Colorado

[KLBCOS]

We had to treat for some chicken bugs a while back, and I'm positive it was from those doves and pigeons that discovered our barn. My husband gets really irritated when they try to take over the barn. I've had at least three heart attacks when they come flying out of the barn over my head as I walk in, flapping and screaming at me. We're lucky that we've caught them all before they start nesting. Seven dust on all the chickens, and bedding got rid of everything. It was a last resort, we had a couple girls looking very weak, but I really hate the chemicals

If I remember right, you live in the Falcon area. If you decide to purchase turkeys, PM me. I was thinking of purchasing some in for delivery in late February. Maybe we can share an order.Everything I've read, people love to raise turkeys.

 

[Ashdoes]

If I remember right, you live in the Falcon area. If you decide to purchase turkeys, PM me. I was thinking of purchasing some in for delivery in late February. Maybe we can share an order.Everything I've read, people love to raise turkeys.

I live down Falcon Hwy, and splitting an order would be awesome shipping charges are a lot, even if you only order a few. I'll know by the end of October if I can do it. If I don't write you, just remind me.

 

[KLBCOS]

Sounds good. I will need to build a housing structure for them. Unfortunately, my boyfriend, who has an unused horse barn, won't let me have them here. So, that will probably a fall project to build them a good living area. I think I would want to raise them with a few chicks as I understand turkeys thrive better when raised with chicks as they teach them how to eat and drink.

 

[samsr]

Has any one raised turkeys or meat chickens? How do you choose to house them? I have tried to find info on how people house their turkeys but still seems clear as mud to me. I'd love to know more and hear your experiences good and bad. Do you process them yourselves or take them somewhere to process. I would like to take them somewhere to have them processed as I know I will grow attached especially to the turkeys.

I am taising meaties right now. I have them in their own coop/shed simply because yhey are eating non-gmo grower feed. I am at week 4 with them. They are probably a couple of pounds right now. I will process them myself with the help of a few neighbors. We have processed quite a few birds already. It will probably take most of a morning or afternoon. Processing will take as long as it takes. Processing will depend on your skillset/practice in processing chickens. Between us all there is a plucker also, which will speed things up quite a bit. I need to start collecting killing cones and such in the next 4 weeks or so, so we will be ready to process when the meaties are done growing.

My neighbor raises turkeys. They are really not bad to process. You just need a big scalder and a strong arm. Processing doest take much longer than a chicken. Everything is just bigger. He keeps yhe turkeys with the roosters that come from his spring hatches. We generally process them all together in a weekend.
With either one. You tend to get faster at processing as you get more practice.

 

[Poka Doodle]

I found out that state fair is an open poultry show

 

[suncatcher]

Yep, processing goes much faster when done with more people, as you can do it assembly line. I did read on another site that you can let them bleed out in the cones on their own if you use a flexible type board that you can bend to make a drainage type channel in the middle and all goes into one central bucket, if that makes sense. Then into the scalder and then into the plucker more than one at a time. I have never used a plucker so not sure how big they are, or how many you can put in a once.

What we learned our first time was..............have ice and a cooler on hand where you are processing them, saves on running them to the fridge. Draining them on their own instead of holding them over a bucket, and using a table high enough when cutting them up, so you don't put strain on your back! We may use some home made saw horse type legs, with a door as the table, just have to figure out how to connect the table to the saw horses. We also used a washable vinyl table cloth under the cutting boards, thought about plastic, but thought it would move around to much. Oh, and start earlier in the morning, the flies got really bad by mid day!!!!

 

[uzisuzuki]

We still have our visitor, but things have been getting a little tense. Damien (I named the peacock after a character from the show Strike Back) has a little too much fun plucking the feathers out of the Polish girls' crests, which sends them into a tizzy, which sends Odysseus into a rage. A small, tiny, ineffectual rage. He mostly just bounces off Damien's gigantic body and no one gets hurt (thank goodness). I found out that Damien is around a year old from the peafowl section of BYC, so I guess he's still kind of a baby in peafowl terms? He doesn't have his spurs yet, which I'm thankful for.

Damien really seems to want to join the flock but the flock gives him a wide birth and isn't falling for the "I'm a chicken just like you guys!" act. He roosts on top of the covered pen at night so he can see into the coop and then hangs out in the chicken yard when the flock is locked up. I tried locking him in the main pen with the flock yesterday before it started to rain a little and that was a meltdown waiting to happen. You could just tell there was going to be problems if he stayed in there. I did find out he knew he could get into our barn through the ponies' stall to get out of the rain. I probably shouldn't have worried about him since he's been taking care of himself for months before he landed in my lap.

I'm not sure how long he'll stick around. My dad has started feeding him bananas (which he LOVES) along with me feeding and watering him and my mom wants to get a hen for him (we're looking at going to the Murdock's swap on the 22nd in Ft. Morgan), so I think I just had another bird officially adopt me. We'll see what happens in the next 3 weeks. He is getting less nervous around me. He let me lay hands on him when I was trying to bring him in out of the rain, but he still isn't willing to let me pick him up. I suspect that will take awhile, if ever, to happen.

 

[suncatcher]

Funny in the size difference! I was never able to pick up my pea fowl, so not sure if you will ever get him to that point or not......... I would not let that deter you from keeping him if you want him. He is a pretty guy, and looks to be fairly young, as his tail feathers are still very short.

Over cast here today, and sooooo much cooler!!!! Hope all you on the front range are feeling the same cooler weather!

I can not get my last batch of chicks to stay under a broody, tried again this morning, REALLY early, I went to bed with the chickens last night so I would be up super early! They were instantly out from under her, they almost beat me to the gate on the run! Why won't they stay with her??? She doesn't peck at them, she is very quiet and just sits there on her dummy eggs. Any ideas?????

 

[Poka Doodle]

It is such a dreary day today, that said I kinda like that weather because then I am on BYC more and I LOVE the winter.

 

[uzisuzuki]

Funny in the size difference! I was never able to pick up my pea fowl, so not sure if you will ever get him to that point or not......... I would not let that deter you from keeping him if you want him. He is a pretty guy, and looks to be fairly young, as his tail feathers are still very short.

Over cast here today, and sooooo much cooler!!!! Hope all you on the front range are feeling the same cooler weather!

I can not get my last batch of chicks to stay under a broody, tried again this morning, REALLY early, I went to bed with the chickens last night so I would be up super early! They were instantly out from under her, they almost beat me to the gate on the run! Why won't they stay with her??? She doesn't peck at them, she is very quiet and just sits there on her dummy eggs. Any ideas?????

That tiny rooster just doesn't know when not to get into stuff sometimes. Between my guess that he probably was never handled before he went walkabout and my not wanting to take a giant dinosaur bird foot to the face, I don't think I'll ever get to the point of picking him up either. LOL I'll definitely need some help if he sticks around long enough for me to need to check him out closely because trying to catch him on my own had gotten me nothing but a face full of wing.