Quote:
When you go buy the stuff to make one from scratch....down to the wood and screws...it's all over. That's me.
Do any of you have Blackhead in your area? I know I do and want to keep this turkey alive if at all possible. I have had turkeys in the past, and they all died at about three to five months of age. I know I have to keep it on hardware cloth for a year, give it it's own pen away from the chickens, and worm regularly, but what other precautions should I take?
WE DO have it here, but I would never keep poults on wire...I know there are some who live by that rule, but I see hundreds of wild poults out there that never met wire. I grow mine up with my chicks on soil in my brooder house/run.
The way I see it, I put them on the ground as soon as possible when it's warm enough, and let the beneficial aspects of the environment do their thing. I also let them have exposure to chickens and adult turkeys, because there must be something to that- like old farmers have their way of putting a turkey plop in the water of chicks to inoculate them against coccidiosis. I haven't ever had a case of blackhead, but if I did, it does have symptoms, and one can get treatment for it at the vet. There was a chicken customer of mine who got turkeys last year who got BH in one and she just went to the vet. Our extension office says it's here and there, but no guarantee one will have it show up on one's farm.
I let my human babies crawl around on the floor and play in dirt, too, and there were plenty who disagreed with that...I respect different ways of doing things. I'm just sharing my experience.
Quote:
Seriously, you people have a way with making us suburbanites HURT, don't you....??? If I shaved one more like a poodle, do you think I could get away with it??
@Pinwheel
You need to be posting pics of your little ones!!! And you need to get goats so I can hug them!!!!
So I said I would let my hen decide whether or not I was going to hatch on this Cinco de Mayo and as of yesterday she made the decision, she is now brooding thanks to leaving 4 fake eggs in the nest boxes for a couple of days. She was hatched last Cinco de Mayo and this is her 3rd broody period, I successfully broke her last time hoping to have her brood again now.
With her going broody now, do you think it is safe to let her brood for an extra 9 days until I set eggs on April 14th for the Cinco de Mayo hatch?
Hiya!! Just go ahead and set now! You'll make her happy and you'll have the first fuzzies of the hatch! No reason to wait just so you have them on Cinco de Mayo. You can set more later when another hen goes broody....because that's always how it works, right?
thanks @yinepu [/COLOR]
