I have seen this program twice and was not left with a very happy feeling about it all. Maybe that was the whole point of his documentary; to fail miserably at raising turkey poults...I dunno. I guess I thought maybe he should have had more turkey savvy before starting this project but again, maybe that was HIS point...to have no bias going into it and learn as he went along...I just wince at what beings' expense was he learning at.
I just know that I found a lot of his methods doomed to fail. Things like him fighting with the male turkey just bothered me...I get he wanted to be like a PARENT but parents run the competition off when it gets down to brass tacks and the birds are old enough to start up their own territory. There is a lot of male to human conflicts if the male birds think you are one of them...a rival and competitor is what you become and you are dealt with according to their rules on that. Turkey fights another turkey even if it is a human acting out like one.
Truly speaking, I have forgotten a lot of the program as to dwell on it made me quite unhappy. Didn't he also have a hen go setty and she ended up dead with her clutch lost too...in my understanding, it was like the hen bonded with him as her "mate" and HE would have been the one to stand guard while she incubated the eggs.
Just some of the things I sorta kinda remember like that bothered me. I guess I expected more of the poults to live if cared for by a human and maybe in reality, he did do better than wild turkey families raised in the wilds do. Lots of things adore eating turkey...num num!
Worth watching but Rick refused to...the moment he heard the plot he dismissed it as an ill fortuned undertaking to begin with. Maybe I should have skipped seeing it also. I do tend to empathise with the animal's and bird's plight.
Some thoughts on the corn...any idea how long to mature and is it near that date or? Could be quite rich and prosperous (maybe more water than its seen in generations?) were you planted it and it's adapting to the better growing conditions by leaps and bounds...it is thriving so to speak under your better care?
No tassling, so it is not like there is an issue with pollination in that the rows are too wide or some such thing...it is just not fruiting up!
Sounds stupid but was it the EARS of corn that were fed to the elephants, right? Not the leaves/stalks...we have a field of corn I see growing in the same place as last year and it is grown to feed cows...so lots of green stuff, not so great on the cob part.
Course I'm just the village idiot gardener so maybe there are some more "corny" experts on here to know better on this interesting happening.
Well the extra time in Buster sure benefitted those three turks...happy happy...joy joy. Took them out to their brooder bin and in they go.
Eating and drinking...
Is that one standing in the back there getting some shut eye? Being a babe is tiring work, eh?
Checking out the shiny marbles and having a nip and a dip
For people that have young kids...remember a time, they are really, really young and like puppies, they can't help but fall asleep just about anywhere, at any moment...Zzzzz's could happen...well this is exactly what the heritage turks do. Even standing up...the tiredness hits and the eye lids sag and next thing...Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
They finally get it all settled on out and instead of standing on their newly discovered leggers and napping...they all got in a good ol' turkey pile-a-thon and started in on some serious sleeping postures.
I swung by later to check on them and well not much happening but so much is happening...got some food and water in the guts and best thing for a baby thing...have a nap...which they are!
Three baby bunting snuggy bugs a snoring!
Big chook hatch for today...pipped eggs sorted, those ones hatched but needing drying off are sorted...just one whole tray all stowed away for the big BIRTHDAY events unfolding.
Chooks...I hear you pipping and peeping...come out, come out and play today!
Now remember I mentioned we are always learning...well I done some extra learning yesterday--some good and something not so good, yesterday...well besides having LIVEstock = DEADstock sometimes! I won' t jump ahead but here is what happened yesterday evening fer me learning...every good and every bad has something to teach us...never stop learning!
So we have always always fed species specific pelleted or crumbled rations to the birds. Turkey, waterfowl and chicken base rations...kinda like a multivitamin and main stay mix so we know they are getting the basics to which we add whole hard red wheat, heavy whole oats and cracked corn. The birds can choose how much of each to eat and balance their own rations so to speak for each individual need of theirs.
Put out the fresh water, always have the granite grit and oyster shell on offer, add in the bird treats like cases of Romaine lettuce and alfalfa put up dry hay and time outside weather permitting to nip grasses and chase bugs...soak up sunshine and nap in the shade, that be that--all that life needs to thrive and prosper are complete.
