Turkeys For 2013

[chickadoodles]

I separated the birds out by breed before the girls were laying . . . boys had already been busy.

I have not got my pens done yet. But we do what we can when we have time. I am only selling roosters right now. But we will get it sorted out by spring.

 

[desertmarcy]

Do you ave a link?

No, it is a restricted group, must join as a member so I don't think a link would work. It is a Yahoo Groups "Turkey Color Genetics 101" run by Kevin Porter.

 

[Arielle]

Quote:
Well, that explains why when I asked him about how to breed the AUburns, he basically blew me off!! lol I've been struggling with what they should look like and he only said like the bronze. Well. How uniform is the feather coloring? Are the legs ok if they are pink? I am down to 4-5 AUburn toms with no girls and I"m ready to can them all and call it quits on the auburns. Paying for a yohoo group is out of the question right now. ANd I have been rethinking turkeys too. THey are not as flexible in their eating as chickens are. BUt they sure taste good!!

 

[chickadoodles]

Quote:


Well, that explains why when I asked him about how to breed the AUburns, he basically blew me off!! lol I've been struggling with what they should look like and he only said like the bronze. Well. How uniform is the feather coloring? Are the legs ok if they are pink? I am down to 4-5 AUburn toms with no girls and I"m ready to can them all and call it quits on the auburns. Paying for a yohoo group is out of the question right now. ANd I have been rethinking turkeys too. THey are not as flexible in their eating as chickens are.

BUt they sure taste good!!

Yahoo chat groups are free Arielle. You just have to ask to join the group... I did.

 

[Turkeytruff]

Thanks Turkeytruff. My slated was not blind at first. He could see the feed and water dishes and would come running to me with all the other birds when I came to feed or play with them or give them goodies. But as was nearing maturity he was having more trouble seeing the feed in the goodie pans I would bring out. I use huge plastic party dishes that are bright blue and bright green to put treats like grits and scrambled eggs and leftovers in. He will stand in the middle of the dish and eat the other birds just eat around him. I cannot feed him out of my hand any more because he gets me instead of the food. I am so sorry about your turkeys babys! Privit hatchery supplied the poults to the co-op that I bought the slates from. And they knew the birds had blue eyes and sold them anyways. I called the co-op and told them I was not happy after waiting all these moths for my birds to get to breeding age only to find out that he was blind! I told them I would not buy any more of their birds! I don't holler or yell. I just speak to my birds and ask them "how's everybody doing" lol.
That was pretty awesome that your son made a ramp for the turkey! How cool is that! Now my turkey did fly thru the run and hurt it's wing, I had to bandage it up for a couple of weeks.
Good luck with your turkey!

thank you! One just died a few days ago

it had a pendulous crop problem as well. The other one is doing fine - obviously I will never breed from it.

Regarding the blind Slate, there was a discussion about this on Porter's Turkey Color Genetics list a while back. The Slate turkeys can have hereditary glaucoma, which expresses itself usually between hatch and 22 weeks. It is an ocular glaucoma condition causing corneal protrusion and increased curvature. Since this is a hereditary condition, lines of turkeys showing this should not be bred.

here is an article on glaucoma in blue slate turkeys. Wish I had known this before! http://www.iovs.org/content/27/12/1751.full.pdf

 

[chickadoodles]

thank you! One just died a few days ago

it had a pendulous crop problem as well. The other one is doing fine - obviously I will never breed from it.

here is an article on glaucoma in blue slate turkeys. Wish I had known this before! http://www.iovs.org/content/27/12/1751.full.pdf

Turkeytruff I am so sorry for your loss!

 

[Arielle]

Turkey truff-- sorry for your losses. A learning experience for all of us. I bet the blues are pretty though.

 

[Arielle]

TOnight with the very humid and hot weather, in the 90's all day and still a bout 80 degrees, I decided to risk leaving the sweetgrass turkeys outside for the night BUT I wanted to move the tom to a safer location. Dang those beating wings have given me such a wack on the face I have a mild head ache. I sure hope he didn't injure his wing though. Dang bird!!!! lol

 

[chicken pickin]

I thought I would share a few updated pics of my turkeys

 

[chickadoodles]

TOnight with the very humid and hot weather, in the 90's all day and still a bout 80 degrees, I decided to risk leaving the sweetgrass turkeys outside for the night BUT I wanted to move the tom to a safer location. Dang those beating wings have given me such a wack on the face I have a mild head ache. I sure hope he didn't injure his wing though. Dang bird!!!! lol

I hope you are ok! Poor thing!