Turkeys For 2013

[ashandvine]

Epic failure here. Turkey one died within 24 hours. Turkey two died in the egg after pipping. Turkey three catapulted out of the egg and seemed great but at day two its failing to thrive. Its legs are splayed, its umbilical is dried and strange, like poo is there instead of closed, and it has stopped peeping. I have the sparkly water in there, the heat, the tinfoil feed and some just scattered, as well as two new chicken chicks who are learning to scratch and peck to mentor with feeding. I have dripped a little vitamin water into its beak as a last resort but FTR this first turkey attempt sucks. The jake stomped the clutch and the hen still hasn't tried again... so... turkey failure is nigh complete here.

 

[Bitterroot]

Hi all, I am looking for a new Blue Slate or Lavender tom. I have a lavender tom over 2 blue slate and 1 lavender hens, but he apparently is not breeding his hens since the first 5 eggs candled infertile and I have not seen him breed. He has a slight limp, not sure if it is a toenail, foot, or leg problem. He has one toenail on a "thumb"--not sure what you call the 4th toe, that curls under and almost looks like part of it may have grown through the toe? I don't know if that is even possible. Anyway, I trimmed all his nails but that did not help, he still limps, and he won't let me get aspirin into him, I have to fight him and those baby aspirins go flying and land in the dirt never to be seen again

My bloodline needs an outcross anyway, and I'd prefer to get one with brown eyes as the SOP calls for. Mine have blue eyes, which are quite beautiful actually, but not SOP. I bet it is way too expensive to ship a mature tom, even a "youngster" from last year, but if anybody knows who has them in Arizona, PM me. Otherwise I could cross my hens, I have a Narragansett, a Mottled Black, and a Royal Palm to choose from, probably would choose the Narragansett since he is very nice and that cross would give me more predictable genotypes but I really would like to breed pure.

Contact the member "Treebird" here. He breeds lilacs and I think I remember him saying he had a few extra young toms. I'm waiting on some of his lilac hatching eggs, so for now I'm living vicariously through you guys in this thread.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/u/177771/treebird

 

[StelleKitten]

Epic failure here. Turkey one died within 24 hours. Turkey two died in the egg after pipping. Turkey three catapulted out of the egg and seemed great but at day two its failing to thrive. Its legs are splayed, its umbilical is dried and strange, like poo is there instead of closed, and it has stopped peeping. I have the sparkly water in there, the heat, the tinfoil feed and some just scattered, as well as two new chicken chicks who are learning to scratch and peck to mentor with feeding. I have dripped a little vitamin water into its beak as a last resort but FTR this first turkey attempt sucks. The jake stomped the clutch and the hen still hasn't tried again... so... turkey failure is nigh complete here.

I'm so sorry that you are having such a bad run of turkey ish ness this year. Maybe it just wasn't meant to be.

 

[r4eboxer]

Ob
obviously he does not raise them like you do so he must have been a very ignorant turkey farmer for 25 years

I wondered how he must raise them, that's a long time to be ignorant about it lol

Jus
just like wild turkeys heritage birds feel threatened by the violet spectrum( reds blues purples etc) my jakes love me and follow me every where.. But if I where my blue jacket out in the morning the will gobble and make fighting purrs at me... Make sure that you where the right colors or you might just end up with a spur in your chest... I bet that the turkey farmer from Facebook just wore the wrong colors... It will change threre mood like the weather in New England

That is great to know, I had no idea, I usually wear a gray coat so the color must calm them.

This probably isn't the time to share this (My Chuck is a very sweet boy. He loves to eat yogurt out of my hand and will follow me everywhere all fanned out, making that spitting sound and drumming) but when I was a young girl, we lived on a large farm and the door to the basement of the barn was only about 3 feet tall. You had to flip the latch up and push the door in. Well, my Dad was always buying things at the auction (Like the time he bought 10 acres of standing field corn, I haven't forgotten how cold it was hand picking that corn!) and he bought an adult tom. Pure white and gorgeous. His only flaw was that he remained hidden until my sister or I would go to the barn and then he lit out , his neck stretched out running after us. I can't remember him ever catching us but he must have or we never would have run ourselves. My Dad has been gone well over 30 years but I can still hear him roaring with laughter as my sister or I would run as fast as we could hoping we could flip that latch and slam that door before he got us. THEN IT HAPPENED TO DAD, ONCE. I don't remember Dad taking care of the turkey but Mom says we ate him and he was so tough to eat.

