A century of Turkey talk 2000-2100.

[yesterDAYNE]

went and picked up the 3 sweetgrass today. they're gorgeous! look healthy too! this is from the same breeder i got my lilacs from, though i'm not sure if they bred these or recently bought a bunch and decided to sell some of them. funnily enough, my bigger babies are actually terrified of them. i thought they'd maybe bully them a little LOL.

Apparently these guys are all the same age (I didn't realize my kids were 6 weeks already, I thought they were younger) and my kids are noticeably bigger. I've never had sweetgrass, are they smaller like Royal Palms?

I need to figure out an outside pen that I can house them in during the day, they're quickly getting too big. Need to decide if I want to send in blood for DNA sexing too or just wait until I can sex them. I'm just afraid I'll run out of space before they're old enough to visibly sex lol

 

[R2elk]

went and picked up the 3 sweetgrass today. they're gorgeous! look healthy too! this is from the same breeder i got my lilacs from, though i'm not sure if they bred these or recently bought a bunch and decided to sell some of them. funnily enough, my bigger babies are actually terrified of them. i thought they'd maybe bully them a little LOL.

View attachment 2753438

View attachment 2753450
View attachment 2753451
Apparently these guys are all the same age (I didn't realize my kids were 6 weeks already, I thought they were younger) and my kids are noticeably bigger. I've never had sweetgrass, are they smaller like Royal Palms?

I need to figure out an outside pen that I can house them in during the day, they're quickly getting too big. Need to decide if I want to send in blood for DNA sexing too or just wait until I can sex them. I'm just afraid I'll run out of space before they're old enough to visibly sex lol

Some Sweetgrass can be on the smaller side because one way to bring in new blood is to breed a Sweetgrass tom to Royal Palm hens. All the female offspring will be pure Sweetgrass. Royal Palm hens cannot pass their lone Narragansett gene on to their female offspring. The male offspring will be carrying a hidden Narragansett gene even though they are phenotypically Sweetgrass and should not be used in a Sweetgrass breeding program.

The size difference may well be due to the quality of feed the different groups received.

 

[yesterDAYNE]

Some Sweetgrass can be on the smaller side because one way to bring in new blood is to breed a Sweetgrass tom to Royal Palm hens. All the female offspring will be pure Sweetgrass. Royal Palm hens cannot pass their lone Narragansett gene on to their female offspring. The male offspring will be carrying a hidden Narragansett gene even though they are phenotypically Sweetgrass and should not be used in a Sweetgrass breeding program.

The size difference may well be due to the quality of feed the different groups received.

Gotcha! That makes sense. Not sure on the parentage of these guys but they are super pretty nonetheless. I noticed they aren't as feathered out as mine either, so they might have been feeding a lower protein feed.

 

[R2elk]

Gotcha! That makes sense. Not sure on the parentage of these guys but they are super pretty nonetheless. I noticed they aren't as feathered out as mine either, so they might have been feeding a lower protein feed.

Two things that can cause slow feathering.

1 - Low protein feed lacking sufficient lysine and methionine too.
2 - Too warm of brooder temperatures. Cooler brooder temps promote faster feather growth.

 

[yesterDAYNE]

Two things that can cause slow feathering.

1 - Low protein feed lacking sufficient lysine and methionine too.
2 - Too warm of brooder temperatures. Cooler brooder temps promote faster feather growth.

Oh neat! I didn't know about the cooler temperature. I think these dudes were brooded in an outdoor pen and it's been awful hot around here lately so that could also definitely be it or a contribution, since I'm a sucker and brood mine in the air conditioned house with a heat plate for warmth.

 

[R2elk]

Oh neat! I didn't know about the cooler temperature. I think these dudes were brooded in an outdoor pen and it's been awful hot around here lately so that could also definitely be it or a contribution, since I'm a sucker and brood mine in the air conditioned house with a heat plate for warmth.

I brood mine in a brooder in the coop. The temperature at the bedding level starts at 90°F. The temperature in the rest of the brooder starts in the low to mid 80s and quickly drops into the 70s. The brooder is 4' x 4'. Mine are flying by the time they are two weeks old.

 

[Devils Flower]

 

[yesterDAYNE]

The bullying has begun, of course instigated by my one known boy. the girl hasn't really done anything to them yet that I've seen, every time I hear screaming it's always the boy who's causing it lol. so hard not to stick my hands in there and break it up, but I know if I do its just gonna keep happening anyway. I'm a little worried bc I notice that the new 3 are standing around kind of hunkered up a lot. I'm hoping maybe it's just because they're in a new place and getting bullied and not fully comfortable yet. I put some nutridrench in their water just to see if that helps perk them up at all.

Also the little boy turkey (Asher) has decided to become my alarm clock. I'm no longer allowed to take a nap in the middle of the day because he just starts yelling endlessly. Never brood poults in your room. Horrible idea. Lol. This is the noisiest poult I've ever had, I've raised at least 3 or 4 batches of poults in my room in the past in groups of 2s and never had any just yell like that when I'm trying to sleep.

 

[Molpet]

I'm a little worried bc I notice that the new 3 are standing around kind of hunkered up a lot.

When mine get coccidiosis they do that. I lost 2 in the last 2 days to it. Start corid ASAP
https://www.backyardchickens.com/ar...ol-ampromed-the-correct-amprolium-dose.73341/

 

[yesterDAYNE]

When mine get coccidiosis they do that. I lost 2 in the last 2 days to it. Start corid ASAP
https://www.backyardchickens.com/ar...ol-ampromed-the-correct-amprolium-dose.73341/

How often can you treat them? The 2 that I already had did a corid treatment maybe 3-4 weeks ago after a few of their siblings suddenly died. If I can't retreat those 2 so soon I'm gonna have to figure out where to set up another brooder to separate for a bit.