Hi guys I got some pictures today of some of my spring chicks from @Faraday40 thanks again for selling me some silver laced.
And I got some pictures of my two calico turkeys.
Also you guys are never going to guess what I did! Lol okay you might guess. Anyway on my local Craigslist an older woman posted that she's downsizing her flock as chores are harder as she's aging. She had 7 three week old blue slate poults for sale 5$ each! So we cleaned up and everything and we went and looked. I had no plans to buy anything if her birds were not perfectly healthy looking.
Her place was amazing and she had 4-5 coops. None so large as ours but a couple good sized ones and a couple smaller ones. She has birds older than six(ducks and geese) turkeys that are 2-4 and chicks of a variety of ages. She also had a few juvenile guineas.
She got hit by raccoons this spring and lost over half her flock.
Her blue slate turkey hen jumped the fence and hasn't come back.
Anyway we bought them after I thoroughly looked them over. They're now in quarantine with our red rangers in the porch and doing well. Today I counted them for the first time having take her word on the number it turns out she gave us one free so we got 8 for 35$.
I didn't originally plan to buy them all but she wanted them to all go together. Guess we'll be eating turkey at some point lol.
So far I'm using this as an extension of my turkey experiment. I'm really enjoying the turkeys. Lol it was also nice to be able to meet her adult tom, Tom (a royal palm) and some of her hens. She had a couple bourbon reds that were stunning! Some Nargansett(please correct my spelling on that it doesn't look right), a couple bronze. She had already sold her blue slate tom as he occasionally took after her. Of course if any of his poults show that aggression they'll head for freezer camp.
Also question will the turkeys be okay with our dogs once they're grown? I'm not worried about the dogs hurting the birds just if the turkeys decided to attack my dogs.
Now for pictures. Some of them are not the best. It was hard to see my phone screen and the sun was so intense the screen was burning me.
I used the dog crate to keep them confined so I could try for the best pictures possible since I was doing it alone.
Here are the two white pullets(I do have a third white pullet we hatched out that it about their size but has a smaller comb. She may belong to Oopsie's sister but right now seems almost identical to these two.) Their legs are not as bright yellow as yours, which doesn't surprise me at all as they're not out free ranging yet. The second new tractor grow out coop is almost finished so hopefully this weekend.I didn't want to turn the juveniles out with the fox tracks we've been seeing. Excuse the poo on one of these girl's sides apparently she was under the roost at the wrong time lol. Both of these girls appear entirely white.
I have though about the being hybrid white egg layers as that would be fine by me. I've read they're generally calmer but the pure white color of these two makes me wonder.
View attachment 1513672
(Now I must tell you all this story. Today at lunch DH2B saw me carry the first white pullet out he asked me what happened to her color and said she didn't look the same. I thought he was nuts! Lol I explained she had always been white and went inside to get some water. I came back out and DH2B- much to my surprise had taken out the larger turkey and put it in the crate with the white pullet. I stood on the porch staring when he walked up and explained to me that he figured out why that bird hadn't looked right to him. From across the yard he had thought the white pullet was the smaller turkey and gotten the other turkey so I could take picture of the turkeys together.
He had of course figured out his mistake but knew I wanted pictures of the turkeys anyway so he had left the big one out there. LOL
View attachment 1513678
The turkey's tail isn't always to the side like that. These two turkeys are 3 months old now by my calculations.
View attachment 1513679
Here are the two silver laced English Orpingtons I have. These two still don't seem to scream their gender to me. I think I would like to add more at some point for sure. I especially love the blue ones.
View attachment 1513707
Below is a close up of the darker bird on the right. I am a bit worried about the darker one. It looks like possibly that juvenile has wry tail. I'll be keeping a close eye on it.
View attachment 1513685
View attachment 1513719
The lighter silver laced's photo was a little washed out by the sun.
Finally here is the second turkey that is a lot smaller than the first. I didn't get a close up of the face and snood but it seems quite small still. You may be able to zoom this photo and see it.
View attachment 1513724
Oh no I almost forgot the new poult pictures! More to come later but here is a couple for now. The first photo is the smallest. It's tiny!!!View attachment 1513726
For comparison here is one of the biggest poults.
View attachment 1513727
Yes I'm glad we can tell the white pullets are indeed pullets. Like I said o don't care what mix they are it would be cool to know but I'm just as happy no matter what all I care about is that they're calm. Not like the brown leghorns we tried a couple years ago or was that last year? Oh dear Lok now you know the only impression they made was a bad one. LOL they were beautiful rather like my two Welsummer pullets from April but the flightiest things I have ever seen! The Welsummers aren't too bad I admit I haven't handled them as much as I could have since they moved to the back of the coop. Seriously I was so bummed about the brown leghorns because I wanted some white eggs just for diversity. Hence why I've been thinking spitzhauben lol. Were the eggs stark white or more of a cream that these pullets hatched from? I'm excited to see what all my pullets will lay this year! We've got some truly stunning birds!
