2 June 2012 got 3 new Bourbon Reds, 2 Toms and 1 hen. These will be the foundation for our flock next year. Plan to get rid of Narragansetts this fall.
Edith in the Peacock cage was sitting on several eggs. There was a Narragansett in there also and it was getting crazy. There was one nest in the small house in there and another next to it. At first they each stayed on their own nest, but then they started switching and sometimes no one was on one nest, so I took some of the eggs and tried to separate them. Didn’t work. So this weekend did some major re-arranging of birds. We took the cage apart that had the babies in it, moved to a new area. We took the Narragansett from the peacock cage and put 4 new hatched poults under her to see if she would adopt them. Well, tonight she was out of the box and had at least 2 under her. I got in the cage and lifted her wing to make sure they were there and ok. And that was enough.
April 21, 2012 and the first of our turkey poults for this year hatched. Right now there are two in the hatcher and several more to go. And this is the first week. I have been putting eggs in the incubator every week and they are just now starting to hatch. I haven’t opened the hatcher to take them out yet, but as soon as I do I’ll post some pictures. See the blog for more details. Thanks.
Marketing our turkeys has always been the limiting factor in our system. When we started, it was just a few turkeys for the family. Then the next year we added a few extra for friends. Then we got incubators and keep a few for
breeding. Last year we increased our incubators to 4 and hatched almost every egg we could. We even hatched chickens.
I’m not sure how much difference the breed of the turkey makes once you take all the feathers off and put the bird in the plastic wrap. 4 years ago we started with Bourbon Reds. Then this spring stray dogs killed almost all
of them and we decided to raise Narragansetts. One of the chicks we had the year before had this great look we liked, and turned out it was the Narragansett look. So we got several and that’s what we’ll have most of next year.
So Thanksgiving is here and we’ve been able to find buyers for almost all of our turkeys. We’ve advertised on line on Craig’s List, and put up some fliers around and hope we have started a customer base. So the plan is for us to harvest the turkeys Monday night and Tuesday morning, and then customers will pick them up that evening. Everyone came to pick the birds up but one, and we put that one in the freezer.
Here are a few pictures of our turkeys.
Marketing our turkeys has always been the limiting factor in our system. When we started, it was just a few turkeys for the family. Then the next year we added a few extra for friends. Then we got incubators and keep a few for
breeding. Last year we increased our incubators to 4 and hatched almost every egg we could. We even hatched chickens.
I’m not sure how much difference the breed of the turkey makes once you take all the feathers off and put the bird in the plastic wrap. 4 years ago we started with Bourbon Reds. Then this spring stray dogs killed almost all
of them and we decided to raise Narragansetts. One of the chicks we had the year before had this great look we liked, and turned out it was the Narragansett look. So we got several and that’s what we’ll have most of next year.
So Thanksgiving is here and we’ve been able to find buyers for almost all of our turkeys. We’ve advertised on line on Craig’s List, and put up some fliers around and hope we have started a customer base. So the plan is for us to harvest the turkeys Monday night and Tuesday morning, and then customers will pick them up that evening. Everyone came to pick the birds up but one, and we put that one in the freezer.
Here are a few pictures of our turkeys.
This is an old picture, you can tell by the Guinea Hen. We don’t have any more of them. But this picture is worth a thousands words, and pretty much explains the birds. They come up on the front porch when we let them out. And if the door is open they will actually come and all but beg. Funny.
It’s just a little fuzzy but you get the point. And the thing you can’t see in the picture is that the AC fan is running the whole time they are on the fan. Can’t say as they are really smart birds but they are sure fun. When they don’t just irritate the daylights out of you.