A century of Turkey talk 2000-2100.

[R2elk]

#1

 

[KF0002]

#1
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Woohoo first egg of the season! Nice.

 

[KF0002]

For now, this Silver Dapple jake has gotten a reprieve from the freezer. His dad was the silver dapple I hatched last year from a grizzled tom over a rusty black split painted. He is blue eyed and a very gentle tom. He makes a nice yard bird.

 

[fat brown hen]

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Pardon the dinginess of their feathers. Kentucky is a muddy state in the Fall, Winter, and early Spring.

@KF0002 just wondering, do your turkeys use that blue barrel as a nest box? or does it serve some other purpose?

 

[KF0002]

@KF0002 just wondering, do your turkeys use that blue barrel as a nest box? or does it serve some other purpose?

In theory, it is supposed to be a nest box. We made several different nest boxes for the Painted hens in that pen, but they don't use any of them. They are rather big hens since the Painted variety has Broad Breasted White ancestry, and I don't think they can fit through the entrance of that particular nest box. We just haven't gotten around to making the entrance wider yet. We may actually take that nest out altogether. Also, because of their BBW ancestry, I don't think the Painted birds have the nesting instincts that Heritage turkey hens tend to have. Hence them laying their eggs in random places on the ground. This is a very early observation, so I hope that changes as the birds continue to mature. The Painted birds in that pen are only around 10 months old so they are still young.

The two Grizzled hens in a different pen have two more generations of Heritage blood bred into them and because of that, they are leaner in build than the hens in the Painted pen and they also have utilized the nest boxes pretty much since they started laying. They may have laid an egg or two on the ground, but for the most part, they use the nest boxes. The Grizzled Black Painted hen has even went broody already this year. Those two hens are 15 and 13 months old.

 

[Molpet]

I found 2 eggs in 2 different coops today.
I had been looking all over the poultry yard and couldn't find any. Usually St Patrick's Day I start finding them.

 

[KF0002]

I found 2 eggs in 2 different coops today.
I had been looking all over the poultry yard and couldn't find any. Usually St Patrick's Day I start finding them.

Woohoo! Congratulations!! Our turkey hens have been pouring eggs too. They started in February. My husband is already laying the law down that I can’t set too many. lol

 

[fat brown hen]

I hope that someday the turkeys will use it...

 

[KF0002]

I hope that someday the turkeys will use it...
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She looks very interested in it!

 

[R2elk]

One of the hens wanted out badly. I let her out. She had been exploring the garden earlier so I closed the garden gate. She went to where her nest was last year.

I got a fake ceramic goose egg. When I came back out she jumped off the nest. Put the fake egg in her nest and gently guided her back to the nest. Once she saw the fake egg, she crawled back in and gathered it under her.

Nice to not have to hunt for her nest.