Oh dear that was my feeling about those two silver laced chicks from the beginning too. Dang I hope I'm wrong! I am really in love with the blue laced colombian cockeral that came with the lavender boy(new color possibly?) He's a sweet little ham. LOL A flock of them alongside a flock of the isabella colombian laced Orps would be stunning!!! Now what funky things can we do with chocolate? LOL
It's odd to me if those two silver laced are boys that their combs are so small and until a week ago they've been pale pink instead of reddish. Of course they're a different line that I'm not familiar with but they'd better figure their stuff out soon. I was so hoping one would be a girl(I've got lots of great girls of course and I love the blue laced colombians seriously might be my new favorite color.)
I also want to snap a picture of my blue cockeral from you.
Btw I didn't get a picture but the ee cockeral from that first group went to freezer camp this last weekend. 15-16 weeks the youngest bird we've done. Went well but was a bit small. He was very handsome but had a bit of an attitude and I literally hatched out 3 from my own hatch almost identical! What are the odds?
As for the turkeys I think that the bigger one was actually happier about being held. I've been holding them regularly but trying to have a little distance just in case both turned out to be boys. The probable female didn't care for being caught today right after feeding(before she ate) so she talked to me the whole way outside. Both of them always talk to me though if I'm in with them especially if I pick them up. They get a little upset when picked up but once they realize they're safe and I get to talking to them they just hang out and chat. If I end up with two calico females and your white one is a male calico I would love to have a trio. Hint hint. LOL Yes we have the blue slates but having the breeding groups would be great. I couldn't turn down the slates and the woman really wanted to get her numbers down. They're my back up turkeys. I've always loved the pictures of the slates and I think they are enchanting little poults I'm really happy to have both. What really surprised me was how beautiful the Nargansett she had were of course I've never seen most of these colors in person except bronze, wild, bb white. The bourbon red hens were such a beautiful rich deep color. For now I don't plan on adding any other breeds of turkeys. I would take the trio from Faraday40 if they got evicted and needed a place to go(that is the turkeys were evicted not Faraday40) lol but don't plan on adding any more until I know how we like them a bit more. Their noises seem sweet to me. Even the blue slates as wild as they were have tamed down a lot already and talk to me all the time. I was trying to look at their heads to get and idea but then everything blurred as they ran around with the ranger chicks. I'll look again tomorrow. Btw have you been using nipple drinkers for the turkeys? That is what the rangers are on and I love those in brooders but worry they aren't getting enough water. I have seen a couple turkeys figure it out and more seem to but tonight when I gave them a dish of water they all seemed thirsty. (Btw blue slate turkeys produce three colors much like chickens but the lightest color with two diluters is called lavender/self blue rather than splash) in going to have lavender turkeys and chickens!!! Eek. LOL
Had a scare today with a 4 week old in the back side of the coop. Apparently the little fell or something and was nearly buried alive by the other juveniles. Literally just part of the back and a wing were showing. I thought it was dead and picked it up and it opened it's eyes and looked at me. It was of course rushed into the house it's nares and eyes cleaned out and placed in a box for observation. It was lethargic for a while and then incredibly thirsty. I wasn't sure it would make it since it couldn't stand when I found it. Strangely it's the largest 4 week old and by no means a small or weak chick. Now it's up and eating and drinking and causing trouble. It spilled it's water three times today. Tsk. Tsk. Hopefully it continues to improve. I'll keep it inside for another day or so depending on how it's doing. We may move the smaller birds out of there but I've never seen them get stepped on or picked on. And there are all ages in there. Possibly it was dust bathing and got stepped on. Either way the little almost suffocated. The ways chickens find to die I tell you.
Uh oh lol we'd better set another date to get together LoL. You're going to be in trouble with your DH
If I'm not mistaken I think your darker two are Nargansett... Which I think are feather color sexable if I remember correctly. I'm also guessing a pair on them but I can't even sex my own. LOL
Your white one is very odd and I am guessing male. It would be interesting if it was a royal palm. @Molpet
Oh btw last group of chicks I would say had 2-3 chocolates in it if they'd hold still maybe I could get a complete number.
I also have an EE (hoping/thinking pullet that I hatched that I swear is mauve!) Also looks like I have a splash something or other lol looks like a Wyandotte but would have to be mix. Some really cool and unusual coloring came out in our spring hatch. Also a pure cream Legbar pullet but I'm not calling her pure until she's mature and I see her eggs plus her coloring. I had set the breeding group up only briefly as the teacher didn't give me notice.
I need to snap some pictures and share them of my April silkies I got. I still am not sure of gender on a couple of them. But they have better crests than I expected from hatchery birds.
The silkies I hatched and sold a couple months ago I got white, blue, gray, black, buff? and some that are white/gray tail and wing tips will probably end up gray but the bird will be mostly white but not a bright white.
Most of this responded was written last night.
