Turkeys For 2013

[1MrsMagoo]

It's always a traumatic sight for me. Rosie always looks ruffled. I have 1 tom to1 hen. Don't like it at all. A few weeks back my neighbor called me at work to say the turkeys were in the road and the Tom was jumping up and down on a white chicken. She said a car stopped and was taking pictures. It was the turkeys, the hen a Royal Palm, the tom a Bronze mix and they were mating. We live way out in the country. Not sure why the people in the car were taking pictures. Ahhh well...

At least your neighbor was paying attention. If folks are that interested you could open up a drive it yourself farm tour: You know like the safari ones, only with less dangerous animals....lol. The voyeurs in the car were probably city people. I had some "city people" visit my place one day. While we were talking one of them whipped out their IPhone and took a video of one of my chickens. I asked what are you doing that for? The answer: That chicken is eating stuff in the cow poop. I knew if I didn't get it on video nobody at work would believe me!

 

[frank53061]

Quote:

I know what you mean my Daughter tells her friends at school of what ours do and and they want pictures or video of this event its like Sex ED for farm animals

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I was telling Celie the other day the Turkeys will not come out of there pen any more the Hens walk up to the door of the pen lay down and the Toms go at it right there in the door way >>>>>I just close the door to the Pen and walk away.
I have Toms almost Bare chested now from the plucking that goes on I don't know if its the other Toms or Hens or the Mating that's doing it but there looking rough.

 

[Arielle]

Quote: Yes, it helps to be skilled with power tools. I can manage rough work, technical work goes to DH. His family built a lot of houses for each other and the result is everyone can manage the basics and a little more.

The only sales here seem to be in limited numbers. THe feed store of course has been briniging in hatchery stock for a couple years now. Poultry is new for them. ANd the hardware store also has been selling hatchery chicks. THey offer classes in the spring for newbies, and the Blue Seal nutritionist runs the classes. ( Blue Seal is the brand of feed the hardware store sells.)

I'm NOT in a farmbelt, lol, rather more farms have sprouted houses , as well as large wooded tracks been reduced to lots awaiting a change in the houseing market. I"m hooping some of these richer folks will want quality eating eggs.

You are very busy with a delightful variety of poultry , and a goat too. Where will you move the goat to? Do you milk the goat?

 

[Arielle]

It's all ag here, so they go fairly well. Since mine have all been production, if they don't sell fast enough, I haul them down to auction. The turkeys and ducks have been in high demand though and I can't produce enough (especially with infertile duck eggs, LOL). Next year will hopefully be a different story for the turkeys, considering all the eggs I have in the bator and yet to come.

Nice to have an auction nearby. Very helpful. Yes, I do hope you see an increase in turkey sales!! Freezers can only hold so much food.

 

[Arielle]

SO I just witnessed my first turkey mating ever... Aw my poor turkey hen he looked so sad after dazed almost and she wouldnt come near us. I think she got tricked by accident she so far only squats for me and my DH never the toms so we were petting her and I wanted to show my DH how she gets up if the tom comes near but he got her before she could get up andf then the other toms were all over them It was a slight bit scary I thought she was gonna get hurt. Today we are setting up the barrier to section off the fenced are and putting 2 toms on one side and 1 tom and 2 hens on the other side.

Sorry your hen was tramatized by the even-- hope she is ok now.

Looks like you'll be incubating eggs soon!!

 

[1MrsMagoo]

Yes, it helps to be skilled with power tools. I can manage rough work, technical work goes to DH. His family built a lot of houses for each other and the result is everyone can manage the basics and a little more.

The only sales here seem to be in limited numbers. THe feed store of course has been briniging in hatchery stock for a couple years now. Poultry is new for them. ANd the hardware store also has been selling hatchery chicks. THey offer classes in the spring for newbies, and the Blue Seal nutritionist runs the classes. ( Blue Seal is the brand of feed the hardware store sells.)

I'm NOT in a farmbelt, lol, rather more farms have sprouted houses , as well as large wooded tracks been reduced to lots awaiting a change in the houseing market. I"m hooping some of these richer folks will want quality eating eggs.

You are very busy with a delightful variety of poultry , and a goat too. Where will you move the goat to? Do you milk the goat?