Over on another thread, they've been talking about putting together a first aid kit for their chickens. It probably wouldn't hurt for any of us. I don't have Tylan but do have Duramycin. I just had to buy vet wrap for splayed legs on one of my chicks. And it worked! I seem to battle mites, as soon as it warms up enough I need to really clean my chicken and turkey coops out and white wash them. Below is Chuck and Rosie.

Very Pretty birds

Just my $.02 but...... OH, MY! I think I would ask him to explain his comments if it happens again. that's not right! "raising turkeys for 25 years" doesn't explain anything, For that matter, how do u even know that's true. if he wants to insult specific breeds, and your activity & posts, give it right back to him! What he did was unacceptable and the person that manages/hosts the page should question his rude actions UGH, I hate rude

One of the swap trade sell pages I joined on facebook is local for me. All the posts now get approved by the founder. She also boots anyone that interferes or interrupts transactions (unless its a scam), and insists on PMs only. There's no open discussion on the transactions, members just post "sending PM". But we can post funny stuff, sound off, laugh etc too. Really don't understand why some folks can't be gracious, and have a good time at it too

I thought it was rude too, If he was concerned for the girl he should have Pm'd her in private and not call me out like that, not to mention I totally do not have aggressive turkeys and apparently no one else does either.

Just have to add my two cents in here also.

I have to turkeys, the hen is Red Bourbon and the tom is Royal Palm. I have maintained two for years. Cant seem to get the same breed at the same time tho.. lol. I started out with this same combo years ago and then regretted not buying the same breed. My tom got killed and so I bought a male Red.... which turned out to lay an egg.. so a friend gave me two Royals and the hen got ..GOT by a dog or coyote. so we are back to my unproductive female who does not lay and my Royal Tom. I am by no means an expert, but I know my birds and they are ot an aggressive bird. My geese take on that role..lol. About three weeks ago tho, I did trip, or something that scared the female and when she squalked.. here he came, and he was wanting to fight me. He was making sounds that I have NEVER heard him make. He usually struts about three steps behind me and follows me everywhere. He hit me across the face that day with a wing but I was able to grab him by the neck and take him to the ground. This is my tecnique with all my animals that try to show me who is boss. I had to take my male goose down last night again, so we will be cool for a month or so...lol. I get them by the neck and force them to the ground and then proceed to pet them and tell them how pretty they are. Rub their chests and back and heads. THEY hATE It!! they avoid me for as long as their little pea brains can remember it. I have only done it the one time to my Tom and he is back to following me but nicely.. And I take responsibility for that one time. He was just protecting his woman, but I cant let him get his bluff in on me.. but just between us, it scared me pretty bad and if he had really wanted to hurt me, he could have because he is HUge. So.. all this rambling to say, if this man of 25 years of turkeys thinks they are mean.. he is doing something to deserve it. We all expect it a little bit in the spring of the year while they are in the mating rituals, but as the norm... no..

Amen! I agree

This is My Blue Slate Hen "Blue" she is sitting on 15 eggs. Excited for a hatch... 1 day down 27 to go!

Pretty girl, I hope you get them all hatched out.

Epic failure here. Turkey one died within 24 hours. Turkey two died in the egg after pipping. Turkey three catapulted out of the egg and seemed great but at day two its failing to thrive. Its legs are splayed, its umbilical is dried and strange, like poo is there instead of closed, and it has stopped peeping. I have the sparkly water in there, the heat, the tinfoil feed and some just scattered, as well as two new chicken chicks who are learning to scratch and peck to mentor with feeding. I have dripped a little vitamin water into its beak as a last resort but FTR this first turkey attempt sucks. The jake stomped the clutch and the hen still hasn't tried again... so... turkey failure is nigh complete here.

So sorry about your poults

 

[Arielle]

Epic failure here. Turkey one died within 24 hours. Turkey two died in the egg after pipping. Turkey three catapulted out of the egg and seemed great but at day two its failing to thrive. Its legs are splayed, its umbilical is dried and strange, like poo is there instead of closed, and it has stopped peeping. I have the sparkly water in there, the heat, the tinfoil feed and some just scattered, as well as two new chicken chicks who are learning to scratch and peck to mentor with feeding. I have dripped a little vitamin water into its beak as a last resort but FTR this first turkey attempt sucks. The jake stomped the clutch and the hen still hasn't tried again... so... turkey failure is nigh complete here.

 

[Arielle]

Bourbon Reds-- I started with a hen and tom. I loved them as they were docile and the tom not a problem. I have kids, no problem animals allowed. We raised 7 poults, all wonderful. THe 4 muskateers had free range of the farm. THen the next generation added 2 more toms to the free rangers-- all well behaved gentlemen.

