Turkeys For 2013

[1MrsMagoo]

Hi,
Sorry I have not answered sooner, but I have been having phone and computer trouble. Life sometimes gives us little tribulations, but boy have I been getting my share! I guess the more we are blessed, by our Father, the more Satan tries to mess with us? First, AT&T, who I have had my phone with has been getting worse and worse to deal with. About 6 to 8 months ago, we switched from dial-up Internet to wireless, Internet. Since then every time the phone rang, it would drop me off the Internet, so I could not use the Internet, and the phone at the same time, which is why we went to the high speed from the dial-up, in the first place. We called several times, really month after month, that something wasn't right and were told, to try this and that, until we gave up trying. They would keep saying it would cost $80 for someone to come out and look at the problem. We kept telling them that it had never worked right since they put it in. They would not wave the $80. , so I bought a MagicJack phone service for $30 and $20 a year phone service, plus $30 to keep my same phone number. On MJ's instructions, we called AT&T to get unbundled, so the phone and Internet would be separate accounts, and were assured that we were never bundled to start out with, that's why our bill was over $100, without any long distance. After that, when they transferred my number to MJ, they cut off all my services. I had to call and get a separate phone number for the Internet only. Your phone number is your account number, too. That took all day, with all the foreign accents those people have working for them. That worked for one day. Then the bad thunderstorms came. During the rain, the electric company came and hooked up the meter and power to Hubby's shop. To do this, they had to drop power to the house for about 20 minutes. No biggie, but when they turned it back on, no phone and no Internet. Big coincidence. AT&T swore they did nothing and it was not a problem on their end and we needed separate fiber optic lines for each service, or our house was wired wrong when it was built 14 years ago! . At this point, we were at the end of out rope and I finally got them to wave the $80 fee and send someone out! It was an older man they sent out with a lot of experience and right away he found that the new fiber optic line they put in was not hooked up to the house correctly. He also told us that we were being billed for the fastest Internet they had, even though we asked for the least costly. He then traced the line back to the source, from us and found 3 more mistakes at junction boxes with their wires, plus a junction box that was struck by lightning during the storm. So now we have service again, at least for now and I am back on line.
Now this weekend we are suppose to get some freezing weather for 3 nights. I knew since the older turkeys that laid so well, last year, haven't started laying yet. Like the old saying goes"knowledge comes, but wisdom lingers"! All we have to do is look at the oldest members of nature, like the oldest trees on the property and we can forecast when spring has started, before planting our gardens. The younger saplings might get confused and sprout prematurely, but the wise old trees have endured all this time because they were wiser! For us, it looks like spring is still a couple of weeks away yet!

Wow, what a run around! We have never had ATT ask us for an $80 service call and I've had at least a half dozen techs out to look at issues with our home phone or internet. I complained so much right after our service was installed that they even gave me a permanent $5.00 a month break on our bill just to shut me up.
Finally, after 2.5 years of complaining and service calls the last tech to come out traced the underground all the way back to the local sub station. He found half a dozen lightning strikes to the line: Said it was a wonder it worked at all. Oh, did I mention the reason he came out was that my husband DUG UP our phone line while digging the front pond. The guy that marked the utility lines was WAY off for the underground. We had heard horror stories about being billed in the thousands of dollars for them to fix something like that, so we rigged it up ourselves. I bought some telecommunications cable online and it worked for several months till the signal got very unreliable. Here it was the lightning strike not our fix, but they re-fixed it right for us anyway.

That ATT is a bunch of sneaky guys: They love to overcharge you. I called to cancel my home line last year and to stop me they offered me a low price on my internet for a year. They billed me for the lower cost for two months then right back up to the old rate. Every month I had to call and argue with them. It got so that before I even talked to the person, I asked their name and employee number, as well as the name of their supervisor: I had a notebook with all the information in it. It stinks when a person has to go to those links to have their account properly service and not be ripped off.

Hope you internet stays on and doesn't mess with your phones anymore Celie!

 

[Janiecoke]

I

Sorry to hear that! Hope you guys can get your new turkeys to you soon!

I am ready for them.

 

[erinszoo]

Quote:
And I thought I was a little "crazy" thinking I would sleep with the eggs to keep them warm ... not sure i could run the car for hours on end to plug in the bator. Although when it comes to babies, I might. Someone on another thread suggested keeping hand warmer packs or heat packs used for shipping eggs around to use in case of a power outage. I thought that was a good idea too but I think my hot water bottles (which were just empty two liter coke bottles) was cheap and reliable enough for us.

