Anyone have luck catching a feral chicken?? UPDATE: Rooster caught, no hen

[rjohns39]

50 Turkeys! Thanksgiving? Pretty soon your feed bill sounds like it will be smaller!

All are teens and tweens, except for the 5 adult breeders. I did harvest 11, ten are for market. This spring I harvested the Toms who were not selected as breeders, but that was just 5. The flock is growing, just not fast enough.

 

[rjohns39]

View attachment 1179512
My latest "farm girl ingenuity" hanging feeder. Modeled with the lovely C.C.

An old milk jug with a bamboo skewer. LOL

That's really cute and an awesome idea.

 

[Parront]

All are teens and tweens, except for the 5 adult breeders. I did harvest 11, ten are for market. This spring I harvested the Toms who were not selected as breeders, but that was just 5. The flock is growing, just not fast enough.

Oh -- feed bill still increasing! Turkey multiplication, that is higher math!

 

[FlyingNunFarm]

That's really cute and an awesome idea.

My poor first time molters are miserable. I don't think they know what to do with themselves. I wanted to offer more feed stations for the girls.

It works ok so far. I may tweet it a bit depending on how much they try and bill out. But it was free so I can't beat that!

 

[rjohns39]

Challenge is that it takes six months to grow out a heritage turkey and even then their carcass weight is small, and this year I learned that I need to adjust their feed and activity for the last 30 days. I may add in some BB whites next spring, if I can find a market for them. Biggest challenge to what I'm trying to do is build a solid breeding flock. I'll need to buy more fertile eggs from a different blood line to expand my hollands next spring. RIWs I've got about 30 now, so hope to increase to 60-90 next year. Only have 10 hollands and hope to get up to 50-60 next year. Still debating about the Dels and ILs. The barnyard mixes won't be in the breed pool in the spring... It's a shame as the prettiest rooster here is a Silver spangled Hamburg roo over a del hen cross. I need to get a better picture of him. And he's a good little roo, committed to protecting the girls.

 

[Kiki]

My poor first time molters are miserable. I don't think they know what to do with themselves. I wanted to offer more feed stations for the girls.

It works ok so far. I may tweet it a bit depending on how much they try and bill out. But it was free so I can't beat that!

Free = My FAVORITE!!!

 

[Kiki]

I stole borrowed a picture..check it out:#7685

 

[Suzi18]

Here are the feed charts. I have the turkey as well, but haven't turned them into images.
View attachment 1179455 View attachment 1179456 View attachment 1179457 View attachment 1179458

Thank you. You are a fountain of information

 

[rjohns39]

Thank you. You are a fountain of information

Just fyi... On the layer, I add 300 pounds of alfalfa pellets cracked, remove 250 pounds of barley and 50 pounds of calcium. Depending on the make up of my flock, I've been known to drop the calcium down to 20 pounds and replace the rest with corn. When I make those kinds of adjustments, I know I'll have at least an hour of lively debate with my favorite nutritionist. I used to hate it, as he would hurt my brain, now I actually enjoy it and get a total thrill when I can toss something back at him from his own book.

 

[Sassysouth]

View attachment 1179512
My latest "farm girl ingenuity" hanging feeder. Modeled with the lovely C.C.

An old milk jug with a bamboo skewer. LOL

Beautiful hen and so creative!