NOw I can't speak for all turkeys -- just how mine have behaved. I have a number of other breeds from Porters and I have no problem with any of them, and half are males, ( of course!)

The aggressive males came up as a subject on the heritage thread and I had first shot at the question. THe reason why most heritage breeds have docile males is because the naughty boys get culled or eaten. No need to keep a bad boy around for long.

I did keep an aggressive rooster for too long-- he was a beloved pet. I kept 3 of his rooster sons and none are a problem. Perhaps the effect of their beloved mother. IDK, but 3 full brothers are not aggressive like the dad.

 

[joshm97]

Quote: I to am sorry... but there is always a second chance... and thank you... she is accually sitting on 17 now because more of my hens layed eggs too and she pulled them under her.

 

[joshm97]

This probably isn't the time to share this (My Chuck is a very sweet boy. He loves to eat yogurt out of my hand and will follow me everywhere all fanned out, making that spitting sound and drumming) but when I was a young girl, we lived on a large farm and the door to the basement of the barn was only about 3 feet tall. You had to flip the latch up and push the door in. Well, my Dad was always buying things at the auction (Like the time he bought 10 acres of standing field corn, I haven't forgotten how cold it was hand picking that corn!) and he bought an adult tom. Pure white and gorgeous. His only flaw was that he remained hidden until my sister or I would go to the barn and then he lit out , his neck stretched out running after us. I can't remember him ever catching us but he must have or we never would have run ourselves. My Dad has been gone well over 30 years but I can still hear him roaring with laughter as my sister or I would run as fast as we could hoping we could flip that latch and slam that door before he got us. THEN IT HAPPENED TO DAD, ONCE. I don't remember Dad taking care of the turkey but Mom says we ate him and he was so tough to eat.

Over on another thread, they've been talking about putting together a first aid kit for their chickens. It probably wouldn't hurt for any of us. I don't have Tylan but do have Duramycin. I just had to buy vet wrap for splayed legs on one of my chicks. And it worked! I seem to battle mites, as soon as it warms up enough I need to really clean my chicken and turkey coops out and white wash them. Below is Chuck and Rosie.

in the second picture your bird (looks like a young jake) has very long legs... How come mine dont because they have a whole Acre for them to run on (and they do sure run) but they have short legs... hens and jakes

 

[Sally8]

in the second picture your bird (looks like a young jake) has very long legs... How come mine dont because they have a whole Acre for them to run on (and they do sure run) but they have short legs... hens and jakes

I think it just looked like he did. That pic was taken last summer. This year at a year, Chuck is huge.. We also have an acre for them to run but Chuck stays fanned out, spitting and drumming, prancing around. We have a cover over their run, for the last week, nearly a doz wild turkeys keep flying over and hang out not so far away. Rosie could fly anywhere, she'll fly up and walk around on our house roof when we let her out.

 

[Sally8]

Epic failure here. Turkey one died within 24 hours. Turkey two died in the egg after pipping. Turkey three catapulted out of the egg and seemed great but at day two its failing to thrive. Its legs are splayed, its umbilical is dried and strange, like poo is there instead of closed, and it has stopped peeping. I have the sparkly water in there, the heat, the tinfoil feed and some just scattered, as well as two new chicken chicks who are learning to scratch and peck to mentor with feeding. I have dripped a little vitamin water into its beak as a last resort but FTR this first turkey attempt sucks. The jake stomped the clutch and the hen still hasn't tried again... so... turkey failure is nigh complete here.

I'm so sorry to hear about your poults. Last year was my first year to try and hatch turkey eggs. Both died in the shell. This year I have Chuck and Rosie. I checked to see if her eggs were fertile and they were. Rosie became broody but wouldn't be consistant on her nest so I started bringing them in to the incubator. They just started hatching. 1 or 2 would hatch, then several days later another. I got up to 7 but by now they were different sizes, so the next 2 I put in a tote. One became sick with respiratory symptoms, then the 2nd. Both died. A week later 2 more hatched so I put these in with the others. One got stomped over and the other I found dead on his back. I killed 4 in a row. I was going to stop but I do have a market for them so I have 8 or 10 in due to hatch in 2 weeks and another 7 to put in Monday. I was told that trying to hatch turkeys was a hard as raising them to 6 mo. This same person told me that a poults only reason for living for that first 6 month is to try to find ways to die. Try not to be so hard on yourself. It happens. I wish you lived closer, I'd share some with you.