A century of Turkey talk 2000-2100.

[Molpet]

So 2 years ago we started with 4 turkeys 2 bourbon reds and 2 royal palm.
One of the royal palm dies at about 2 weeks.... sigh and the other one was pretty sure it was a people and would scream if I left it alone with those turkeys, but calm down as long as I was holding it..... awwww so cute!
of course it turned out to be a tom.....
grrr! Grumble..... so they got big enough to go out into the grow out pen, so about 8 to 10 inches tall? Give or take. And I walked in one day to find that the one bourbon red that I was fairly sure was a hen had hung herdelf..... now before you go all ' why did you have string in the pen?' Remember I had successfully used this grow out pen for several years for chicks and had no issues...... also the only reason this piece of string was an issue was it had a loop in it....... granted the loop hung about an inch off the ground, so somehow that crazy turkey got her head through that loop that was basically on the ground, oh and it was a big enough loop the turkey could have stepped through it with no problem..... but no this turkey managed to get it wrapped around her out neck and strangle herself...... so I walk in to a dead turkey.....
So we ended up with two tom turkeys..... and then when they got turned out with my layers my egg production mysteriously went down, turned out the little darlings were eating about a dozen eggs a day..xomgredv ht sigh so my plan to breed turkeys that year was foiled and they both got invited to thanksgiving dinner..... so I hope the next go round goes betterView attachment 1184877 one of the current little darlings at 1.5 weeks

Yeah I keep getting toms, 1 hen this year though.. 4 toms last year and 3 this year... they need higher protein than the chickens and tend to eat feathers and eggs when lacking

 

[aliciaplus3]

Yeah I keep getting toms, 1 hen this year though.. 4 toms last year and 3 this year... they need higher protein than the chickens and tend to eat feathers and eggs when lacking

Yup on the protein. I guess I found out the hard way lol

 

[aliciaplus3]

I am looking forward to seeing what these turn out to look like...... with any luck I will be able to talk a different guy out of some hatching eggs this spring. He has chocolate and standard bronze so that's exciting!

 

[memphis]

Such a cute little guy!!

 

[PolarBerry]

Got back from 2 day vacation which meant the turkeys were left locked up and they are definitely going to be excited to get outside time even though it's colder and raining for the next infinity.

 

[OneMountainAcres]

I'm loving the bug eyed baby pics! I can't wait to hatch turkeys again. They really are the sweetest and cutest babies

I almost lost one of my hens last night. Sabrina, my most skittish hen (adopted) decided to fly out of the pen last night before I bed and couldn't figure out how to get back in. Since she's so skittish, i couldn't just walk up to her like everyone else and she took off in to the woods. Luckily, she was disoriented enough by the dark once I killed all the lights that I was able to grab her. She'll be missing a few tail feathers this morning though.

 

[memphis]

Sabrina is lucky you got her! Aurora, speaking of turkeys...what did you end up keeping from that Porters "sale" batch? I remember you were hoping for some pencilling.

It was nice enough this weekend I spent a lot of time outside getting things ready for winter. (Such as it is) The girls are such a help. LOL! I spend twice the time working on things with their "help", but they sure are funny!

Aliciaplus3....looks to me your babies are well on their way to being proper lappers!

 

[OneMountainAcres]

Sabrina is lucky you got her! Aurora, speaking of turkeys...what did you end up keeping from that Porters "sale" batch? I remember you were hoping for some pencilling.

She is lucky but hopefully she doesn't make it a habit. I may have to clip her wings again. She's the only one I've ever done that to.

From Porter's, I kept the only two that lived from the whole shipment. My Pirate and Misty. Misty is a tri-colored penciled blue palm and Pirate is, according to Kevin Porter, what some are calling harvest moon? Not quite sure what that is yet though lol. I'll have to get some new pictures. I also kept Azul, the slate baby that I traded for at a swap (supposedly or of "midget whites") which is starting to look like maybe a mottled slate? All 3 are looking like girls so far.

 

[memphis]

I would love some pics. Don't think I've seen a Harvest Moon. Glad you ended up with one pencilled. I remember you lost some, bummer...just couldn't remember what you ended up with.

 

[R2elk]

She is lucky but hopefully she doesn't make it a habit. I may have to clip her wings again. She's the only one I've ever done that to.

From Porter's, I kept the only two that lived from the whole shipment. My Pirate and Misty. Misty is a tri-colored penciled blue palm and Pirate is, according to Kevin Porter, what some are calling harvest moon? Not quite sure what that is yet though lol. I'll have to get some new pictures. I also kept Azul, the slate baby that I traded for at a swap (supposedly or of "midget whites") which is starting to look like maybe a mottled slate? All 3 are looking like girls so far.

I have not heard of a Harvest Moon turkey but have heard of Harvest Gold.