First Run of Cornish Cross Meat Birds and Super Excited!

[duluthralphie]

I am so jealous of the hatching! Today is the "due date" for the turkeys. I will give them until tomorrow. There are no pips. If none hatch, I will follow Ralphs very scientific eggtopsy methods and see what the heck happened.... not that I don't already blame someone....

Do you two have a pre-nup?

Did you think to cover turkey egg neglect? I would see the county attorney or whatever Colorado has for state prosecutors, I think you could get him sent up the river for a few months for neglect of eggs. I hope yours hatch.

If you decide to do a eggtopsy, I suggest you start above the air sac line and see if you can peek in there and see if there is any sign of life. Work in a Zipper like line and peeling back. Good luck.

My DW does mine as here hands are smaller and do much finer work than my big mitts do.

 

[mountain mom]

On the predator note, my neighbor saw a hawk steal baby birds out of a nest not more than 10 feet from where she was standing.
Guess I am headed to the store for some fake owl and hawk things. I do think the dog in the back yard helps, but I better add a little more deterrent. After she told me that, I looked up, guess who I saw circling much closer than usual...

Dang broody hens. Sparrow is still ready to take an arm off if you try to get an egg that she stole out from under her. I think it is springtime. They say they breed out the broody, but I don't believe it. I expected the Silkie, but not any of the others.
Jessica- what other types of your hens are going broody?

 

[mountain mom]

Do you two have a pre-nup?

Did you think to cover turkey egg neglect? I would see the county attorney or whatever Colorado has for state prosecutors, I think you could get him sent up the river for a few months for neglect of eggs. I hope yours hatch.

If you decide to do a eggtopsy, I suggest you start above the air sac line and see if you can peek in there and see if there is any sign of life. Work in a Zipper like line and peeling back. Good luck.

My DW does mine as here hands are smaller and do much finer work than my big mitts do.

Sadly, I never thought to include turkey egg neglect. What was I thinking?!
I will do that.

 

[jr1022]

Thank you mountain mom I agree, I only fed them once a day but obviously it was to much it's pretty disappointing knowing that I'm the reason there dying it just shows that you can read and do a ton of research but untill you try it you dot know nothin thanks again

 

[nj2wv]

I feed mine in the morning only. I have one CX that likes to hop up to the porch but is afraid to hop down. She will come in the house to get me so I open the tin I have blocking the porch entrance.

 

[duluthralphie]

Thank you mountain mom I agree, I only fed them once a day but obviously it was to much it's pretty disappointing knowing that I'm the reason there dying it just shows that you can read and do a ton of research but untill you try it you dot know nothin thanks again

Do not be hard on yourself. It seems wrong to not give them as much feed as they can eat. I feed them what ever they can eat twice a day in 15-20 minutes. The rest is scratch and free range. I use 14-16% protein also to help promote bone growth before they put on too much weight. (slow em down)

 

[duluthralphie]

OH Completely off topic, I would like you to go to:

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/975857/a-bird-haunting-not-for-faint-of-heart


and read this true story that is happening to me right now.. I am living in fear!

 

[jr1022]

One more question and I will stop bothering you guys if I change there feeding right now can I save the rest of them or am I to far gone just butcher now and be done with it? Thanks again

 

[duluthralphie]

I think it is too late, BUT you can try.

And you are not bothering us. You should know there are some people that vehemently disagree with our methods.

 

[mountain mom]

jr1022- X2 for what Ralphie said. You are not bothering us... this is what Jessica started the thread for! We like to chat completely off topic a lot too, but we love CX talk! I also agree it is too late. But, since it doesn't hurt the meat, you can try. You will need to butcher though, I don't think you can take dead birds to be processed.

Well. I am headed to the feed store. Guess why.
My turkeys were dead. I couldn't stand it, so I candled again. No growth, no beaks in air cells. I eggtopsied and came to the conclusion they may have died before I left town. I also came to the conclusion I suck at candling and have no idea what I am really doing. They were just not as big as they should have been for day 20, which is when I left. Sigh. I would like to put a lot of symbols meaning bad words, but don't want the infraction police to write me a ticket. Just imagine it.

I have decided to buy 3 turkeys. I will see what they have left. I don't know that I will keep them forever, they may only be for meat. I really would like to keep JJ and Ethel babies as my forever birds.

Ralph- Ethel's 2 other eggs were the ones that did the best! They were more developed than the other one.