A century of Turkey talk 2000-2100.

[R2elk]

Aurora, your hens are overachievers!!

Annie is still in hard molt, but Daisy is laying away.

I was just wondering if Ralph, R2elk or Feedman think their hens will start laying early. They are in a lot colder climate.

Chaos...good for T-Bone! Did you decide to go look at the black hens?

My hens are exhibiting normal winter behavior and with the current sub zero temperatures I see no reason to expect them to start laying before their normal spring start in the next to last or last week of March. The two oldest hens did not start laying until the middle of April last year.

It really isn't that uncommon for turkeys in the southern states to start laying as early as December.

 

[memphis]

Daisy exhibits pre-egg stress. She will pace, and if she's not in her coop she'll jump the fence. Annie will lay in the turkey pen nest or if she's loose she uses a chicken nest box. Does anyone else have a hen that gets stressed before laying?

 

[feistychick]

Wow, lots of catching up on reading here! Everyone has been busy chatting

Chaos - The new additions look really cool, can't wait to see pictures of them out of the pen! Love the graffiti paint job. The eggs in the bator now??

Ralph - that remedy of yours would fix anything, and if I had enough of it I'd just pass out and wouldn't care about being sick anyway

Memphis - Daisy didn't really stop laying this winter, did she? I'm so jealous - I want Big Bird to start giving me turkey eggs.....but I'll probably have to wait for spring - she doesn't look inclined to give me any presents yet

Aurora - Sounds like your girls are still going strong on the egg laying....how many incubators do you have set up now??

I installed my chicken swing in the chicken yard - but haven't seen them use it yet - stupid early sunset! I'll have to wait until the weekend to see if I can get them up on it. And I've decided that I won't put one in the turkey yard, Turkules would probably break his neck falling off of it My broody chicken is still parked on her nest, so I'm cautiously optimistic that she might hatch a couple of chicks. I hope she does it - they'll be due to hatch right before I leave town, so I have my fingers crossed that I'll get to see some little fluffy butts before I take off

 

[OneMountainAcres]

Fiesty-I have two incubators up and running right now. There's 39 eggs in the one and 19 in the other one, due to hatch this weekend lol

 

[memphis]

Feisty. ..I'm greatly relieved to hear your not giving Turkulus a swing! When are you leaving? I noticed it's staying lighter here at night by 15 minutes or so. Yipee!

Aurora...that's a bunch of peepers...jeepers! !

 

[OneMountainAcres]

Now, you gotta remember, they won't ALL hatch

 

[feistychick]

Aurora - that's 58 eggs Even if they don't all hatch, that's still a lot of fluffy babies! Annnnd, I'm pretty sure that won't be the last action that your incubator sees this year

Memphis - I fly out on the 11th, I'm hoping the egglets hatch before the 10th so I can see them as babies! I'll be gone for almost a month, so they'll be "big kids" when I get back...her timing could have been better

So cool! I snuck a couple of eggs out from under her tonight and candled them, there was chicks in the two I checked. I've never seen eggs developing before - so neat that you can see the chicks moving around. I'm so glad she's a sweet girl and doesn't seem to mind me checking the eggs. I took a quick peek and put them back in front of her - she zips them back under, clucking quietly at them

 

[memphis]

Feisty, what a sweet hen. I hope they hatch before your trip.

Aurora, how many Adam babies are you expecting? Are you selling them as poults?

 

[Chaos18]

Wow, lots of catching up on reading here! Everyone has been busy chatting

Chaos - The new additions look really cool, can't wait to see pictures of them out of the pen! Love the graffiti paint job. The eggs in the bator now??

Ralph - that remedy of yours would fix anything, and if I had enough of it I'd just pass out and wouldn't care about being sick anyway

Memphis - Daisy didn't really stop laying this winter, did she? I'm so jealous - I want Big Bird to start giving me turkey eggs.....but I'll probably have to wait for spring - she doesn't look inclined to give me any presents yet

Aurora - Sounds like your girls are still going strong on the egg laying....how many incubators do you have set up now??

I installed my chicken swing in the chicken yard - but haven't seen them use it yet - stupid early sunset! I'll have to wait until the weekend to see if I can get them up on it. And I've decided that I won't put one in the turkey yard, Turkules would probably break his neck falling off of it

My broody chicken is still parked on her nest, so I'm cautiously optimistic that she might hatch a couple of chicks. I hope she does it - they'll be due to hatch right before I leave town, so I have my fingers crossed that I'll get to see some little fluffy butts before I take off

Yes, got the eggs in the bator yesterday. Hopefully I don't totally screw it up and kill them all.

 

[dheltzel]

8 Midget White poults hatched on Monday. Cute little things, I need to get some pics to post here. Yesterday I collected a dozen turkey eggs, 6 MW's and 6 from the Mottled Black / Royal Palm pen. The chickens are stepping up too, the cabinet incubator will be full soon, I better hurry and get the new one built . . .

Yes, I think I am insane.