 

[RockerHen]

Here is my first little flock of turkeys

They are soo funny! The hen will chase after tennis balls we throw for our dogs, and the toms simply stand around all day looking like this or act menacing if any roosters try to approach their beloved girl. When not fluffed out, they try to stick their chest out as much as possible to show off their tiny beards. The boy on the right flew into the dog kennel (not terribly bright) and got his tail pulled out flying out. During the past few days, I've observed the tom on the left (he's the most dominate) mate the hen several times. Hopefully I'll have babies this spring.

 

[Janiecoke]

I love

Here is my first little flock of turkeys

They are soo funny! The hen will chase after tennis balls we throw for our dogs, and the toms simply stand around all day looking like this or act menacing if any roosters try to approach their beloved girl. When not fluffed out, they try to stick their chest out as much as possible to show off their tiny beards. The boy on the right flew into the dog kennel (not terribly bright) and got his tail pulled out flying out. During the past few days, I've observed the tom on the right (he's the most dominate) mate the hen several times. Hopefully I'll have babies this spring.

I love it. I can't wait to get mine.

 

[1MrsMagoo]

Here is my first little flock of turkeys

They are soo funny! The hen will chase after tennis balls we throw for our dogs, and the toms simply stand around all day looking like this or act menacing if any roosters try to approach their beloved girl. When not fluffed out, they try to stick their chest out as much as possible to show off their tiny beards. The boy on the right flew into the dog kennel (not terribly bright) and got his tail pulled out flying out. During the past few days, I've observed the tom on the left (he's the most dominate) mate the hen several times. Hopefully I'll have babies this spring.

Nice.

 

[Sally8]

Here is my first little flock of turkeys

They are soo funny! The hen will chase after tennis balls we throw for our dogs, and the toms simply stand around all day looking like this or act menacing if any roosters try to approach their beloved girl. When not fluffed out, they try to stick their chest out as much as possible to show off their tiny beards. The boy on the right flew into the dog kennel (not terribly bright) and got his tail pulled out flying out. During the past few days, I've observed the tom on the left (he's the most dominate) mate the hen several times. Hopefully I'll have babies this spring.

What is the Tom on the right? I have a Bronze/royal palm Tom and a royal palm hen. They are so funny to watch.. A few weeks back my neighbor called to say the male turkey was stomping on a white chicken and a car was stopping to take pictures. It was the 2 mating. And I live way out in the country. lol. Oh, the point being, the one on the right looks like mine.

 

[Arielle]

Quote: I'll have to look for that movie Fresh-- I just love the sustainable vewpoint. I'm ready to throw in the towel on purchased feeds-- too expensive for feeding year round. I love your plans for a mobile tractor, great idea. I don't have a tractor and my land is rather rough so I'm still coming up with ideas for something light weight and mobile, THough Sugar Mtn says their birds roam some 750 feet from the housing area, maybe the domestic pigs provide a level of mental security so they roam far and wide.

I'm trying to come up with a working model for my farm . THat is were the turkeys come into it. Trying them to see where they fit into grazing/browsing. I do think chickens are more flexible than turkeys, anyone can pipe up here and offer their experience. I see the chickens as eaters of anything and everything, I see the turkeys at the feeders.

 

[Arielle]

i been wanting to get two turkeys male and female, but it seems so hard to get them when they are little because alot of people do not sex them, can anyone let me know when i go to pick out the poults anything i should look for?

DId anyone answer you? Sexing is very hard, very hard. I have heard everything from size of snood to thickness of legs. My suggestion is buy a few and sell the extra later, unless you get a trio of course.

Quote:

I bet they taste great!!! I will have to remember the sawzall method!! too funny. Whatever works, tight?

 

[kuntrygirl]

Here is my first little flock of turkeys

They are soo funny! The hen will chase after tennis balls we throw for our dogs, and the toms simply stand around all day looking like this or act menacing if any roosters try to approach their beloved girl. When not fluffed out, they try to stick their chest out as much as possible to show off their tiny beards. The boy on the right flew into the dog kennel (not terribly bright) and got his tail pulled out flying out. During the past few days, I've observed the tom on the left (he's the most dominate) mate the hen several times. Hopefully I'll have babies this spring.

Look how cute !!!!!