A century of Turkey talk 2000-2100.

[Flashpoint]

Has anyone had a big problem with ticks this year? I know my ducks and turkeys will eat them and according to some "experts", they can eat up to 200 a day. I also read that there is a turkey tick which is actually the larvae of the Lone Star Tick - which I don't even know if we have around here. We do have the dog tick and the deer ticks that carry Lyme disease.

I have not seen any ticks on any of my birds, but can they attach and cause problems? Or would they just get "eaten" as they are discovered by the birds themselves?

My 9 year old grandson was just diagnosed with Lyme disease, spent a day at the hospital and now has to take antibiotics for the next 21 days.

 

[JRNash]

I'm terrified of anything that resembles a spider. My turkeys are eating SOMETHING in the grass. I haven't found a tick yet on my birds,And I do look. You'd think the naked turkey neck would be prime territory

 

[JRNash]

Flashpoint, I pray your grandson gets better soon.

 

[Finnie]

Here's one I don't know how its going to turn out. My adult roos are deadly to baby roos. there's a roo in my mentor chicks that just went to pasture with the adults. I just went out and checked on them and the baby turkeys have encircled the mentor chicks and peck at the roo if he comes anywhere near. If the roo pecks back, the adult turkey's intervene. My top Tom landed talons in the back of the roo after he went after one of the offending turkeys. I'm learning every day...

That's so cool that your turkeys protected their mentors!

Hey folks, I have removed some posts that were pretty off topic and reported by multiple members as such.
Let's tone it down a bit, hmm? Please and thankyouverymuch.

What have you kids been up to while I've been away?!
(I did go back and edit my last post in case the comment I made was related to the deletions. Which I never saw and don't know what they were and don't want to accidentally contribute to. )

 

[Finnie]

@R2elk here is a photo of Cinnamon that shows how much red feathers he has on the sides of his tail.

I have new poult photos to share, but they are not offspring of Cinnamon, so I am putting them in a separate post.

 

[JRNash]

That bird is BEAUTIFUL!!

 

[JRNash]

Finnie I showed the DW your bird. She wanted to know where I HAD IT HID!!!

 

[JRNash]

We took my son out to eat for his birthday. As soon as i stepped out of the truck the BB's came running and followed me all the way to the doorstep. For the life of me l can't figure out how turkeys ever got the reputation of being dumb birds. They are super curious and don't miss anything new in the yard

 

[Finnie]

Here are today's poults. They actually hatched yesterday and the day before, but today they got moved from the hatcher to the brooder with last week's one lone poult and his chicken mentors. The 5 week old rooster in there accepted them very well. I was afraid I would have to relocate the chicken mentors.

These first two poults have a pale hint of grey stripe down their backs, so I'm hoping they are Sweetgrass, possibly with blue factor (D).

This one has a lot more color markings on it, but they are still pale, so I'm guessing the blue gene again, but whether it's bronze or narri or something else, I don't know.

Then there are three solid yellow ones just like last week's poult.

The parents of these are Elderberry and Swan:

Edited to add: I forgot I was going to mention that I had a 100% hatch! All 6 eggs set were fertile and hatched, 24-48 hours before they were due. I do "dry" hatch, meaning I only add water if the RH goes below 20%, which it never does after adding water when I first turn it on. Then I do 65-70% for lockdown. I try to do temp at 99.5, but I think it might be holding steady right at 100.

Next week's lone egg is fertile too. I guess Elderberry is quite capable after all!

 

[Finnie]

That bird is BEAUTIFUL!!

Thank you!

Kind of wish I hadn't sold him, but he was mating my chickens to death.