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Post by flowerpower on Jun 8, 2009 4:05:49 GMT -5
I soak the potbelly pig chow in warm water & the chickens will push their way beside the pig to get at it. It's mostly made from chicken too. lol
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Post by Alan on Jun 8, 2009 23:49:28 GMT -5
Hey CFF or Blue Laced, any advice on Heritage Turkeys as I am taking the crash course! By the way Hayne, thanks for the goat book, it turned out to be an excellent reference my friend!
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Post by bluelacedredhead on Jun 9, 2009 22:09:39 GMT -5
Alan, What would you like to know about turkeys? The Short version? Put them in the barn before it starts to get dark at night or you will be trying to get them out of the trees. Remember, some predators can climb trees or swoop down into the trees to kill them. In breeding season, keep them locked up if possible, or know that you run the risk of serving Bourbon Red to the Fox feeding Kitts . I lost one hen every year. There was always one who managed to wander to the hayfield to nest alone. They like large nesting boxes that are private. Or put a large nesting box in a corner of the barn by itself and cover it with cedar branches or something to provide privacy. They lay for two months, no more. April thru early June generally speaking. The eggs are gorgeous. Larger than a chicken, with brown speckles. Hard shelled. When the shells become chalky and rough, the lay is almost over for the season. Sometimes, a hen will go back to the nest in early fall, but know that poults are not as hardy as chicks and cold weather is not a good time to hatch them. Eat those eggs instead of trying to hatch them unless you are prepared to use heat lamps to raise them. Hatching is approximately 25 days. We also fed the poults medicated turkey starter for 8 weeks. Then changed them over to turkey grower. Even if you don't grain them a lot when they are older, this gives the babies a good start in life. When they were old enough to go on pasture, I grained at night to get them back into their sunporch, otherwise, without grain (and sometimes with), it was a test of my endurance to see how many times I could run around and around the garage, henhouse and barn before they decided to go in...Grain makes everything so much easier. The poults will fight if confined until they are old enough to be outside. Add chopped grass to their grain; use blue lights instead of clear or white to subdue their aggressive tendencies. And hang mirrors and aluminum pie plates at their eye level to amuse them. They will pick at their reflections instead of each other. The males can become nasty at breeding time. Keep them separate from other fowl at that time. I've seen toms kill a rooster with the onset of breeding season. Also kill chickens in winter when the grain is fed and they get greedy. The people who bought our Bourbon Red's had a neighbour come to visit and the neighbour thought he was being comical by gobbling at the turkeys. The toms got riled over this and every time the woman tried to go back into the pen to feed them, they attacked her. Know that you can't reason with a turkey. They have no brainmatter to reason with. And those talons and large wings can and will hurt you. But I loved them. They are excellent mothers and Great entertainment on a summers afternoon, when the flock takes the young ones for a stroll. Alan, I know I'm forgetting something...
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Post by grunt on Jun 10, 2009 0:35:36 GMT -5
Also know that they are NOT smarter than mud. My grandfather was a poultry farmer in the 1940's and 50's, and raised turkeys ONE year. I asked him the next year (I was about 7 or 8 at the time, so 1949 or 1950) why he wasn't raising turkeys again. His answer? He wanted nothing to do with anything that made a chicken look smart.
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Post by flowerpower on Jun 10, 2009 5:35:17 GMT -5
Are turkeys dumber than ducks? Why is it that the chickens stay out of the road, but the ducks continue to cross it? Even after one of them got killed the other day. I feel bad. Because I actually had them penned in, just not secure enough. I've made the security at Duck Jail much tighter.
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Post by bluelacedredhead on Jun 10, 2009 7:44:35 GMT -5
Like I said in my post "They have no Brainmatter to reason with". But let me say that Heritage breeds still have some instinct and intuitiveness that the Broadbreasted varieties have had bred out. The only whites that I could ever get to forage with any success were the Nicholas Strain. The Bourbon's, Narrangansetts and Bronze were no problem at all to pasture, well at least as far as getting them to eat. Getting them to come in for the night...like I said...no reasoning with them, lol FP, penning the ducks originally might have helped your situation, but again, those are a white, highly commercialized breed of duck. They were prolly looking for a little a l'orange to bathe in
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Post by macmex on Jun 10, 2009 10:02:58 GMT -5
We've found the mortality rate on poults, normally, to be pretty high. Last fall we had an unexpected hatch which seemed to be doing fabulously. Just when I felt safe to do some bragging, a couple of them got sick (parasites) and died. What seems to work for us is to treat with water soluble antibiotic, for three days, every two weeks, while the poults are smaller than 3/4 adult size. We rotate between two or three different common antibiotics, as one doesn't seem to deal with everything which gets to them. If we wait to treat until we see symptoms, then we invariably lose at least one bird every month, until they are grown. Once grown, they are pretty hardy. We only deparasitise adults once or twice a year.
