Pennsylvania!! Unite!!

[SilkieSensation]

I would be interested in putting together a small flock of those midget white's... keep me posted on them.

I will. I thought I saw some veining last night when I was candling, but I'm not certain because I'm new to raising hatching turkeys. I'm pretty confident in discarding non-developing chicken eggs, but will keep all the turkey eggs until I'm sure, I'd hate to toss out a developing poult.

I moved our Royal Palm tom into the coop near the Midget whites yesterday in the hopes that the (very active) MW tom might "inspire" him by example, since all our eggs last year were infertile and he seemed disinterested in the hens. When we first got the MW's, my sister commented that they did not seem smaller than our other turkeys. When they were side by side for the first time yesterday, the difference was striking. I wouldn't call them bantams (still larger than our biggest roos), but definitely smaller than the RP tom (and RP's are known to be smaller than most breeds).

My niece loves our MW's, the tom is so tame compared to the RP. She picks him up regularly and he doesn't seem to mind having his feathers stroked, something that we could never do with the RP tom. It makes all the difference with how they are raised, I think. The ones that were pets before we bought them are still very tame, the tom that grew up in a flock with lots of other toms is standoffish.

I know some families that like to raise chicks for the first few weeks. I know they'd love to try some turkeys and that would make them very tame to have kids play with them a lot. That's my plan - as long as the turkeys see it that way too.

Would love some midget whites. My son was wanting to add more turkeys & white is on his list.

 


cracked corn is available at TSC for $12.50/50lb....I know cause I was there today...

did you get your traps?....
Also a question for anyone really...can the chooks be given whole kernel corn...not cracked?..it would be dried.

Mine get whole corn daily. I have it in my grain mix.

 

[LittleMissPurdy]

Mine love it!

awesome..was just wondering of there was issues with them digesting it whole or ...everyone always talks about "cracked" corn..so I thought for whatever reason there may be an issue with giving them 'whole' kernels...thank you.

Traps are baited shotgun loaded and I am watching the early evening and early morning ....

..good luck!

 

[SilkieSensation]

Mine love it!

awesome..was just wondering of there was issues with them digesting it whole or ...everyone always talks about "cracked" corn..so I thought for whatever reason there may be an issue with giving them 'whole' kernels...thank you.

 


Traps are baited shotgun loaded and I am watching the early evening and early morning ....

..good luck!

As long as they have grit or access to the ground for pebbles then they won't have any problems with it at all.

 

[LittleMissPurdy]

LMP, mine get whole corn. I don't like the cracked corn because they trample it and lose it when it's muddy or there is a lot of snow out.

Would love some midget whites. My son was wanting to add more turkeys & white is on his list.
Mine get whole corn daily. I have it in my grain mix.

thank you all...I appreciate the feed-back!!...I have the opportunity to get whole kernel, that is why the question...This will help to "extend" their feed that they are flying through right now!!

...I am gingering this bag along until I can get the corn...it will make a differnece for their "extra" meal before bed.

 

[LittleMissPurdy]

As long as they have grit or access to the ground for pebbles then they won't have any problems with it at all.

no issue there..have lots of that stuff from the ground & what I keep in a dish for them..all the time, along with the bowl of egg shell.
Thank you!

 

[dheltzel]

Would love some midget whites. My son was wanting to add more turkeys & white is on his list.

I added you and wing to my list for the MW's.

 

[Bettacreek]

I use it for especially cold days. They gobble it up in a jiffy, even if they are "full" from the mash. It's supposedly a "heat" grain, they digest it quickly and easily and convert it to heat. So they say. The chickens haven't told me otherwise anyways, lol.

 

[SilkieSensation]

Would love some midget whites. My son was wanting to add more turkeys

I added you and wing to my list for the MW's.

Cool! I can swap you eggs or soap/bath salts for them if you like.

 

[fisherlady]

Fisher:

I have the big chest freezer and do bulk loads...aside from the electric...when you can chicken are you doing something 'special' that makes it better than pulling a bag of parts from the freezer?

To can or freeze primarily depends on intended use and freezer space..... though having a freezer go bad or a long power outage can result in loss of all product in a worst case scenario. So canning some and freezing some guards against that.

I don't do anything special to the meat, nor does it have any different taste really but it does shred easier than fresh bird. The biggest benefit is that even a skinny bird or an older bird becomes soft and easily used rather than needing special preparation to make it chewable or appetizing.

We like to do a lot of stir fry and other recipes that call for chunked chicken. Having it already cut up and ready to go into a recipe on short notice makes it simpler for meal prep if I have forgotten to get something out to thaw.
The canning process actually cooks the meat so you can even have it as is out of the jar, we do a lot of fresh salads which I add chunked pepperoni, ham and/or chicken to for a meal, and DH likes 'chicken salad' sandwiches, so all it would need is dumped out of the jar, drained and just add mayo and any other wanted ingredients for a quick lunch.

Our first run of the canned chicken was 5 extra roosters, we stripped all of the meat off of the bone without any real effort, and processed all of the normal 'scrap' right away in a large bulk to make our 'chicken balls' to feed back to the birds or give to the dogs as treats over their food. By doing all 5 roos at the same time we ended up with about 15 cupcake sized servings of protein treats which we have in the freezer also. When we freeze the chickens individually and pull it out to make a single meal you end up with a rather small quantity of bones each time, you would either need to store it until you have enough to make it worth processing or throw it away, which to me would be a waste.

With it just being DH and I the majority of the time we only need 12 to 16 oz of meat for a meal, this is about a pint size jar, so serving size wise it means fewer left overs.

There are times you just can't beat pulling out a bag of legs/thighs and making a good old pot of chicken and dumplings, or a roast of whole breast baked in a bed of home made stuffing (dinner last night, actually) but having the variety options available with the canning just means chicken can be used even more often than it was before.

 

[dheltzel]

Cool! I can swap you eggs or soap/bath salts for them if you like.

Gotta get some hatched first, and I've got some previous orders already for poults and eggs.