**~~>>Second Annual Cinco de Mayo Turkey Hatchathon<<~~**all poultry welcome!

[karimw]

I'm in! I'd love to get some penciled or royal palm eggs, but otherwise I've got some be black/narragansett/slate/bronze mixes I can set.

 

[chicken pickin]

Im In !!! I have 2 Bourbon Red hens that both just started laying. Im setting my first batch this week and I will save all other eggs after that for this hatchathon. I will set turkey eggs and chicken eggs

 

[Hurley]

If I can find some turkey eggs around the time, I'm in! Otherwise I'll join in with chickens.

Just set 4 turkey eggs yesterday, 2 Royal Palm, 2 Slate Blues. My first attempt at turkeys.

 

[TMNfarm]

I hope I get my turkey eggs in time! He said beginning of April...

 

[ChooksChick]

Oh, and for you veterans who free-range: How do you find the turkey eggs? I have mine in a covered run and giant coop, but I suspect they'd love to sleep in the trees...I just don't know how I'd find the eggs or whether the owls & raccoons are a threat. Should I let them out? Will I ever find the eggs?

 

[dsqard]

Chooks I free range mine and last year I did have to discover where Lurkey was laying when she didn't lay in the coop. She did lay in the same "nest" on the side of my property if she didn't lay in the coop or the hay. I am pretty sure I found them all and she really only laid in three different places. She didn't keep changing them. I don't have any trees so they never roosted up in them but I do have rafters in the barn. On a very rare occasion, they will get up there but mostly they just roost either on top of the fence or on top of the coop. If you are really worried about it you can clip their flight feathers. They may look a little funny but it keeps them on the ground and out of trouble.
Doing a happy dance in my head because birdguy (Shawn) is going to sell me some penciled palm eggs. Those birds are so pretty!

Now hopefully I won't mess up the hatch.

 

[HEChicken]

Renee, you asked for it! Okay, technically these don't count because although I did participate last year, it turned out the eggs, acquired locally, were not fertile. I opened all of them up when it was clear they were not developing and they were all clear as can be. So I did the next best thing and acquired some established birds. The hen was shipped in from the Pacific NW by a friend, who had to order a minimum of 6 and that was more than she needed so I bought an extra female. The tom came from a bird guy about an hour from here. They were each about 3-4 months old when I got them in September. Since then, they have grown and matured and the hen laid her very first egg yesterday. This series of pics was taken on Valentine's Day. Love was in the air for everyone, including turkeys that day, and I was honored to witness this courtship dance between the two. Before I ran to get my camera, there was a point where they were walking side by side and he had a wing over her back, like a gentleman escorting his lady. Once I returned with the camera, he didn't do that again but it was very cool to watch them both displaying and moving in circles around one another.

 

[HEChicken]

Oh, and for you veterans who free-range: How do you find the turkey eggs? I have mine in a covered run and giant coop, but I suspect they'd love to sleep in the trees...I just don't know how I'd find the eggs or whether the owls & raccoons are a threat. Should I let them out? Will I ever find the eggs?

Hawkeye, from CK, had a RP hen, whom she found as a poult, just wandering on the side of the road. She raised her up and last spring she started laying. The turkey free ranged around her property and was so tame she went on car rides with her, everywhere she went. Anyway, after laying for quite awhile, she went broody and built herself a nest in the hedgerow to sit on her infertile eggs, since Hawkeye didn't have a tom. A coyote found her there and the ending was very sad.

My turkeys do free-range with my chickens and ducks around my property but I was very concerned about the same thing happening to mine since I have seen and heard coyotes here on a number of occasions. So I built this:

It was super easy, cost under $100 and is 10x12' so pretty roomy. I moved a doghouse in there and moved the pair of turkeys into it last week. My hen was really upset about the confinement but I'd rather have her upset and alive than the alternative - KWIM? She laid her first egg in the doghouse yesterday. Unfortunately, I didn't discover the egg until I had taken pity on her and opened the door to let them out for awhile. I let them sleep in the main coop last night but this afternoon I witnessed her walking up and down the fence inside my hedgerow, quite agitated and I can only think she is wanting to get over there to build a nest in the hedge. So tonight when she goes into the coop, I'll be grabbing her and putting her back in the hoop coop. Now that I know she's laying, I really just want her to be safe.

 

[ChooksChick]

So glad to have you, Heather! I want to make a few hoop-houses this year...because I'm downsizing...right?? "I'm down-sizing, Hubby, so I need to build more..." Dangit, how the heck am I going to justify this???

 

[gryeyes]

To spur some folks on into The Turkey World, here are some photos of two of mine:

This is Edna, hatched from one of thebirdguy's eggs for last year's Inagural Hatchathon:



This is Sarge, given to me as a poult.... err.. jake. (He was named "Madge" for the longest time ... even after I knew he was a Tom, because he'd been answering to Madge... But "people" complained it was a sissy name.)

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