We know people have their own way to feed and I respect their decisions to do that--birds are their property to do with as they so please...but I always wondered about "grain from the bin" being the only foods on offer to poultry. It never seemed all that right to Rick and I. I always feel that makes for an inferior critter...just grain.
There are those that swear by just some grain from the bin. I am talking mostly cheap barley (which I hate...I am quite fine with in the formulated rations because the right mix of chemicals are added so birds like the chickens can properly digest the barley and not get pasty poos from it) but many just feed poultry some grain, offer water and good enough. What the birds manage to harvest up in our short GREEN season out and about is what they get to add to the grain and I have never really SEEN such a vivid example of how you can improve on a just grain diet for the birds.
Rick and I raise the Buff geese. This spring, I brought in and quarantined two pairs of Tufted Buffs. I chalked up the very poor quality of the Buff colour in the feathers (way too light and patchy) to maybe the genetics of the birds--no worries because I do enjoy the deep Buff colourations in our geese and we obviously can over time, make every effort to breed for the genetics to fix those off colours in the Buffs and deepen up the depth of the Buff.
Well I got to learn that what we do, is GOOD that we do it!
Mom and Dad goose and goslings
Nice even rich Buff colouration that Rick and I like to see in the American Buffs
Nice even rich Buff colouration that Rick and I like to see in the American Buffs
Today and for a while now, I have noted something quite odd about the Tufted Geese...the new plumage they are putting on is not this faded light Buff at all...holy mackerel...it is a deep Buff colouration that is coming in the feathers. Well golly gee and slop them gooseys! It was the feed...maybe some of the conditions too, but the FEED we FEED is obviously what is helping keep that deep rich gotta love it Buff colour in the geese!
Here are the two pairs of tufted that are moulting and growing in the NEW feathers grown here with our feed feeding them!
One pair inside and one outside
I am so tickled that with the right mix of species specific feed...the waterfowl pelleted base we offer with the whole grains...what a lovely Buff colour is coming in! It just blows my mind that I can recover all that these Buffs should have been able to express in their feathers and get to enjoy it HERE and NOW and hoping, ever after with these lines...no tinkering, no cart wheels to breed this trait back into them ... just a little time to clean them out, feed them up and voila...very
Now my next lesson I learned from yesterday.
Back fifteen years ago...I was working a ten month tenure at an office for the Ministry of Agriculture...it was an admin position and I loved all the farmy stuff I got to learn about..anyway...I knew when I started and when it ended but I wanted my ten month salary to have a lasting meaning...so I bought up a whole whack of rubber buckets, pails, and pans. Not cheap either...I paid about $750 for a "buncha a rubber" but I knew in our cold climate in winter, they would stand up. Now the buckets have lasted...and all the pans are just fine (I mostly use them for light duty in summer and not really for water that freezes up solid and has to be smashed out with a mallet! But now after 15 years of hard service, many of the original buckets have sprung leaks, the handles on some are a bit rusty...they are WEARING OUT.
And we have grown as a farm here...there are more waterfowl, more landfowl...more birds...more of lots of things. I have not really gone out and bought a whole whack of rubber buckets to replace the ones wearing out (if they are smaller and get a crack so are not water tight no more's, they become a feed bucket hung up) and only an odd few like a pair for the swans.
Little by little, I dread the realization as over the past few months, I have been doing the mental tally of just how many buckets I need to purchase to replace what is worn and what is obviously missing from the mix.
I estimate 24 of the 18 quart $21 rubber buckets for the geese, turkeys, swans, standard chickens...then another two dozen in the 10 quart size @ $12. The two calf sleds I have used the past five winters are not just shattered in pieces...I did manage to get the very last of their lives out last winter but both are pretty deplorable now....so time to replace them too.
I know how much this is gonna cost...you can coutn on a grand before any discount is asked for...so like I said, I have been avoiding the purchase. Like I KNOW I gotta do it but yeh...always nice to think its just buckets and two plastic sleds and it is like a GRAND! Cripers.
So yesterday evening, it was smushed in my face...hard and smooshy...DO IT or else! The or else part was the kicker.
