My tom died today. I am so sad.
I set a dozen eggs and had four develop; three hatched at the end of July. Two of the three were unable to stand after hatching and I put them in coffee mugs for a day until they could stand. I got exactly what I wanted a male and two females!
In late October/early November I went out and found one of the females dead in the middle of the coop. The other two had minor injuries and although there were no signs of trauma to the dead female I assumed something outside the coop had scared them and they had flailed around in their coop, fatally injuring one.
The remaining two were housed in an 8x12 coop, pine shavings, fed turkey grower pellets with the occasional handful of cracked corn and/or BOSS and fresh water daily. Saturday I noticed that the tom's head wasn't as colorful as it usually is. Yesterday I noticed that he was in the far corner of the coop when I fed/watered, which was also unusual. This morning he was again standing in the far corner of the coop. I had to work and couldn't go in and check him out like I should have. This afternoon I went to check on their water and he was lying in the corner; he passed a couple of hours ago.
Now the remaining female is alone. I could put her in the 8x8 coop with 2 roos/16 pullets. I think this best rather than leave her alone. Any reason I shouldn't do this?
I set a dozen eggs and had four develop; three hatched at the end of July. Two of the three were unable to stand after hatching and I put them in coffee mugs for a day until they could stand. I got exactly what I wanted a male and two females!
In late October/early November I went out and found one of the females dead in the middle of the coop. The other two had minor injuries and although there were no signs of trauma to the dead female I assumed something outside the coop had scared them and they had flailed around in their coop, fatally injuring one.
The remaining two were housed in an 8x12 coop, pine shavings, fed turkey grower pellets with the occasional handful of cracked corn and/or BOSS and fresh water daily. Saturday I noticed that the tom's head wasn't as colorful as it usually is. Yesterday I noticed that he was in the far corner of the coop when I fed/watered, which was also unusual. This morning he was again standing in the far corner of the coop. I had to work and couldn't go in and check him out like I should have. This afternoon I went to check on their water and he was lying in the corner; he passed a couple of hours ago.
Now the remaining female is alone. I could put her in the 8x8 coop with 2 roos/16 pullets. I think this best rather than leave her alone. Any reason I shouldn't do this?