Minnesota!

[Minniechickmama]

I would take you up on the turkey eggs, my friend, but I am a bit overextended as it is and will be cutting back further this year with the poultry. I just ordered 15 BBWhites from Stromberg's and 30 CRX that will all go in the freezer when they hit their mark. I get the poults the first week in June and the chicks in the next week so the kids can show in 4-H. Just one batch of the CRX this year though since they voted to go to their cousin's wedding in Western NY rather than go to State Fair this year. I still hope I can prep by birds and get back in time to show my own in the Open show though. We shall see.
I did enjoy the first year I had turkeys, but I didn't have a matching pair, so I sold the hen and ate the tom (who I wished later I had kept for a pet). The following year I got Beltsville eggs and got 5 to near maturity before I wanted whack them. I sold them though. They were the biggest jerks, always harassing the chickens and weren't terribly kind to me either. I do enjoy my dumb BBWs though, I can herd them with a stick like I do ducks. Last summer when I moved them from an outdoor pen to the turkey paddock, one went into one of the runs attached to the breeder barn and got lost from the rest. Boy, he was making the biggest fuss until I rescued him. As soon as he saw the other turks, he almost cried, I think. It was like when you hide behind a blanket from a baby that hasn't learned object permanence yet. It was hilarious! Of course, I am pretty easily entertained these days.

 

[Bogtown Chick]

Gosh all this turkey talk I wish I could raise my own here but we just are too low and swampy here. Shucks!

LaLa thanks but I'm good for a while on coop cleaning and barn boogers. Holy cats the dust in there! Rofl

Welcome @I Love Layers

One other thing that provides for a strong immune system is exercise. I would think that Birds that use their muscles have stronger immunity. Which also makes for tougher drumsticks. But it is what it is. Ever been in good physical shape-- good exercise regimen and notice how you don't get sick as much or at all? Not only confining those birds in concentrated particulate climate will get them I'll but it's the overall state of the bird without exercise to help keep the body strong and in disease fighting shape. It's a double edged sword for that kind if farming.

 

[Cearbhael]

Personally, I am not so concerned about wild turkeys unless they have been hanging around outside the turkey confinement facilities.  Wild turkeys have been taking care of themselves at least since before this was the USA.  Remember, Ben Franklin wanted them to be our national bird?  Anyway, they already survive by Darwin's Law.  It is us stupid humans who think we should mess with making Frankenbirds and then cramming them into a facility that has insufficient space and air flow.  It is not different that people who keep their kinds all clean and sanitized, and the kids get sick as soon as they go to school because their immune system isn't used to germs.  Let kids and poultry go play in the dirt and build their immune systems up to handle whatever comes at them.  If we did away with confinement facilities for all livestock, and all of agriculture in our country were diversified rather than operating on monoculture, we might not be seeing all the problems we do.  Then to think there are places that actually discourage folks from raising their own food and allowing them a handful of hens to lay eggs for them?  We are all going to hell in a handbasket because of our ignorance and quest to control nature instead of working with it.
Cearbhael I don't mean to sound like I am jumping on you/your comment, it just make me think of how much better off wild critters are before people go messing with them and their habitats.  I know it makes me a bit of a hypocrit since I raise purebred rabbits and poultry, but I try to give them exposure to a more natural way of living than if all I cared about was the money-which there is little to none to make unless you are a big commercial producer of anything.

stepping off my soap box for tonight

Not at all offended, since I agree with you 100%. Believing in biodiversity and in the common sense fact that playing in the dirt and exposing young to livestock builds immune systems ( all smart and heavily practiced in out home) doesn't make you a hypocrite if you breed pure bred animals. Think here that most of the pure bred chickens we backyard Chicken peeps are raising are heritage breeds so we are working towards biodiversity not against it. Unfortunately the industrial farmer is set on on standardised meat or egg producer, uses one standardised feed method made from GMO products.
When I say bio security I am not thinking (STERILE) I am simply talking down dirty common sense. If you take one of your pure bred roosters or hens to a show, county fair, state fair, etc. Are you going to bring him home and toss him/her right back into the flock? Giving them quarantine housing only means separating them from the main flock for a minimum of 100 feet for 6 weeks. Also good for chickens that are not acting quite right etc. gives you time to assess that the chickens are fine before going back to the main coop and prevents introducing a "lethal" virus into a healthy population. Also, knowing you have been to the feed store or a "strangers" farm, it is common sense to wash up before going to your coop. Most backyard birds get to scratch, play and run around so meet bugs, healthy greens and lots of good friendly bacteria. They have good immune systems and all that, but you don't want to introduce Marek's or AI for that matter. If washing your hands when returning from a feed store or another farm will prevent that, isn't it simply common sense? I am not saying to be germaphobic, or paranoid sterile. I am simply talking common sense precautions that make a lot of sense when a lethal virus is going around. I actually think you and I are on the same page much more than you realise LOL

