Turkey Time!

Our 15 + 1 (just in case) baby bronze breasted turkey poults arrived early Wednesday AM after their 24 hr. plus journey from Ohio in a small box. I was happy to see they were all alive and well upon opening the box. They are quite comical as poultry babies go. Very curious and always come to check out your hands, and seem fine with being picked up and offer no resistance. From what I have been told and reading they are pretty fragile the first 2 weeks of their lives. We have made it 48 hrs. with no losses thus far. There are a couple little guys I am a bit worried about though. One seems on the weak side with an eye pasted shut, and another seems to like to sleep on his back, and then cannot figure out how to right himself when he wakes up, kind of like when you put a turtle on his back. The first time I discovered him on his back I thought we had our first casualty, but he seemd fine when I flipped him over. The next few days will be telling in regards to how things will go.

The meaties are doing OK. Sad to say we have lost 3/52 thus far. They seemed to have developed splayed legs and thus could not get to food and water well. I had to cull two, thankfully Mother Nature took care of the third. Ah, the joys of farm life. The rest look robust though, and I have my eyes on some big breasted hens! Ha!

Camping with Chickens...

We had a pretty crazy weekend. We finally got the chicken ark competed and moved the laying poults out to the land. They were quite happy to get out of the cinder block dungeon and wading pool at the rental and to get their first really taaste of sunshine and fresh air. It was a beautiful weekend weather wise and we planned a get together and campout at the land. It was in the 80's during the day, and a comfortable 60's at night. We had about 10 friends show up and had a nice evening and food around a bon fire. The kids really liked camping out.

One of only two tents in our backyard, kids playing boomerang catch with one of the adults...

The luxuary chicken ark... that weighs so much I am not sure how we are ever going to move it more then a few feet at time, which is luckily generally the idea. Roosts and nesting boxes are on second floor.



The meaties are doing pretty well. this was their first day out of the tractor they did not wander far. They like to stick around the food. We just found out the lady we rent the plucker from was booked for our planned harvest weekend of May 20th, we are tentatively bumping it back a week... I hope they can take the heat an extra week! They are just a little over 4 weeks old now. Baby turkeys arrive on Tuesday!

Chickens, tractors, and lots of rocks...

Thsi is going to need to be quick, as thnigs have been busy! If I was a good Blogger, and had the camera with me at all times I should have several amusing entries prior to this. Spring is a busy time. The meaties are growing well, crossing our fingers and knocking on wood, we have not lost any yet, and they are growing well. We had to move them out to the land and the big tractor, as the daily cleaning of the wading pool filled with wood shavings and chicken poop was getting to be a smelly, time consuming chore. It might be a little cool in the evenings, but they have got to be enjoying the fresh air and extra space of the big tractor. This is Shalo the chicken farmer keeping them company last night...

They have probably quadrupled in weight since they arrived 3 weeks ago.

This is my latest chicken tractor (ark) for the housing of our laying chickens until we get the big coop built this summer or fall. It got a bit bigger than anticipated, and is pretty heavy, even without the roof on it yet. It will be semi portable, and should be adequate size for the 11 chicks we have so far. When they reach maturity hopefully the main coop will be done. Still needs a roof. I am going to recycle some metal roofing from the barn as we dismantle it in the upcoming weeks.

And this is my current favorite part of the house... our stacked Tennessee field stone free standing fireplace and woodstove insert...