a Blue Slate & Annie is the Bourbon Red with a beard. I just have the two hens. Just pet. Sweeties both. R2elk is great figuring out the color variety.

 

[memphis]

Stephcraig...you mentioned 4 of your kids...how many do you have??

 

[stephcraig78]

Haha 6 total. 4 boys and 2 girls. Oldest will be 21 this year and youngest will be 4. So got a good sized flock of all ages.

 

[stephcraig78]

Thanks I can't help myself when I see the cute little things for sale. They all look so adorable. There was only one lady with turkey poults for sale today and if I'd had more money I probably would of bought all 8 of them. But I only took a little cash to prevent me from bringing them all home.

 

[rjohns39]

Folks,

I think I've figured out Sam's (my wild turkey) path and why...

She's apparently spending the night on the east side of the mountain, my house is on the west side. She's coming down in the morning with her poults following the deer.

She cleans up any fruit they leave behind (btw, the squirrels are knocking the fruit out of the tree for the deer, Might have fried squirrel, biscuits and gravy one morning for breakfast), then she moves to the front yard and cleans up any left over cracked corn and enjoys the pasture mix (my front yard is pasture).

Then she moves down the driveway and moves up to the lower pasture where the chicks and poults are. The babies are inherently messy with their feed and I move chickens once a week and poults every couple/three days so they always have fresh grass. And I'll throw out a few hand fulls of pasture mix behind them. So her poults are getting the left overs from my birds (24% turkey starter & 22% chick starter) along with grass seed and left over treats.

Then she moves up to the lower end of the fence for my adult birds in the upper pasture, you know the place where the rain brings any left over layer mix, works her way around the fence and back up the mountain.

She especially seems to enjoy the untouched pasture grasses that my birds have not gotten to yet. She's turned out to be a pretty smart cookie...

 

[stephcraig78]

So all you breeders like daluthralphie and Memphis and r2elk- any tips on guessing tom or hen? Lady I bought them from said she thinks toms have bigger snood bump as poults but I don't know about that. Also heard pelvis opening size is smaller on toms. Let me know what you guys use to make educated guesses. I know there's no real sure way to know till they get older just like trying to figure it out.