Consolidated Kansas

[Trish44]

Wow Danz, your turkeys must be going to town. I love those little lavender Orps, I hope mine start laying soon so I can start hatching some. My DH says I have lost two lavender chicks this week due to the darned weather so I don't know which ones they are since I can't go down there yet. It's getting even slicker with the snow packed down & it will get worse yet before it's totally gone. I'm not going to try to go down there till there's no snow or ice left, I just can't take the chance right now.

HEChicken that's so exciting, new lambs! You will have to post pics when they're born so we can see them. I love baby animals of any kind.

I'm so glad to see that sun today, I could jump for joy! According to the forecast it's supposed to be a little warmer every day this week until it reaches 60 this weekend. Wahoo I can't wait!

 

[KsKingBee]

Wow Danz, your turkeys must be going to town.

Well, they didn't exactly go to town... I do have four eggs to put in the bator. I would of had six but someone thought it was a good idea to eat them.

 

[HEChicken]

Yeah, I hear you KKB - I have a hard time eating turkey eggs too, though I did eat one last year that she had laid on the ground and it was cracked when I found it. I figured by the time I purchased my original pair and raised them for 9 months before seeing the first egg, those were some mighty expensive eggs. So I incubated every one of them except the cracked one and every single one of the darn things hatched. Turns out one pair of turkeys can produce a boatload of offspring. And this year I have two trios. Go figure.

 

[tazcat70]

I feel like someone has pulled my energy plug. I can't imagine how people who live further north keep from murdering each other. This weather is driving me insane.

I feel exactly the same way!!! I currently have my front door open so the sun can shine thru my glass (screen?) door. I need all the sunshine I can get!

Yeah, I hear you KKB - I have a hard time eating turkey eggs too, though I did eat one last year that she had laid on the ground and it was cracked when I found it.  I figured by the time I purchased my original pair and raised them for 9 months before seeing the first egg, those were some mighty expensive eggs.  So I incubated every one of them except the cracked one and every single one of the darn things hatched.  Turns out one pair of turkeys can produce a boatload of offspring.  And this year I have two trios.  Go figure.

So are you going to be eating or incubating them? Lol!

 

[tazcat70]

I forgot.....

Trish, congrats on the new grand baby!

 

[chicken danz]

KKB did the Tom eat them or did a person eat the eggs? Or did a chicken or something? I don't know if you have the turkeys separate or not. I did have one egg that didn't develop that I gathered from the turkeys. And I haven't candled the last of the eggs I set so I don't know if they were fertile or not. I'm not sure when the Tom quit breeding them. I'm surprised you don't have a lot more eggs than that. Did the move or the weather slow them down? At any rate you have a whole long breeding season ahead of you. My turkeys laid well into fall last year.
The midgets and the bourbons haven't laid yet. They are starting to practice a little so I think with some warmer weather they'll start.
I just went and did a quick candling. I have 5 more turkey eggs due on the 16th. They all appear to be developing normally. I think that is the end of them though. I'm surprised those last ones were fertile. I tossed several of the first eggs the girls laid because I didn't figure the pullet eggs were fertile. I'm just going to sell these poults. I'm just kidn of waiting for the weather to warm a little before I advertise them at all.
I got the birds fed and watered and although it was cold it wasn't unbearable. The chickens actually came out for a while and were scratching around where the sun was shining. They've kind of started working their way back to the pens now.
While I was out there my entire pasture and half the crop ground and my pond were covered with Canadian geese. They flew in and kept flying in. My dogs barked at them but didn't seem worried enough to chase them off. I think they were just warning them that they were close enough, but didn't view them as a threat. At least I saw something out there besides white snow.

 

[Trish44]

I forgot.....

Trish, congrats on the new grand baby!

Thanks taz, everyone is ecstatic about him, this is a miracle baby for sure.

I'm waiting for my breeding stock to start laying, hopefully with the warmer weather & more sun more of them will get started.

 

[HEChicken]

So are you going to be eating or incubating them? Lol!

Incubating of course

- I am a sucker for a turkey.

