I'm sick !!!

[Struttn1]

We are having a power outage due to the storms so I went out to get the generator hooked up to my incubator and brooder. I hear some distressed poult sounds in one of my turkey pens. Well one of my hens hatched her eggs a few days earleir than I expected and I had not removed the gobbler from the pen yet. The gobbler was in the nest tromping the hen and after I ran him out of the pen I saw 4 or 5 dead poults. Anybody want to come over and kick me in the behind for me?

I found a couple in the corner that acted a bit chilled and a few more still in good shape. It looked like she still had a couple of eggs under her so I am going to go remove those and put them under the other broody. She is brooding the little ones now so hopefully the rest will be okay.

I am sooooooo stupid !!! Any of you who have a gobbler in with a broody hen had better get the gobbler seperated pronto.

 

[Appaloosa Hill Farm]

I'm sorry.

 

[ohiofarmgirl]

oh no!!!! sorry to hear.... and no kicking here. just a shoulder shrug and a "golly thats too bad"

:-(

 

[monarc23]

hey you didn't know it would be that dramatic im sure! I'm sorry you had to deal with that

 

[DANNY]

This unfortunately is how we learn. You are not the first to make a mistake.

 

[meanmom]

Isn't that horrible? I have done stupid things like that. The great thing is that you will warn others and never make that mistake again! The death of animals in your charge is a strong teacher, I know. Don't beat yourself up over it. We have all been there and done something like that. BTW, thanks for the warning. We have a broody turk that has eggs ready to hatch any time now. I will keep a closer eye out for the babies and make arrangements to protect them.
Take care, Lee
www.wildgrovehomestead.com

 

[ChanceRider]

Oh, I'm SO sorry to hear that! At least you were able to save some of them. I was remiss myself earlier this year because I didn't separate my male and female emus while the male was brooding the nest. One morning I looked out the kitchen window to see the female stomping and trying to kill the chicks. Luckily I was able to save them before she got to them.

It's a hard lesson to learn but one I'll always remember from now on. Thank you for posting your thread... I hope to raise some BR and MW turkeys this year; your post will serve as a reminder to me!

 

[ohiofarmgirl]

hey buddy - just checking to see how the hen and rest of the poults are doing?

 

[Struttn1]

I have not been able to check on them since Friday morning due to working all weekend but my son said she is doing fine and has 3 Royal Palms and 1 Bourbon Red following her around. He said the little BR is even trying to strut.

I will get pictures tommorrow.

He did give me a bit of discouraging news though. We think the Bourbon Red who was sitting a large clutch of eggs has probably lost them all due to a rotten egg exploding under her. He said she and the other eggs are in a big mess. I will check on her tommorrow to see if I can get her cleaned up and also candle and see if any eggs are worth salvaging but I do have serious doubts. It surprises me because she has always been very good at removing bad eggs from her nests.

This is going to put a serious dent in my hatch this year.

 

[ohiofarmgirl]

oh geez.. ick about the bad egg. thats what happened to our BR hen #1.... after all that time on the nest!

any good news today?

just when we had given up all hope - our BR hen#3 was hiding....and we found her on a huge clutch of eggs! so we popped her into the turk house (alone) and she plopped back down. the only problem is... we hope we got the right hen! she got up from the nest and when she mingled with the other gals....we kinda lost sight of her. zoikes! we put a couple eggs back in the field, hid and watched....and grabbed the first gal who sat down. hope it was the right one!

meanwhile - Mr Pipps and Sir Prize (the only poults we got after all this!) are in with our chicken chicks and doing fine. golly tho - they look all awkward and gawky!

when you get a chance would love to see pix and get an update.


supportively yours,