Rural Gardening: quack, quack, gobble, gobble, cluck, cluck, 1 by jab91864

jab91864 wrote:
It's been so busy around here I haven't had time to keep up but here is the latest scoop.

After seeing how much the "big chickies" liked it outside last weekend I decided to move them to the coop. It was a hard choice since the nights are still cold and the days are varying. I moved them out Monday night and they are doing great. I no longer spend half the night tip toeing thru the dark to walk up the chicken ramp to peek thru the window to see what they are doing.....lol.

The coop is finished except for painting the outside trim, I do want to add some insulation in the ceiling atleast sometime this spring/summer and I still have to cover the other half of the chicken yard with something (the other half I have strung fishing line but ran out and had to buy more)

The chicks are loving it in the coop !!!! I have a heat light and a red light hanging inside for added warmth. The lights are secured I double checked that before anybody went out =0) They have much more room to stretch and flap and run. They now get a morning and evening visit from me calling them to come get treats and they are already adjusting to that after the initial scatter....lol.

They have not been allowed into the chicken yard yet as I want them to have the time to learn more they need to come back when treats are brought out to be put up at night. Besides which I want the rest of the yard covered so they aren't easily picked off from above!!! The temps are only 60ish this weekend so it's still on the cool side.

My cacklehatchery order arrived on Wed. 3-runner ducks (one was dead on arrival) but the other two are doing great !!! They do this little butt wiggle thing that is sooooooooooo cute. I know I need to post pics and will get some better shots this weekend.... I hope. I have to work and it's my daughter's prom tonight so today is pretty much spoken for.

The turkeys were a nice surprise. I was really starting to fret about all I had read about turkeys. I was concerned they would not eat or drink as I have read they are sort of dumb and spend a lot of time looking up. The suggestion was to put them with chicks so the movement draws their attention downward. So at the time I placed the order I added 5-buff orpingtons to the order to be sure I had small chicks to be with the turkeys...lol.

The turkeys have been eating and drinking great and actually will run right at my hands when I put them in the brooder box. They will jump on my hands looking for food. I put all this order (except for the ducks) in with my 9-hatched out chicks from the week before. At first my hatched chicks were not pleased and faced the corner but they got over it quickly...lol.

There were 8 turkeys in this order

3 bourbon red
2 royal palm
2 large white turkey
1 narragansett turkey

On the first night one of the white turkeys cried / peeped loudly for a very long time. The kids wanted to do anything to shut it up. Finally I picked it up and held it for a good while stroking it's head and it's been content ever since, go figure. The turkeys look a lot like the chicks except they have a small wart like knot above their beaks.

Oh yeah and I have blue laced red wyandotte eggs due to hatch on Monday. Silkies and some Blue and Black standard cochins due to hatch on Tuesday. Blue and Black orpingtons due to hatch on Wed. It's going to be a busy week !!!

This is a bad pic, the red light makes it hard to see the ducklings but I will post better shots soon.

~Julie