A century of Turkey talk 2000-2100.

[memphis]

R2elk!!! They are just gorgeous! And your such a talented photog. The one time my girls displayed was when a hawk was sitting in one of my trees.

 

[R2elk]

R2elk Your birds always look so good!

This warmer weather has me way behind. I am going to have to do some major changes here.

One Tom is going to visit the smoker real soon. Maybe 2.

Porter needs to be locked in a small cage away from the other birds. Him and I are not seeing eye to eye lately. He wants to be friendly, but he also wants to act like a belly button. I Think I am going to make him a jail cell for a while. I would hate to let Coffee take him if he is not on his best behavior. She has had enough problems with little chicks and does not need a misbehaving Tom.

He is not going into the breeding rotation. I might be getting ahold of some Narggy/Blue eggs! I just need to find some royal palms.

I am thinking of letting Ethel and JJ get together soon. Maybe the end of the week.

R2elk how long after JJ visits Ethel before the eggs will be good? Is that a right away thing or does it take a few days?

I never imprint or socialize any of my turkeys and I have none of the problems that you post about. The arm extensions (long sticks) work very well on turkeys and guineas and somewhat on chickens in controlling where you want to herd them. My toms never challenge me and the only incidences of turkey/human contact that I have ever had is getting flogged by a hen when I am stealing her newly hatched poults from her.

I normally see breeding starting a month before the eggs start coming. If you are already getting eggs then you need to get the boys and girls together. I would guess that if a hen is already laying that once a mating takes place it is possible that there could be fertile eggs within 2 days. This is just a guess. Even with mating taking place on a regular basis a month before any eggs are laid, I find it very common for the first couple of eggs laid to be infertile.

The reason that it can take a few days is because the egg that is already having a shell formed can't be fertilized since it is already past that stage in the process.

On a different note, I have Bourbon Red eggs coming from Montana. They will be shipped on Monday. I also have Sweetgrass hatching eggs coming from Porter's in May. My intent is to add a Bourbon Red and a Sweetgrass hen to my flock giving me the ability to produce Rusty Slates and Tri-color Mottled Slates.

 

[R2elk]

R2elk!!! They are just gorgeous! And your such a talented photog. The one time my girls displayed was when a hawk was sitting in one of my trees.

Thank you. Photography is a long time hobby of mine and moving into the digital age made developing my own photos affordable.

I did have a SFH rooster that made a very particular sound whenever he would see a large bird ( hawks, crows raven, eagles) fly over. Whenever he made that sound, every chicken and turkey within earshot would dive under cover and all of the turkey hens would flare their tails out wide. I assume the flaring of the tails is an instinctive act to provide cover for poults.

 

[memphis]

I have realized that my turkeys will notice a potential predator before my chickkens. They will start a high pitch whine.

R2elk, you know I can't help myself....I love just sitting with my turkeys! They are so much fun to interact with!

 

[memphis]

R2elk...I like your plans to add a Bourbon & Sweetgrass to the mix. Tri- Mottled Slates..nice!

 

[OneMountainAcres]

You would all be very impressed! Over the past 2 days, when it was time for them to go in for the evening, all I did was call them and single file, they all walked right into the coop without any extra effort on my part. So proud!

 

[duluthralphie]

I think some of my problems is too many Toms and too Many roosters.

I socialize with mine a lot. I enjoy them, but they can tick me off too. I am babysitting today and my Wife put them away she said it went well they went right to bed. It seems if I catch the filthy time of the day they go right in. Early or late they do not.

Today I had rooster/Tom fights. . The toms leave the hens alone but did not like the roosters. I tried to get in the middle and break them up. They never like that, but none of them come at me. Even JJ was going after the roosters, but I believe he would have put another Tom in his place.

Porter seems to want to be head Tom more than any of the others. He needs his own flock. I had that blue hit me but that was when I broke up the gang rape of that poor hen.

Sidekick has never been and is still happy being second fiddle.

I think I am going to move the Creamettes into a smaller pen and split the roosters up giving one 4 hens and the other 3. That way JJ and Ethel and a couple self blues can have the larger cool and pen.

I figured the eggs would need a few days because of some already being in the track.

 

[R2elk]

I have realized that my turkeys will notice a potential predator before my chickens. They will start a high pitch whine.

R2elk, you know I can't help myself....I love just sitting with my turkeys! They are so much fun to interact with!

You can get away with it because you only have hens. I have seen some signs of Daisy trying to assert dominance over you from some of the things that you have posted. Its not a big deal with hens but a tom that has been imprinted can turn into a holy terror when breeding season arrives. The operative word here is can. Not all toms react the same way and toms that have been sweethearts can seemingly overnight turn mean.

All of the problem toms that I am personally aware of were imprinted on people at an extremely young age. One neighbor was so upset about his problem toms that he had me raise his next batch of poults for him. He no longer imprints his poults and has not had any of his toms attack anyone since then.

 

[memphis]

Agreed R2elk. That's why after much thought I decided it's best not to get a Tom right now.
I'm just going to enjoy gardening with my goofy hens!

 

[NathanZee]

The hens were wound up this morning.

Wow, they are gorgeous! (For a turkey

) I didn't know the females puffed up like that.