A century of Turkey talk 2000-2100.

[memphis]

I love honey! Use it on everything I can. Hord local honey from farmer markets! Yours sounds wonderful. I hate you can't eat it! Do your bees stay there during the winter or do you move them to a warmer climate?

 

[OneMountainAcres]

The honey my bees produce is so much better than anything that you can buy in a store that there is a very big demand for the honey my bees make.  Between relatives and friends, I only manage to keep enough for cooking purposes.  It is a super light colored honey that is even better than pure sweet clover honey.  What really sucks is that I can't have any to just eat myself because honey is after all just pure sugar and I have diabetes.

Honey is one of those things that we just can't keep enough of. I can't wait until we get our own

 

[R2elk]

I love honey! Use it on everything I can. Hord local honey from farmer markets! Yours sounds wonderful. I hate you can't eat it! Do your bees stay there during the winter or do you move them to a warmer climate?

The bees stay here and some winters they don't make it. I had to replace one of my two hives this year because the -27°F in early November froze out the one hive. The other hive did fine but was in a more protected spot.

 

[memphis]

So Daisy is using the lean-to nest. But Annie is still laying wherever she happens to be when the urge hits. Will they share this nest of should I make another?

 

[R2elk]

So Daisy is using the lean-to nest. But Annie is still laying wherever she happens to be when the urge hits. Will they share this nest of should I make another?

Are you leaving an egg or fake egg in the nesting area? My hens right now are laying where ever because I constantly am picking there eggs up. Next spring I will seed the established nesting areas with fake eggs. Right now, I don't want any of the hens going broody. However if you want the hens to lay in a particular spot then the use of a "seed" egg really helps.

Good luck.

 

[OneMountainAcres]

What age will turkey hens start to lay? I've noticed the fake egg in the turkey coop nest keeps getting rolled around and knocked out of the nest. The chickens don't do that so it has to be the turkeys.

 

[R2elk]

What age will turkey hens start to lay? I've noticed the fake egg in the turkey coop nest keeps getting rolled around and knocked out of the nest. The chickens don't do that so it has to be the turkeys.

Mine have always laid their first egg the spring after they were hatched. Recently there have been a number of post indicating that their six month old poults have begun laying in the fall of the same year that they were hatched.

I have had roosters and chickens both kick fake eggs out of the nest. If your turkeys are doing that, it could be just from curiosity.

 

[memphis]

I'll try the fake eggs. Maybe I won't have to feel like I'm on an Easter egg hunt everytime I'm out in their yard! I'm a bit surprised they are still laying.

I let them into my yard again today for a bit. Had the door open to the garage. Sure enough Annie Jones (Bourbon Red ) just had to explore. Daisy was following me around. I was watering & she just loves the dang hose. So Annie ends up in the garage loudly chirping her beak off! She gets so excited. You can really hear it in her voice. Food, dust baths and anything new she's like a little kid. It's so interesting how expressive their vocalizations can be. Daisy isn't as vocal. Although she has a specific chirp when she looses me in the yard or I go in the house. If I call to her she'll trill back. I'm still trying to sort out all the different noises they make. Understanding turkey in harder than understanding chicken talk.

 

[memphis]

The chicken spa is located at the back corner of their yard. It's their dust bath area. The turkeys use it to and have managed to dig a turkey size crater to dust in. Well...Grumpy decided to try it! Surprised she could get her fat butt out of the hole!

 

[duluthralphie]

I had to put the CX's away by myself tonight. What a PITA!

They refused to go into their brooder. They were running all over the place. When JJ and Sidekick saw I was "chasing" the fat white chickens, they decided to help. What a PITA that was!

They stood in front of the door and chased the CX's away if they happened to get close to the door. It took me over an hour to put them away.

When it was time to put the turkeys away, JJ and Sidekick decided they were exempt from going into the coop, because they helped me with the chickens. Another 30 minutes wasted. Penguin is joining the PITA club too. He got the rest to run the wrong direction. He ran the guineas out of the coop after they were in. I informed Penguin he might be unique but he would roast up just fine.