Gorman Farm
Songster
- Nov 16, 2015
- 358
- 83
- 126
Its been a while since I have posted. Some of you might remember that I ordered turkeys and some chickens from Cackle Hatchery.
So out of 20 turkeys ordered 16 arrived alive. I lost 2 more along the way. The others grew strong and healthy. I sold all the toms except one at Thanksgiving. I now have 6 hens and 1 Tom and I am hoping to continue with these. Bottom line the Narragansetts were heartier than the Royal Palms and I will continue with those God willing I will have eggs this spring. We ate one for the holiday and it was fabulous. They get big FAST. Our 6 month old tom was a hefty 28lbs of meat.
When I did a re-order to replace the dead turkey chicks I ended up ordering some chickens to make a complete order. I got a half dozen black sex link pullets and half a dozen Buff Orpington pullets.
Well one of the Buffies was a rooster not a hen, incorrectly sexed...but good news is after having a previous bad rooster experience this guy is very sweet. One of the Buffie hens is so sweet she is like a lap dog and jumps on me for a scratch everyday.
Meanwhile a friend of mine from the dog rescue had a bad situation at her farm and one of the rescues got in her coop and killed several of her chickens so I gave her 2 blacks and 2 buffs to start over, she has since added a secondary fence around her coop.
So fast forward I went from getting 3 or 4 fresh eggs a day to getting 8 or more per day. I found a local person who comes weekly and buys 2-3 dozen fertilized eggs from me. Basically that pays for all the feed and bedding for the others which is nice.
Two of my older girls the EE's have stopped laying. I miss the colored eggs.
My red mixed hen got broody and I decided to let her sit, so she has 5 eggs under her one of her own and some from the other hens, I know one for sure if a Buffie. They should hatch in about 9/10 days this is my first attempt at letting a hen sit so we shall see how it turns out.
One thing I can say is that Turkeys are a lot messier than chickens, I have to clean their coop and run at least 3 x a week, I only have to do the chicken coop once a week.
BTW Happy New Year Everyone!!
So out of 20 turkeys ordered 16 arrived alive. I lost 2 more along the way. The others grew strong and healthy. I sold all the toms except one at Thanksgiving. I now have 6 hens and 1 Tom and I am hoping to continue with these. Bottom line the Narragansetts were heartier than the Royal Palms and I will continue with those God willing I will have eggs this spring. We ate one for the holiday and it was fabulous. They get big FAST. Our 6 month old tom was a hefty 28lbs of meat.
When I did a re-order to replace the dead turkey chicks I ended up ordering some chickens to make a complete order. I got a half dozen black sex link pullets and half a dozen Buff Orpington pullets.
Well one of the Buffies was a rooster not a hen, incorrectly sexed...but good news is after having a previous bad rooster experience this guy is very sweet. One of the Buffie hens is so sweet she is like a lap dog and jumps on me for a scratch everyday.
Meanwhile a friend of mine from the dog rescue had a bad situation at her farm and one of the rescues got in her coop and killed several of her chickens so I gave her 2 blacks and 2 buffs to start over, she has since added a secondary fence around her coop.
So fast forward I went from getting 3 or 4 fresh eggs a day to getting 8 or more per day. I found a local person who comes weekly and buys 2-3 dozen fertilized eggs from me. Basically that pays for all the feed and bedding for the others which is nice.
Two of my older girls the EE's have stopped laying. I miss the colored eggs.
My red mixed hen got broody and I decided to let her sit, so she has 5 eggs under her one of her own and some from the other hens, I know one for sure if a Buffie. They should hatch in about 9/10 days this is my first attempt at letting a hen sit so we shall see how it turns out.
One thing I can say is that Turkeys are a lot messier than chickens, I have to clean their coop and run at least 3 x a week, I only have to do the chicken coop once a week.
BTW Happy New Year Everyone!!