You know the same thing was happening where I grew up in NE Ohio. Family farms were going out of business and the land being sold for housing developments. Now, with the major gas and oil finds in the area, the farmers have been taking their new found wealth and building new barns and buying new equipment.

It is hard to go up against hatchery chicks. Most people like them because they are cheap. We have two tractor supplies and 5 feed stores that sell chicks within 20 miles. However, it seems that the more people get to know about poultry, the less they want birds from a hatchery. Their is almost a full out movement in my area back towards heritage breeds and home grown foods. I took my son to the dentist Thursday and when he came out he had 1/2 gallon of milk. The dentist buys all his milk, cheese, and butter from a local farmer. My son was talking to him and they got onto sustainable agriculture and nutrition. The dentist found out we have duck eggs and wanted pricing. He traded my son the milk for a dozen duck eggs, which he dropped off the next morning along with a complementary dozen chicken eggs too. Although dozens of people in my area sell eggs for eating, I still never have enough to go around. Their is a permanent vendor at one of the local farmer's markets who gets $3.50 a dozen for chicken and $6.00 a dozen for duck eggs every Saturday. That helps me, since I keep my prices under theirs and my eggs are super clean, BIG,and I offer multiple colors in every box.

Well, actually it is 3 goats. That number increases occasionally, since some neighbors that raise Boer goats know that I will take sick goat kids. I end up having a goat surrendered to me about once a year, which is better than before: I have had up to half a dozen dropped off at a time. We are just stealing their hay area. They have a nice paddock with attached house that is their main housing. We are building them another house in a section of the woods we have fenced off. Now that it is spring, they will be moving over there where they have plenty of brush to eat.

Sadly, I can't milk any of my goats: Only one is female and she does not do well kidding (only one live kid out of two tries..both were twins) and is not a milk breed. My other two are males we castrated to keep them calm and from impregnating the female goat. The three we have are our first bottle fed rescue kids from 6 years ago: Their only job is being cute and clearing brush. I find good homes in the local area for the other goats I rehabilitate.
Their is only 1 vet in a 40 mile radius who will treat goats and most people don't want to go to the trouble so just give them to me. If it is something more than I can handle, then I get the vet involved, but that hasn't been needed in the past couple of years. If I call him on his cell (he gave me the number) he will answer questions for me and allow me to come pick up the prescriptions I need if I have one in need of Baytril for example. He sold me an entire bottle and I still have half in case it is needed. That particular antibiotic comes in VERY handy. However, if you use it on any poultry or fowl, you are never supposed to eat that bird.

 

[Arielle]

I was sad to loose our best large animal vet-- she sold her practice to a young vet with mostly schooling know how and no practical know how from years of in the field work. I rarely need a vet for the sheep anymore; keeping only the ewes without problems begets the next generation with fewer problems. I did find another vet close by that does large animals; usually I call once a year to say "hi". Her prices were much better than any other vet I've had come out to the farm.

I don't mind taking care of the lambs--I've had twins in my bedroom for two weeks, one very large and one very small. It was a very odd year. ALl the lambs were mis matched twins. Strange year. THe next year was back to normal. IDK. Same ram, same ewes.

We had a lamb born Feb 13th-- DH went to do evening feed, to hear baaabaaa, WTH!! The ram had only been in for a month. Guess one of the ram lambs got the job done ! lol

Looking forward to the end of snow-- another few inches coming tonight. THe 2 foot snow from the last storm shrunk to 10 inches. HOrses are ignoring the water buckets and eating snow instead. Along with the ducks and chickens. More snow eating than drinking from warm water in their waterers. Silly creatures.

Waiting for the first eggs from my young turkeys. THe burbons usually don't lay until march- april, not sure about these other breeds. Wait and see. Makes for a late start to the breeding season around here. I often wonder if birds were held over until 18 months, or done at 10 months no matter the time of year. Hard to find old history --

 

[1MrsMagoo]

I was sad to loose our best large animal vet-- she sold her practice to a young vet with mostly schooling know how and no practical know how from years of in the field work. I rarely need a vet for the sheep anymore; keeping only the ewes without problems begets the next generation with fewer problems. I did find another vet close by that does large animals; usually I call once a year to say "hi". Her prices were much better than any other vet I've had come out to the farm.

