A century of Turkey talk 2000-2100.

[chicapee]

It's been a sad morning here. DH let everyone out to roam the yard this morning. Next thing - we hear Turkules making ungodly screaming noises. I raced outside and saw a coyote trotting out of the yard with a mouthful of chicken. Lost one of my sweet blue cochin ladies Spent the last hour searching for the rest of the chickens that were hiding to make sure we didn't lose anyone else. Turkules fussed and paced until we herded everyone else back to where he could watch them. This is my first batch of birds and this is the first I've lost to a predator - it's so upsetting, even though logically I understand that when you live in the country this happens. It is a little bit comforting to know that he will put up one heck of an alarm if something is wrong.

That's just awful. So sorry.

 

[memphis]

Fiesty...seems odd that the coyote would come that close during the day. Dont know much about them. But did grow up in the country, would hear them at night but never saw them during the day. Was it just one or several? You have to be proud of Turkules raising the alarm like that.

 

[feistychick]

Fiesty...seems odd that the coyote would come that close during the day. Dont know much about them. But did grow up in the country, would hear them at night but never saw them during the day. Was it just one or several? You have to be proud of Turkules raising the alarm like that.

We do have coyotes in the area and there are fields around us - we seldom see them several hundred yards from the house during the day, but not at all this year. It was a lone one this time but it was just awful seeing it running away with one of my ladies in it's mouth. DH took off after it with the "coyote deterrant" aka the shotgun but he wasn't fast enough to catch it. The birds are all in the pens now (they were surprisingly cooperative about going in), and we are off to the store get materials to extend the fenced area in hopes that it might prevent further "crimes of opportunity". I think we'll curtail our free ranging activities for a bit and give them more fenced space. Darn it, I'm steamed about it coming so close to the house!

Turkules was just awesome - I think he would have come into the house to get us if he could have figured out the doorknob - he was yelling at the door

 

[memphis]

Fiesty...mine are pets too. It's tough loosing one. But I'm impressed with Turkules! By the way....how is his wing doing?

 

[feistychick]

Fiesty...mine are pets too. It's tough loosing one. But I'm impressed with Turkules! By the way....how is his wing doing?

Turkules wing is doing better - he still can't fly but he's flapping more and holding it up better than he was. I still wish I knew what he had done to it!

I think it might have been easier to lose one of the ladies if I hadn't seen it happen and know that there was no way I could catch the stupid coyote. I could have done without the visual :/

But we're back from the store and about to start work on an increase to the fenced area - which will hopefully be preventative to more incidents like this morning.

 

[charmedbaker]

Feistychick, I'm so sorry you had to go through that. Good for Turkules! He is a hero.
We have coyotes too but most often its raccoons that get our girls. Two years ago, we had a bloody massacre over a three week period, my neighbors and I lost a dozen chickens. Since then we enclosed the run ceiling to floor. Even encased the tree with wire. We haven't had any trouble until last week when ChaCha was attacked. I'm considering security system with cameras.

 

[duluthralphie]

Feisty sorry to hear about that coyote. I suggest a predator call and a piece of lead traveling 2300 FPS.

Good luck on getting him. I lost bunch this summer too to coyotes or foxes during the day. Coyotes are the most likely as they hunt daylight hours.

 

[Chaos18]

Feisty, sorry to hear you lost a bird. Coyotes are never fun to deal with.

With this heat and humidity does anybody have any suggestions on something I could add to the turkeys water that has electrolytes in it? Also how long should they be in quarantine for? I've heard anywhere from 2-4 weeks.

 

[chicapee]

Feisty, sorry to hear you lost a bird. Coyotes are never fun to deal with.

With this heat and humidity does anybody have any suggestions on something I could add to the turkeys water that has electrolytes in it? Also how long should they be in quarantine for? I've heard anywhere from 2-4 weeks.

I use rooster boost. It's great.Has electrolytes, vitamins and probiotics.

 

[duluthralphie]

Feisty, sorry to hear you lost a bird. Coyotes are never fun to deal with.

With this heat and humidity does anybody have any suggestions on something I could add to the turkeys water that has electrolytes in it? Also how long should they be in quarantine for? I've heard anywhere from 2-4 weeks.

I use probiotics also. I would keep them locked up at least 3 weeks, my last newbies I kept in a month,