Bluelacedredhead is absolutely right on about closing up those hen turkeys. They are DETERMINED to nest out in the field and are extremely adept at slipping off unobserved. Once they settle on a hidden nest, overnight, one can essentially kiss them good bye. Something WILL get them.
This spring/summer we've taken to giving our poults whey, from our cheese making. They guzzle the stuff and are growing exceedingly well.
I don't know how anyone can sell free range turkeys. By the time we get them up to eating size they are precious. We either eat them ourselves or give them (dressed out) as gifts to SPECIAL friends. The cost and labor in raising them is quite high. It's almost a nightly ritual for me to retrieve at least one or two, from a fence or tree, and "tuck them in for the night."
George
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Post by bunkie on Jun 10, 2009 10:48:21 GMT -5
here's a relatively new site with some good info on chickens... www.motherearthnews.com/Happy-Homesteader/Community-Chickens-Site.aspxThe Community Chickens website, www.communitychickens.com/ serves as a resource for poultry information. As part of our commitment to poultry enthusiasts everywhere, we will be hatching eggs, trialing incubators, brooding chicks, raising and processing broilers and writing articles and reports that chronicle our efforts every step of the way. Our goal is to get more people raising poultry for food, fun, pest control and profit. “Community chickens” could mean a lot of things. In some neighborhoods, people take turns caring for the chickens: Someone opens the coop in the morning; another person gathers eggs during the day; someone else may feed chickens. Everyone shares the responsibility — and the eggs. If responsibilities are clearly defined, that's a great idea for the right group of people. But our project is about bringing information to the community of people who are interested in raising poultry.
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Post by grunt on Jun 10, 2009 19:39:44 GMT -5
If you want your poults to learn to forage, give them to the care of a broody hen when her chicks hatch out. They will get taught to scratch, and that almost everything, green or not, can be food. Unfortunately, they can't raise the IQ level much higher than mushroom level.
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Post by bluelacedredhead on Jun 10, 2009 21:35:24 GMT -5
George, are you sure it's parasites that is the problem with your turkeys?
How many years have you been raising fowl on the same ground?
If it's intestinal parasites, then deworm them. Antibiotics will NOT do anything for a worm load. And if it's External parasites, then delouse them with a good Sulfa/Pyrethrin dust like Dri-Kill.
I'm thinking that it's not a parasite problem, but something else?
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Post by flowerpower on Nov 23, 2009 5:09:02 GMT -5
I was just reading pg 1 of this thread again. I got alot of ideas for my Seramas. They need a really high protein diet. There are lots of good hints and info for winter care on that page.
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Post by Alan on Nov 24, 2009 21:10:36 GMT -5
This really is a good thread. I would love to see the knowledge here continue to expand as well.
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Post by ozarklady on Dec 22, 2009 18:45:57 GMT -5
Is it spring yet? I got a nice (?) surprise the other day, a whole clutch of new baby chicks, and I didn't even know we were expecting. It had been well below freezing for weeks. I went to feed, and I heard baby chicks, I thought, wishful thinking, but, I looked anyhow. There sat a tiny wyandot bantam, all fluffed up on the lot yard, and two dead baby chicks, new ones were beside her. I moved her, and lo and behold, 7 lively ones underneath her. I caught mama and babies, caged them, and headed for the feed store for chick starter. They are currently almost, not quite a week old. And now a muscovey duck is making setting hen grunts at feeding times... They are not dumb, the muscoveys have figured out that my desk is in front of a window, so at feeding time the ducks fly up there and congregate at my window looking sad, until I get up, then they fly to the feed barrels. My birds are free range, except for mamas with new babies and freezing temps. She couldn't get them to food and water, due to the temps so she was pleased to be rescued and caged.
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Post by Alan on Dec 25, 2009 13:51:55 GMT -5
Wow! Awesome Ozark.
The weird weather patterns here in southern Indiana are playing cruel and unusual tricks on my heritage turkeys who are laying eggs almost every other day already and mating!
If they are still going by January I'm gonna start hatching!
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Post by mnjrutherford on Mar 28, 2010 9:35:54 GMT -5
Hayne, the whole oats and other grains, along with catfish feed (of all things!) sound very "foriegn" to me. What sort of store should I look for them in? Feed & Grain (that is my best guess)? I've read through the thread only once so far. I need to read it again a couple more times to fully digest it all. How much of the chicken information can I apply to our guineas? This is wonderful info and I REALLY appreciate having it all here in one tidy spot!
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