Speaking of turkeys….if you recall, about a week ago I dosed my RP tom with Safeguard, feeling concerned at his lethargy. Although he'd had Ivermectin a month or so before with the rest of the flock, I was concerned his lethargy was due to worms, so decided to dose him individually with the Safeguard. I tend not to be able to talk about upsetting things as they are going on, so what I haven't mentioned since is that he continued to go downhill after the Safeguard treatment. A day or two after treatment, I started seeing sulphur-yellow poop spots around the yard. They could have come from anyone but my gut told me they were from him. I started researching and went back and read Danz' posts about her tom's illness and death a few weeks ago.

I also found another article followed by another thread on BYC, both of which indicated the bright yellow poop is caused by liver involvement (which I already knew) and that it was most likely the dreaded Blackhead. One user had success treating with Metronidazole combined with force feeding. The theory is that the reason the poop is yellow is the liver is metabolizing body fat due to the fact the bird has stopped eating, so force feeding forces it to process real food instead of body fat.

I hastily ordered Metronidazole (Fish Zole) from eBay and it was scheduled for delivery last Saturday. In the meantime, I started cooking him a couple of eggs each day and force feeding. And it was force feeding indeed. By now he had taken to the coop and never left the roosts. He was totally uninterested in eating or drinking anything and each mouthful I got down him was a fight (at least he still had fight in him). Each attempt ended either in my exultant "got it"! or my cursed "darn it" as a mouthful was spat out to the floor of the coop and gobbled up by the perfectly healthy hens waiting below. To my delight the Fish Zole arrived a day early (so much better than if it hadn't arrived Saturday since at that point it couldn't have got here until Monday). Anyway…..I immediately opened the bottle and started dosing - also a fight. The recommended dosage is one pill twice a day. Friday night wasn't too bad. Saturday morning I got it in him only to have him spit it out and it was lost in the bedding below the roosts. Either a hen ate it (not desirable but shouldn't hurt) or it is buried. I had to go back up to the house and get another pill and got that one down him. Every dose since has been a fight but that is the only one we've actually lost. After each dose I've looked for signs of improvement but he remained holed up in the coop, on the roosts, never down eating or drinking. The one time I lifted him down and set him in front of the waterer, he and the BR tom started fighting and I had to separate them. After that I didn't want to make things more stressful for him so I left him to choose where he wanted to be. I even wondered if he wasn't sick at all and his self-imposed confinement was due to fear of the other tom. Right on cue he pooped in front of me and the yellow diarrhea confirmed I really was dealing with a sick bird - not a scared bird.

This afternoon I took a few eggs that got frozen and broke them into a bowl to carry down to give the hens but when I got there I decided to offer the bowl to him first. By now, when he sees me enter the coop he gets as far away from me as he can but I held out the bowl so he could see the contents and he peered at them, then walked over to try the egg. Hallelujah - he dipped his head and started eating. Although my arm ached from holding the bowl at arm's length for so long, I stood there as long as he was willing to eat. I hoped the egg would act as an appetite stimulant and when I returned to the coop this evening to do evening chores, my wish was granted. He was out of the coop voluntarily for the first time in at least a week, and was eating snow like he's afraid it will run out. The waterer had water in it and I refilled it but he seemed to prefer to eat snow. I let him have at it - I'm just thrilled to see him ingesting anything, and I'm sure he is very dehydrated after not eating or drinking for so long. I waited until he quit eating snow and then grabbed him to give him his evening pill. He growled at me the whole time I held him but all I could do was grin.

I think he is actually going to be okay. Such a relief.

 

[tazcat70]

Heather yikes!!!! I am so glad he is on the mend! That is great news!!! I almost want to get some, but only if I have a broody hen. Almost.

I rented Freebirds, and a specific line in the movie cracked me up. "Turkeys are dumb. Really dumb."

In other news the BR pullets have left the silkie hen and moved onto the roost. My poor little silkie is all alone on the floor.

 

[Trish44]

HEChicken I'm glad the fishzole worked, just keep an eye on him in case it comes back or others could get it now too since he had it & you saw the yellow poop. That disease stays around & is hard to get rid of I read. It would be hard for you to disinfect your whole poultry yard. I'm sorry you're having to deal with this issue too since Danz & I seem to both have had it in our turkeys. I had never heard of it before my first Tom got sick.

I can't wait till these little RIR chicks are big enough to go outside to the growout pen. They get really rambunctious in that brooder & as soon as it gets warm enough that I think they will be OK out there they'll be going.

taz, how are your little chicks doing that you got recently?

I've got to get my hatcher cleaned out tomorrow & get it fired up again for another hatch due Friday.