Dreaming What Ifs...

The Trouble With Turkeys

Famous last words:    We raise chickens, how hard can turkeys be?

Before I brought my first Heritage Turkey poults home, I read about them.  I bought a book and looked on-line.  Every source said "turkeys are tricky to raise", especially the first 3 months.

I purchased 15 and after 4 days, I had one sole survivor.  I researched some more and realized I did a few things wrong.  (I needed to add sparkly attractants, like shiny marbles, to the water and food). 

I brought another 13 home and added them to my survivors.  For two hours I sat with them, dipping beaks into water, making sure they knew where the food was.  All seemed okay.

After four days, they were all doing great so I moved them to a new location (from a small box to a kiddie pool filled with sand.)  I sat wth them for an hour to make sure they knew where their food and water were located.

Within 48 hours over 1/2 of the new poults were dead.  Over the next two days the rest of the poults died leaving me with  two survivors.  I figured the stress of the move did them in.

I was determined to keep turkey poults alive so I found another batch of turkey poults.  I purchased ten, determined that these guys were NOT going to die.

I brought them home and sat with them, dipping beaks, helping them find their food.  My two older survivors were eating.  Life seemed to be good. 

Within 48 hours 1/2 of my new turkey poults were dead.  I FREAKED OUT.  I called the State Veterinarian.  He recommended a turkey autopsy.  I found an Avian Veterinarian who took my dead poults and examined them.  They were healthy but starving.  There wasn't any food in their digestive system.

She recommended I stick a baby chick in with the turkey poults.

And that's what I did.  I stuck three of my Mongrel Chicks (babies of our Rooster, Iggy) in with the poults....and watched a complete transformation.

When the chicks eat, the turkeys eat.  Those poults follow my punk chicks around and mimic their behavior.

So, now I have 13 healthy turkey poults eating and drinking like masters.....all thanks to a few ugly chicks.

It was an expensive lesson learned about raising Turkey Poults.  They need a leader to follow and learn from.  From now on, I will always keep chicks with my poults.   

 

 

 

 

Incubation Success!

So after our complete failure with incubating eggs, I went back to the drawing board and researched a little more and started up a new batch of eggs to incubate.....

And guess what happened on the evening of Day 22 - a little pip

The morning of Day 23, we had even bigger pipping:

By that evening the chick was working it's way out of the egg:

At 11:30pm that little chick was trying to escape.

And by 11:35pm we had a successful hatch!

And MUCH MUCH MUCH to our surprse, when we woke the next morning Day 24- there was a double surprise for us.

We are now happy parents of two little mongrel babies....1/2 White Leghorn, 1/2 Golden Laced Polish.  It will be fun to see how they grow.

How to be Frugal with Fencing

My grandfather used to tell his kids this:

Use it up, use it out

Make it do or do without

Well, my father-in-law, Al, lived by this decree.  As I've said before, one of the downsides to buying this farm has been the loads of STUFF we've had to deal with. 

Some of it makes for great blogging posts.  I think the most intriguing to me is fence repair.

We life on almost 5 acres.  There is a lot of fencing around the place.  Dave's parents owned goats and they were tricky and smart.  If there was a hole, they'd find it.  However, instead of buying new fencing, Dave's dad would just make-do.

 

 

 

 

Got a hole?  Repair it with a random oven rack that just happens to be laying around.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Have a larger hole?  Just use an old bedframe that happens to be laying unused in the garage.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Need something tall and slender?  Well, there might just be a random food cart stored in one of the sheds.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Running out of household items to use?  Well, then snag one of those old cigarette carton dispensors.  It makes for dandy and extremely attractive fence repair.

 

Yup.  There is always something new and exciting to find along the fenceline.  Most of it just causes me to shake my head and wonder....why. 

Incubation Part 4 or Complete Failure

Now I know that hatching chickens is NOT an easy task.  Out of 27 eggs, only 14 made it to week 2 and then NONE of my eggs hatched.  I think my humidity was off.  According to all the experts, chicken eggs need 70-80% humidity the last 3 days of the hatch, so I need to add extra water to my incubator.

I am already collecting eggs to try again.

I know, I'm crazy.  I autopsied my un-hatched eggs.  The chickens were almost completely formed but the inner membrane was VERY thick and tough.  Obviously, they needed more humidity.

I am a Biologist - I LOVE this stuff.  My little inner scientist totally exploded when I started looking at the un-hatched chicks.  I examined their little beaks, wings, and feet.  I explored how the yolk was attached and how the little egg-tooth on it's beak should have been used to crack through the egg.

Although I was excited to autopsy, I was also crushed at the loss of the little things.  Also, when my children's faces fell to devastation at the news, there was only one thing I could do for them.

Run to Wilco Feed Store and let them pick out some new baby pullets! 

I'm not ready to give up.  I will try incubating again and soon - this time with a better way to monitor humidity AND to be sure I keep it high towards the end of their hatch.

 

 

Incubation Part 3 or Day 12 Development

After candling our eggs a 2nd time and seeing baby chicken embryo movement, we have 14 eggs left that are still developing.  That is a 50% mortality rate, but one that I was expecting.  Before I began this process, I researched and found that most "chicken-hobbyists" who incubated at home see half their eggs fail.

We started with 27 eggs, after 2 weeks we still have 14 growing.  I am hoping that by Monday we will still have that many hatch, but I suspect not.  I'm keeping my fingers crossed that 5 baby chicks make the hatch process.

Here is a video of some chick movement.  I'm holding the egg, my son is holding the camera.

 

 

Here is a video of an egg that did NOT make it to day 12.

 

Incubation Part 2 or Day 7 Development

I am showing this picture as a comparison.  As shown, this is a fresh egg I just gathered yesterday.  It may be fertile, but it is clear without any development.

 

After seven days, we "candled" our chicken eggs to check for development.

In six of the eggs, there was a "blood ring" - which meant the eggs had been fertile, but stopped developing.  (I did not take a picture, but an example can be seen HERE)

Four of the eggs were dark brown and really hard to see through, so we are undecided.  We'll wait a few more days and recheck.

Which left 17 eggs developing!!  (and I was so worried I would have none)

 Here is Top view picture of development:

And here is a side view of the developing egg

 

So, I'm very positive and extremely excited that I have 17 (possibly 22) eggs developing.  I suspect those 4 dark eggs will be "no-go's"  becaue we really didn't see anything.  The brown eggs are much harder for the light to shine through.

I am enjoying the learning process and watching the eggs.  Dave callse me the "mother hen" because I'm constantly checking the incubator temperature.  Our house is old and drafty and the incubator is a cheaper model.  The temp fluctuates quite a bit so I am constantly on top of it having to do slight adjustments on occasion.

Check back in next week when we re-candle the eggs again for a 2nd development phase!