Maine

[striperon]

Thank you for your public service announcement, MEMama. I hope you can cure the maladies and be back to healthy birds.

 

[Widget]

I did not think it was that cold outside until I came inside after covering the chicken hoop house with new tarps. Boy did the toasty warm house feel nice.

I did get the new tarps on the hoop house so the birds have a much better wind block for the winter. All I have left is to clean out the giant Vari Kennel that I use as a supplemental area for the birds. It is outside the hoop house but still in the pen. This year I want to put it up on cement blocks so it will hopefully stay above the snow level. A couple of the ducks prefer that to the hoop house so I keep it in there. And it provides a nice roosting spot above the ground for a couple of the turkeys.

I also managed to set up the water tank for the horses. With then temperatures expected to plummet in the next couple of days I will have a chance to see if my idea on how to insulate it will work. The second tank is out in the open so it will be interesting to see the difference in the thickness of the ice between the two tanks.

 

[jenni22776rn]

I am so sorry. What a nightmare. I quarantined birds back in 2010 when I first got them from a swap and they ended up having both wormy poop and mites. I'm glad I quarantined. Hope yours make it through.


He was born during the Cinco de Mayo turkey hatchalong, so he was about 6 months old in that picture. Your tom has quite a small snood, I thought it was a girl when I first saw the picture.

This is my first year having boys, and I'm hopefully only keeping one to breed next year. I'm not sure if I'll be selling poults, but I'll sure be hatching some out for my own uses. I'm not sure people will want mutt turkeys and the whites are really what people want for a nice carcass. This is what the boy I'm keeping looks like:



You can see how big his snood is. The other picture I wanted to show you was this:


The girls are on the right. You can see how much smaller their snoods are than the boys on the left. The girls also never display their feathers.

We have been back and forth on whether they are Toms or females, My other one Jake has a smaller snood but has what feels like a clump of feathers on her chest that looks like the start of a beard but I am leaning more towards female. The one in the picture is my Charlie, I was convinced it was a tom up until 3 weeks ago when I saw pictures of Toms and he/she looks just like a hen , but he always does his display with puffed up feathers. After looking at your picture I am again convinced Charlie is a female

I think!!
Do females puff up at all? I really wanted a Tom, but it looks as though both are females. I love the blue slate color Tom...such a beauty!!

 

[Widget]

We have been back and forth on whether they are Toms or females, My other one Jake has a smaller snood but has what feels like a clump of feathers on her chest that looks like the start of a beard but I am leaning more towards female. The one in the picture is my Charlie, I was convinced it was a tom up until 3 weeks ago when I saw pictures of Toms and he/she looks just like a hen , but he always does his display with puffed up feathers. After looking at your picture I am again convinced Charlie is a female

I think!!
Do females puff up at all? I really wanted a Tom, but it looks as though both are females. I love the blue slate color Tom...such a beauty!!

I have one Bourbon Red and five Royal Palms all the same age. Got them as day old poults back in May. Off the top of my head I have two toms and four hens. The hens are a tad smaller. The toms are starting to strut and fan their feathers. Their wattles are also a bit more colorful than the hens. Right now the snoods on both sexes are not that much different and the toms have yet to really develop a beard.

 

[IZZYBELLA]

What do you all do with your turkeys? Do you raise them just for the meat? Eggs? Fun of it? If meat, at what age do you typically kill them?

In chicken news...set a new record today in egg collection with a whopping 3! (Does it count as 4, since one was double-yolked again? ;-))

 

[Widget]

What do you all do with your turkeys? Do you raise them just for the meat? Eggs? Fun of it? If meat, at what age do you typically kill them?

In chicken news...set a new record today in egg collection with a whopping 3! (Does it count as 4, since one was double-yolked again? ;-))

My plan is to raise them for meat and keep a trio back to hatch out more next year. I have Midget Whites, Royal Palms and the one Bourbon Red. All are heritage breeds that are slower growing than the more traditional Broad Breasted turkeys so it takes a bit longer for them to get up to a good cull size. But unlike the Broad Breasted they can breed naturally so are a better choice if you want to breed them.

I have tried this in the past but both years a fox or a bobcaat has haddinner instead of me. This is the first year that I have not had a major predator issue (knock on wood). The birds I want to cull are ready to go now but since I do not have all the stuff I need to do it myself and have yet to cull a bird for the freezer on my own I will have to wait until at least January for Westons to have an opening.

And yes they are kinda fun to have around. They certainly have personalities.

 

[superchemicalgirl]

What do you all do with your turkeys? Do you raise them just for the meat? Eggs? Fun of it? If meat, at what age do you typically kill them?

In chicken news...set a new record today in egg collection with a whopping 3! (Does it count as 4, since one was double-yolked again? ;-))

They're fun... I also have ducks, just cause.

And...



I eat my birds. So, I have turkeys for that reason, too.

My girls don't really display puff up, but they puff up and ruffle their feathers a bit. If you've got a full on puff going on, I'd say it's a boy. Widget, I'm surprised your snoods are the same size. I think our birds are the same age and the snoods are significantly different. The girls never grew longer than a pencil eraser (although less wide) but the boys have large ones. The alpha male's snood is about 3 inches long when he wants it to be (full on puff). The beta male's is about a half inch. I'm sure it's longer but he doesn't display often, only when challenging the other male, and he loses.

 

[Widget]

My girls don't really display puff up, but they puff up and ruffle their feathers a bit. If you've got a full on puff going on, I'd say it's a boy. Widget, I'm surprised your snoods are the same size. I think our birds are the same age and the snoods are significantly different. The girls never grew longer than a pencil eraser (although less wide) but the boys have large ones. The alpha male's snood is about 3 inches long when he wants it to be (full on puff). The beta male's is about a half inch. I'm sure it's longer but he doesn't display often, only when challenging the other male, and he loses.

Then again mine do not hold still long enough to get a good look at them. They are too busy getting into mischief.

 

[jenni22776rn]

Silly question, at what age will the turkeys start laying? I read they do not lay a lot, but born in May they are approx. 6 months old at this point...I know that my Charlie does a lot of the display behavior, with this purring, blowing air type of noise when he getting excited...which is almost always..as you know everything is exciting to them!!

 

[Widget]

Silly question, at what age will the turkeys start laying? I read they do not lay a lot, but born in May they are approx. 6 months old at this point...I know that my Charlie does a lot of the display behavior, with this purring, blowing air type of noise when he getting excited...which is almost always..as you know everything is exciting to them!!

They mature at around 7 months. Even so they probably will not start laying until next spring.