The Middle Tennessee Thread

[memphis]

Sooo.....will you be hatching Narri's this spring?? I have a blue slate hen I just adore. Everytime I sit down she hops in my lap & settles down for a snooze!

 

[Ravynscroft]

I have Narri hens and an Oregon Grey tom... should also be getting more from my original source as well this spring... could possibly have Narri's, bronze and greys ranging from light to dark... whites may crop up too...

 

[memphis]

Keep me posted...I am really looking for a Narri!! My hens arent laying yet, are yours? Last year at this time they were in full swing.

 

[rjohns39]

Keep me posted...I am really looking for a Narri!! My hens arent laying yet, are yours? Last year at this time they were in full swing.

Ok, I'm concerned... I didn't think Narri's started to lay until March/April??? Mine hatched in August.

 

[memphis]

Don't be concerned. Typically turkeys start anywhere from late January till early March. Over on the Turkey Talk thread we noted that last year we had a bunch of hens throughout the country start in late November, mine included. Now this year, by in large, they are just starting to think about laying. There are a few sporadic reports of hens already laying. For example a gal in Missouri hens started about 2 weeks ago, but another turkey owner 2 hours away says his aren't even thinking about laying...by "thinking" I'm refering to squatting and in some case a slight temperament change.

 

[rjohns39]

One of my palms started building a nest yesterday--but the others all seem to be their normal self. None of them seem interested in mating at this point--but the tom's seem ready. Will be interesting.

 

[memphis]

Sounds like yours are like the rest of ours...."thnking about it".

 

[Ravynscroft]

Keep me posted...I am really looking for a Narri!! My hens arent laying yet, are yours? Last year at this time they were in full swing.

Not yet... but they laid til late in the season... one is just finishing her molt...

Ok, I'm concerned...  I didn't think Narri's started to lay until March/April???  Mine hatched in August.

No worries... a lot don't lay til later...

Don't be concerned. Typically turkeys start anywhere from late January till early March. Over on the Turkey Talk thread we noted that last year we had a bunch of hens throughout the country start in late November, mine included. Now this year, by in large, they are just starting to think about laying. There are a few sporadic reports of hens already laying. For example a gal in Missouri hens started about 2 weeks ago, but another turkey owner 2 hours away says his aren't even thinking about laying...by "thinking" I'm refering to squatting and in some case a slight temperament change.

Yup... climate changes are really messing with everything... last year my Calls started laying in October and went through Jan before taking a break, then restarted Mar/Apr... this year I had 2 start laying on the Winter Solstice and went broody together 10 days later, lol...

 

[ApiaryandAviary]

I should have posted on chickie doodles

 

[ApiaryandAviary]

Assuming the above images have downloaded properly:
I currently have 4 "chicken tractors", full-time home of 18 hens and pullets. This is my second winter with chickens. I have really enjoyed the eggs and this adventure with pasture pens, but, I am planning to build a permanent run and coop this spring. My goal is to have grazing frames throughout a corridor, utilizing the hoop coops as "rooms" off the center run, as rotational grazing. I have not seen anything like this in my research thus far, so, I will be posting pictures about it later! I will be using the containers (pictured above) as new nest boxes (not stacked), so, I am going to introduce those to the girls previous to moving into the coop by simply putting one in each tractor in hopes they will recognize them in the coop later. Since the tractors are beside each other and they are familiar with each other as much as that allows, what kind of introduction method should I employ to get them to become one flock? I know there will be a period of jostling among them for rank. [Right now, each tractor's residents get along as a unit of 4 to 6 per tractor.] My theory is to add a group, which have been neighbors, to the roost at night. As neighbors, the 3 RIR & 2 WL hens have been beside the 5 sex-link pullets, who have been beside 1 PR hen w/2 BA pullets, who have been beside 4 BA pullets, and this was the order I was going to introduce them to each other without barriers. Or, should I just put them all in the coop one night and let them all wake up together and let them work it out then?

[I am not asking advice about size of run and coop. Just how to combine the separate tractor's residents into one flock with as little drama as possible!]

Donna

Please give them beer in their water in their separate runs for the full day before you move them at night together and give them beer in their water the full day they are merged. The beer makes them happy, more docile
And it is difficult for them to Beat the beegeebees out of each other staggering around drunk. After that you will not need to give them beer in their water.

I learned that from Gruman in Long Island back in the 60's. And early 70's. They would give the chickens beer before they would air shoot them at A -4's to test the windshields. Animal rights stopped that. It was their argument was would you rather passengers die and they never felt a thing they had beer for breakfast. I am not from New York, just from a military family, married military and retired military. All airplane plants tested the windshields with drunken chickens back in the day. Ever know what happened to a windshield not properly tested on an aircraft coming down out of a cloud and hit a flock of birds? Death and destruction and many human lives lost. It is how I remember it from the days of yore.