 

[duluthralphie]

Gosh all this turkey talk I wish I could raise my own here but we just are too low and swampy here. Shucks!

LaLa thanks but I'm good for a while on coop cleaning and barn boogers. Holy cats the dust in there! Rofl

Welcome @I Love Layers

One other thing that provides for a strong immune system is exercise. I would think that Birds that use their muscles have stronger immunity. Which also makes for tougher drumsticks. But it is what it is. Ever been in good physical shape-- good exercise regimen and notice how you don't get sick as much or at all? Not only confining those birds in concentrated particulate climate will get them I'll but it's the overall state of the bird without exercise to help keep the body strong and in disease fighting shape. It's a double edged sword for that kind if farming.

I am willing to make you a great deal, Because you want a turkey so badly. Just buy me another incubator, I will hatch an egg in to for you and give you the turkey, then because of your poor turkey soil I will board it here for you for free. I promise to try and walk you turkey every day or so, if you leash train him.



All you have to do is buy the turkey feed, but I will make that easy, I will make the trip to town and pick it up for you. With a small mileage, shipping and handling fee, of course.


This is a really good deal, trust me. I will notify you 7 days in advance so you can plan on the days needed to come here and muck out your turkeys coop.


On the drumstick front, I like the "tougher" legs. I do not like biting into a chicken leg that is al mushy. I like the feel of meat when I eat meat and not oatmeal. Which is one of the reasons I raise my CX's the way I do, to get that old time chicken texture and taste.

 

[lalaland]

I agree about the basic thought that you can carry bad stuff home with you after you visit the feed store or someone else's chickens - but wanted to point out that handwashing is not going to help.

With mareks (or other viruses for that matter) , you have to wear "clean" clothes, coats, boots, shoes, etc - that have not been exposed to the feed store or other farms/chicken settings. Your car can carry the virus from the parking lot where someone stepped or drove with the virus. Since it is airborne, your hands are almost the least likely source of contamination for the virus.

I know some people coning home from work do go into their house, get into their coop clothes/shoes, before they go to the coop. They don't park their vehicle anywhere near where the chickens roam.

Me? chickens roam under the car where it is parked. or the truck. I try really hard not to get my work clothes full of chicken $#$%, but sometimes after a 14 hour day, getting home with just minutes left of daylight.....I cheat and go close up the coop and do a head count and collect eggs. That is bad bad bad.

And, I have mareks in the flock. I am very diligent about my feed store visits - as far as what I wear there - but my truck or car? It has mareks virus on it....but vets will tell you Mareks is everywhere.

 

[lalaland]

I have sad news about the sole surving cream legbar chick from tripell. I lost the rooster last fall and one of the pullets around the same time to mareks. The rooster was the first chicken diagnosed with mareks. Their surviving sibling, a sweetheart, has the stumbly drunk mareks behavior now. I have her in the house in a kennel, but she won't survive.

It is so hard because with this - a sudden onset of inability to control movement - they still are bright eyed, alert, happy, red comb, wanting to eat.....

So last spring I got the three legbar chicks, and had a broody hatch out about a dozen chicks. I culled the roosters except for the legbar....but only the legbar chicks developed mareks - at least so far. The broody hatched pulelts are all laying and apparently healthy. Usually if you get them past 8 months, a high percentage will make it. THis little hen is about 11 months old. poor baby.

 

[duluthralphie]

That's terrible, Do you need more turkey crap?

Do they ever recover from Maraks once they get it?

Do you vaccinate for it now? Can you vaccinate an older bird?




OH I have a huge hole in my bio-security that I have no idea what to do about it.... I have JJ.