I don't mind taking care of the lambs--I've had twins in my bedroom for two weeks, one very large and one very small. It was a very odd year. ALl the lambs were mis matched twins. Strange year. THe next year was back to normal. IDK. Same ram, same ewes.

We had a lamb born Feb 13th-- DH went to do evening feed, to hear baaabaaa, WTH!! The ram had only been in for a month. Guess one of the ram lambs got the job done ! lol

Looking forward to the end of snow-- another few inches coming tonight. THe 2 foot snow from the last storm shrunk to 10 inches. HOrses are ignoring the water buckets and eating snow instead. Along with the ducks and chickens. More snow eating than drinking from warm water in their waterers. Silly creatures.

Waiting for the first eggs from my young turkeys. THe burbons usually don't lay until march- april, not sure about these other breeds. Wait and see. Makes for a late start to the breeding season around here. I often wonder if birds were held over until 18 months, or done at 10 months no matter the time of year. Hard to find old history --

Ugh....I don't envy you: TWO feet of snow. I think I only ever saw that two time during the entire 37 years I lived in Ohio and one of those times was the blizzard of 1978. We have had snow less than three times since I moved to SE Louisiana. I think the largest amount in our area was 4-6 inches that stayed on the ground for less than two days: Folks here really have NO idea how nice they have it during the winters.

That is funny about the lamb. Sneaky young rams...lol. Bet that lamb is super cute! My daughter is bugging us to get a sheep, but it won't be this year. Our next animal venture is going to be heritage pigs: Red Wattle or Duroc or any cross of the two.

Yeah, we keep a couple of the largest size dog crates on hand for sick baby goats. We had one living in our living room for several weeks a couple years ago. One of the little guys was so tiny, weak, and sick that I kicked my plant starts off my heat mat and made him a bed on that in the bottom of my seed starting rack. He was so little that my daughter dressed him up in the Santa coat off one of her Webkinz stuffed animals. This was him at about 2 weeks old. Poor guy didn't even take his first steps till he was around 7 days old. This is Willie.


Sadly, general large animal vets are very hard to find these days. Everyone is specialized and does either house pets, exotics, or horses. It is even worse trying to find an Avian vet who knows anything about poultry or fowl of any sort: They mostly do parrots. The large animal vet we use is extremely reasonable and a good all round guy. He does a lot of free health checks for the 4-H kids in his area. It will be a sad day when he ever retires.

 

[Arielle]

THat tiny goat is precious!! Love the Santa outfit. I kept my twins in a cardboard box-- it was a long time before they had the ability to hop out. Figured then it was time to go back to the barn.

Oh we had a Dr Walters like that in the area until he finally did retire.

I'm looking into pigs too. I researched the heritage one evening and even found sources.I would like to use the pigs to improve the land and provide meat for my family. THe piglet price on the heritage hogs really surprized me. $300 was the cheapest I could find. I would like to get two piglets this year but the reality is that I will improve the land using the sheep and chickens to start with. I'm learning that all the grain traditionally used is not necessary when good pasture is provided.

OH I didn't mind the two feet of snow-- it was all light fluffy stuff that the snow blower could handle. THis wet stuff I'm not keen on. Seems heavier to shovel. I find it odd that people here complain about the snow. It is pretty and fun to play in. We made a snow rhino one year instead of a snowman!

 

[erinszoo]

Well, got the last of the turkey poults hatched this morning. Ended up with 15 out of 19. 3 quit at lockdown point and the other one pipped yesterday and then quit today. Never had that happen before. Our three that are five weeks old now we moved out to the garage along with the ducks. Babies got their first feeding of fodder today. They loved it. Going to have to build a bigger fodder system for feeding all the birds with now that we've added 18 turkeys and 5 more ducks. Of course I'm still hoping we sell some of our turkey poults otherwise I'll have enough down to make a queen size mattress and enough turkey to eat to feed a small army. Guess we could build a smoker and make our own smoked turkey breast for sandwiches ... If we had more land they would all just get to run free and live forever eating bugs and foraging to their hearts content but unfortunately, we don't have that much space for them.

Loved the turkey and cigarette story. I could see ours doing that too.