FloorCandy
Crowing
- Apr 15, 2020
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I guess maybe 2 years ago I started building an aviary out of a broken greenhouse. I had previously had quail but we had a bad flood and some new predators followed the creek into our neighborhood when the river went crazy, and I lost almost all of the quail.
Anyway, I had hatched midget white turkeys to put in the aviary, and I ended up with 3, 2 hens and a Tom. At the same time I set my turkey eggs, a friend gave me some chicken eggs that she had found in a nest her hens had hidden, and I ended up with 6 chicks and they were all pullets, they ended up in a brooder with the turkeys with a screen between them and my last mama quail mothering the chicken chicks, my friend didn’t want the chickens back so we put them all together in the aviary. We lost the quail when a local dog tried to get in and the quail freaked out.
The chickens and turkeys have been together for the rest of the time, and the turkeys stayed mostly in the shed area of the run and the chickens stayed mostly in the chicken house area and they would interact at the food and water or when I gave them treats. They give me eggs but it’s mostly the winding down of my birds and a place for them to just chill and live without a ton of interaction from me, I like to watch them but I’m more into gardening and plants. So I stopped hatching and I haven’t had any new birds since the chickens hatched.
On May 5th we had very uncharacteristic earthquakes, and the Tom ended up passing. Suddenly the hens all live together and they all sleep in the shed together, I wish I had known the Tom was keeping them segregated. I stopped collecting turkey eggs because I hoped they might hatch some new babies, but time passed, and today I was like, it’s been over a month and a half, I guess it wasn’t meant to be, I went out with a bucket to get all the eggs, and there was a chick running around!
Turns out there’s 2 chicks, looks like 1-2 days old, I’m almost certain one is female due to her super white head, the other has a rusty top so it’s 50/50. I’m scrambling to baby proof the pen a bit, the turkeys and chickens all sat together the whole time, and now they all think they’re the moms, except one who moved into the chicken house alone for some reason. One of the turkey hens has started fanning out her feathers like a male and strutting around the baby while it wobbles around the pen. When I took it out to show the kids, the hen went bananas at the door lol, and was so happy when I gave it back. She won’t attack me it seems, we actually hatched them and they imprinted to my daughter and I’m not sure if they think they’re people or that we are turkeys, but they have never been anything but friendly to us, the new wild babies hate us and it tried to bite me the whole time I held it haha. Other than putting down food and water the babies can reach, I’m gonna let the 7 moms try to do it on their own.
Edit: boy was my math wrong, I’m not sure why I felt like may 5th was so long ago haha, I was gonna candle the eggs before I threw them out, but I’m super lucky there were chicks today before I dragged them all out of the nest and into the house haha. Guess the heat was getting to me lol. There’s like 6 eggs left with one hatching now, I guess there could still be potential chicks for a couple weeks from the 5 that are still there. I think the outcast hen might be sitting on a turkey egg in the far back corner of the chicken house, so there might be another potential one there.
Anyway, I had hatched midget white turkeys to put in the aviary, and I ended up with 3, 2 hens and a Tom. At the same time I set my turkey eggs, a friend gave me some chicken eggs that she had found in a nest her hens had hidden, and I ended up with 6 chicks and they were all pullets, they ended up in a brooder with the turkeys with a screen between them and my last mama quail mothering the chicken chicks, my friend didn’t want the chickens back so we put them all together in the aviary. We lost the quail when a local dog tried to get in and the quail freaked out.
The chickens and turkeys have been together for the rest of the time, and the turkeys stayed mostly in the shed area of the run and the chickens stayed mostly in the chicken house area and they would interact at the food and water or when I gave them treats. They give me eggs but it’s mostly the winding down of my birds and a place for them to just chill and live without a ton of interaction from me, I like to watch them but I’m more into gardening and plants. So I stopped hatching and I haven’t had any new birds since the chickens hatched.
On May 5th we had very uncharacteristic earthquakes, and the Tom ended up passing. Suddenly the hens all live together and they all sleep in the shed together, I wish I had known the Tom was keeping them segregated. I stopped collecting turkey eggs because I hoped they might hatch some new babies, but time passed, and today I was like, it’s been over a month and a half, I guess it wasn’t meant to be, I went out with a bucket to get all the eggs, and there was a chick running around!
Turns out there’s 2 chicks, looks like 1-2 days old, I’m almost certain one is female due to her super white head, the other has a rusty top so it’s 50/50. I’m scrambling to baby proof the pen a bit, the turkeys and chickens all sat together the whole time, and now they all think they’re the moms, except one who moved into the chicken house alone for some reason. One of the turkey hens has started fanning out her feathers like a male and strutting around the baby while it wobbles around the pen. When I took it out to show the kids, the hen went bananas at the door lol, and was so happy when I gave it back. She won’t attack me it seems, we actually hatched them and they imprinted to my daughter and I’m not sure if they think they’re people or that we are turkeys, but they have never been anything but friendly to us, the new wild babies hate us and it tried to bite me the whole time I held it haha. Other than putting down food and water the babies can reach, I’m gonna let the 7 moms try to do it on their own.
Edit: boy was my math wrong, I’m not sure why I felt like may 5th was so long ago haha, I was gonna candle the eggs before I threw them out, but I’m super lucky there were chicks today before I dragged them all out of the nest and into the house haha. Guess the heat was getting to me lol. There’s like 6 eggs left with one hatching now, I guess there could still be potential chicks for a couple weeks from the 5 that are still there. I think the outcast hen might be sitting on a turkey egg in the far back corner of the chicken house, so there might be another potential one there.
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