I noted yesterday morn, the one goose container of food was near out, so I topped off a few hanging feeder buckets and tossed the container off to the side making a mental note...DO a container of goose food today or you will not have any in that one pen to top it up tomorrow. the geese were kept inside yesterday because we got a real good rain and they just drill and mine muck holes in the lawns and yard after it rains and KILL the GRASS...so a day inside while it dries out...tomorrow they can go outside with it dries a bit more.
Well things got going, hatching ducks, turkeys and such and I forgot about the dang container...that is until the evening when it was Dog run run Time....so I swung by with the dogs and made a entrance in the goose yard to get the container. I just "happen" to glance in the one far end goose pens (no idea why I looked I just did) and see something really really odd...the water bucket--what the heck is IN the water bucket?? I open the pen and that sinking feeling we all know..."oh my goodness...it is a goose!" The dang gander, for some how he has his butt in the air and his neck twisted up back and his whole self is edged INSIDE the bucket. As I walk forward to retrieve the body...I think..."Oh the poor goose, she is going to be so lonely, so sorry, SO missing her mate...dang it all...why IN the bucket!" I grab the gander's body and he's ALIVE! Holy crapolly! He staggers a bit but he is alive...good! He kinda slithers over to the goose and I know he is going to be OK...I actually arrived and pulled him out and he is gonna live. So I turn and look at the dang bucket...no, it is not one of the usual bigger 18 quart buckets I have for the geese. Like I said...so who wants to step up and spend a grand on buckets...well I do NOW!
I figure because I was making whatever EXCUSES I want to make about not buying all the bigger buckets I need and making do...I just about lost a gander for my insolence. I know better...so I phoned around and got three places working on a package price. One got back to me and I will get ten percent off on 48 buckets of two kinds and the two sleds but I think I can still do a bit better, or not. How many more close calls do I want to have where a bigger bucket would NOT have allowed the silly gander to step up and inside the bucket, slide inside and become wedged. Sure, some would say the gander was goofing around and had no business doing that but it is not the goose's fault it is a goose...they like water (WATERfowl, eh?) and he wanted a bath and because I locked him up from drilling holes in the lawn, he was going to bath, even if it KILLED him!
Here is a proper Goose or Swan bucket in the 18 quart size on the LEFT and here is the bucket he managed to wedgy himself inside on the RIGHT.
The whole affair of a bucket ($21) and a brass clip ($6) is not so bad on itself if that was all we needed was ONE for one pair of geese...it just multiplies when you have more birds...CHICKEN MATH...yeh...sheesh, eh?
So nobody holds a gun to our heads to keep what we keep and me trying to avoid a big hit to my pocket book is just down right foolish at best. I do have to laugh...the rubber buckets really do excel at being used in winter...so this July, I guess this will be my CHRISTMAS in JULY purchase for the year.
Anyway...I learned that me being cheap and avoiding replacing items that have worn out and just making do with kinda but not quite right equipment has only led to harming a gander and potentially could have outright lost him. This way I get a warning DING to the tete that I had better step up and look after these creatures...and do a proper job about it too.
I know the roos get together and plan things to see if any more of my hair will fall out...I've mumbled this story before--maybe not on the Old Folk's Home but I am certain the roos do this just to put a bit of pizzazz of entertain in their well fed, fully rested days.
"Hey Fred...here she comes...get ready now!"
Fred leaps up in the air twisting, gasps dramatically a few times, turns blue, and falls down...lays there looking no less deader than a door nail!
I drop whatever I am carrying (usually eggs that break or water that spills) and rush over to see if I can revive him...just as I get close enough to almost pick him up...he leaps up in the air, squawks like I have murdered him, and runs off to be with the rest of the BockABachelor Roos.
No matter how many times the scenario repeats itself...I am a willing mark for their amusements.
I do think there is an Aesop's Fables called The Boy Who Cried Wolf for nasty birds that ring the wrong bell on the keeper's ding a ling lunge line.
NO matter the close calls and false alarms and let's pull her chain antics...working on a purchase of 48 buckets and two sleds. NO MORE DEADS--or close calls thanks. I learned MY lesson yesterday...I surely done did.
Doggone & Chicken UP!
Tara Lee Higgins
Higgins Rat Ranch Conservation Farm, Alberta, Canada