JJ is my first slate blue that turned out to be a red, he is a pet. He follows me like a puppy dog. He spends as much time by the door step as he does with the birds. He is the official greeter. as soon as a vehicle pulls into the yard he runs to greet it and the people inside.

The only way to stop this, is lock JJ up. This is not allowed. I had JJ and Ethel locked up to get eggs that were red slates. My wife forced me to release them because they looked sad.

I might have to revert to subterfuge by placing "Beware of turkey, he bites and attacks people" signs in the driveway to keep people from exiting their cars.

 

[Drea07]

Realized this weekend, that I probably won't be able to do any free ranging with my chickens and ducks like I had wanted. My son and I were clearing the area for the coops and runs yesterday, while doing so, we discovered tons of trash hidden under the under brush/trees/moss/grass.
As it turns out, the prior owners used the whole yard to just dump and burn everything. I found busted glass, perfume bottles, nails, Styrofoam, tin foil, pop cans, rusted chunks of metal, wire, meshing, foam, shingles, etc. We bought the house last fall, and had no idea about the amount of trash that was just dumped and burned on the land. It's five acres that are heavily wooded and overrun with under brush and downed trees. We knew there were some old tires, some junk in the two out buildings and random piles of skunk wood, and two piles where trash was being burned, but most the trash we are no finding after winter was hidden. It's going to take us forever to get all the trash out. There is no way I would trust letting the birds walk around the property and not eat some shiny thing they see.
The area I found just this pile was in what used to be a horse pasture next to the house, so we thought it would be a good and safe area!

I get wanting to just burn trash, but really metal and glass all over the place!

 

[duluthralphie]

Realized this weekend, that I probably won't be able to do any free ranging with my chickens and ducks like I had wanted. My son and I were clearing the area for the coops and runs yesterday, while doing so, we discovered tons of trash hidden under the under brush/trees/moss/grass.
As it turns out, the prior owners used the whole yard to just dump and burn everything. I found busted glass, perfume bottles, nails, Styrofoam, tin foil, pop cans, rusted chunks of metal, wire, meshing, foam, shingles, etc. We bought the house last fall, and had no idea about the amount of trash that was just dumped and burned on the land. It's five acres that are heavily wooded and overrun with under brush and downed trees. We knew there were some old tires, some junk in the two out buildings and random piles of skunk wood, and two piles where trash was being burned, but most the trash we are no finding after winter was hidden. It's going to take us forever to get all the trash out. There is no way I would trust letting the birds walk around the property and not eat some shiny thing they see.
The area I found just this pile was in what used to be a horse pasture next to the house, so we thought it would be a good and safe area!

I get wanting to just burn trash, but really metal and glass all over the place!

The home I live in had renters in it for 40 years. Some did not use garbage service, I am convinced. My folks never paid much attention to that, they thought they were just being good people giving "needy" people a place to live at a low rent.

When we bought the place we started cleaning and remodeling. We find all kinds of stuff it the woods. Our chickens free range, we consider them our little helpers they dig up junk we would never find without them. We do make regular trips through the wood picking up Styrofoam, the chickens favorite treat! It is a pain, so far we have been lucky and nothing has hurt them, and I think we get the Styrofoam away from them before they ingest too much. I have watched them and they seem to know what is edible and what is not, except for Styrofoam.

 

[Drea07]

The home I live in had renters in it for 40 years. Some did not use garbage service, I am convinced. My folks never paid much attention to that, they thought they were just being good people giving "needy" people a place to live at a low rent.

When we bought the place we started cleaning and remodeling. We find all kinds of stuff it the woods. Our chickens free range, we consider them our little helpers they dig up junk we would never find without them. We do make regular trips through the wood picking up Styrofoam, the chickens favorite treat! It is a pain, so far we have been lucky and nothing has hurt them, and I think we get the Styrofoam away from them before they ingest too much. I have watched them and they seem to know what is edible and what is not, except for Styrofoam.

I keep finding Styrofoam too. At first I thought the random Styrofoam I was finding was from holiday/b-day party trash that had somehow made it's way out of the trash can. Now I am not so sure.

Think I am going to start a bucket system with the kids and DH. Each one gets his/her own 5-gal bucket, each time they bring me a bucket full of trash from the yard, they get paid.

(I already have my bucket and pay myself in a glass of wine.

)

Think it may be okay to go ahead and let them roam? All of my birds try to eat my rings since they are shinnies.