How are everyone's turkey nests doing?

[ohiofarmgirl]

we have good news!! i'll post this separately with pix tomorrow but....

we have turkey babies!

today started off so great - my hubby has been with his family while is grandmother has been in the hospital so i've been on my own with the whole Insane Poultry Posse for several days.. i was so glad he was coming home. i went out to check our geese and... ugh. a terrible find - the gate fell on and killed our only gosling. it was awful. the adults were all standing around him silently. so after driving almost 4 hrs hubby had to come home to me crying and had to dig the sad hole for our little friend.

so as i was walking past our turkey hen (who is NOT in the poison ivy) i checked her.. and there was poult sitting right by her side! so at least 2 so far and i'm thrilled!

the circle of life spins mighty tightly around here...

and yes it starts early here and goes all darn day..... my flocks are all getting up at about 5:30am these days.....

 

[Steve_of_sandspoultry]

Quote:
Sorry about your gosling and congrats on your poults!

One question though? why do your birds sleep in so late? ours start crowing about 4am, it was raining here this morning and it actually woke me up because it was quiet and they weren't crowing. It took me a few minutes to put 2 and 2 together, it's amazing what you get used to.

Steve

 

[ohiofarmgirl]

why do your birds sleep in so late

its getting earlier and earlier... man!

i think i tuned some of it out.. but when we first got this property i didnt have the flock over here yet but i kept hearing a rooster and thought "oh geez Fred stop crowing you're embarrassing me" -- but it wasnt MY rooster! oh no!

its The Insane Cat Posse that actually gets me out of bed... they start pussyfooting around once the flocks get going then i have to get up - its my only defense!

pics up shortly..

ps thanks for the words on our gosling. it was awful
:-(
but the geese seem ok this morning.​

 

[chickenannie]

Quote:
Ahem, we're waiting for pix!

 

[ohiofarmgirl]

check it out! i just posted them ! whee! she ended up with SIX which is more than we could have ever hoped for given that this was her 2nd clutch... and after everything went so wrong.

our only poult, Mr Pipps is really funny with the chicks.. he's huge compared to them.. he looks like the gawky 5th grader who is 6ft tall!

but the babies seem to be vigorous - i was so glad to march in and get my turkey starter bag of feed. it was a huge win for us and i'm so so so happy!!!

i checked our gal in the bramble - she's doing great.

and now with the bees we got today.. everything is buzzin' right along. i was **supposed** to be the 'brave assistant' bu i looked at my hubby and told him he was brave enough for both of us. yikes! i hid up on the deck and cheered him on.

yay! a happy day - most welcome especially after yesterday

 

[Struttn1]

Mine are in chaos. My Black Spanish is laying like mad but won't sit.

My Bourbon Red and Royal Palm are both sitting nests with eggs and brooding month old poults at the same time.

I think I got a couple of OctoMom hens.

 

[ohiofarmgirl]

hey Struttn1!

i know - isnt it crazy? i cant tell if its like this every year or if its b/c of global warming
;-)

but your BR recovered from the broken egg and all that jazz?

i cant believe my set, had the big nothing, then laid and set again. in fact, my BR momma (above) may very well be the gal that hatched Mr Pipps, had ONE DAY off the nest then crawled back onto another gal's nest! wowza! i've been watching her like a hawk to see if she is eating etc. not a ton of eating/drinking yet (by her or her babies) but the momma had an enormous poop and i guess that was that.

but i guess we are both back into the turkey business. whew!

 

[smoothmule]

My Black Spanish hen is setting like a rock! This is her first time and she's got another week to go, I think. I did steal 2 eggs and set them under my good little bantam hen, Betty Boop. She hatched them out and is being the best little mom, as usual. They're in a nest box on the ground now.

We had some really awful weather this spring with storms for several weeks and I thought it would never settle down here. Ms Turkey had begun to lay and some of the eggs got muddy from her getting in the nest wet and muddy. The nest is a large wooden box full of straw setting on top of a wooden pallet to keep it off the floor of the shed. It's a 6 by 10 portable building with a chain link run.

I took my Tom out and he's free ranging with the chickens in the daytime and goes in the barn at night. I have baby proofed the shed and will put a guard up at the doorway so they can't get out of the shed until they're big enough they can't walk through the chain link fence. I may have to put chicken wire along the bottom inside the pen but I'll worry with that after they hatch.

I'll take some photo's to share of their pen/set up later.

 

[chickenannie]

Hey everyone,
Thanks for all the updates! I'm so glad to hear that others go through some of the turkey nesting drama that happens here! Turkey hens are so different in their nesting behavior than chickens... with their nest sharing and pinch-hitting for each other.

Struttn, that is so hard when the hens start sitting on a new nest and the current babies want to crawl in under mama too. I was confused the first time this happened to mine and I ended up tossing the eggs because they hadn't been with a tom and the eggs weren't fertile so it was a waste (I had the hens penned separately because of their first poults). They must have some strong hormones and instincts at work.

I just came in from the most adorable scene -- of Mama turkey hen taking a dust bath while all 8 of her little poults lay around her imitating her bath, kicking up tiny clouds of dust with their tiny feet. I wish I had a picture! So cute!