I emptied the pool a little while ago for a cleaning and refill. The ducks and geese were real impatient to get in. They know the hose means clean water. It was half full when they started jumping in. I pulled my chair away cause they were splashing. The ducks were in hyper mode wanting to splash and play. Hanzel the goose just wanted to relax and bath. He got real mad and grabbed one of the ducks by a wing and wouldn't let go. I jumped up and ran over yelling at him. He finally let go but took a big chunk of feathers out of the poor duck. I'd never seen him so angry!!! That duck is now giving Hanzel wide berth!!! Shortly before this the two crested ducks had been arguing over a smaller bin filled with water! It's hot and muggy here so I guess they're all on a short fuse today.
MollyD
A big fight!
Oh no!!!!! Hope all is ok. Fuse can run short on a hot and muggy day.
They seem to have settled down some. Helps that nighfall is coming. The ducks are almost wild and don't like to be handled so it's hard to check for injuries. I didn't see any blood and he was flexing his wings later (like it hurt) but they didn't seem to be broken.
MollyD
So sorry, Molly, that Hanzel did that.
We lost a little rooster this morning. when DH went out to take care of the keets and roos he found one with its head flopping down on the ground. I picked it up and checked, but I think it had a broken neck. It couldn't even lift it at all. It was all stretched out and just as limp as a rag. Don't know what caused it. All the others are fine, just that one. I had DH put it down as it seemed to be suffering.
GG
GG are they in a coop at night?
I have one friend that lives in Galveston and he has 100 chickens, they sleep in the trees he says. His are the fighting chickens.
Karen
Karen, these are entirely locked in the expansion to the henhouse for the next 6 to 8 weeks to imprint the keets with where they are to come home to. They aren't even allowed outside at any time.
All of our poultry are cooped except when we let the adults free-range in the evening. We haven't even started letting the young adults out to free-range yet, as they aren't old enough and smart enough to "go home" yet. When they do that (when they start laying), we will probably put them with the adults and then they will free-range like the others.
GG
So he was hurt inside. :( Gee.
Thanks for your knowledge, I didn't know those things.
I'm real concerned about taking my roos to the horse lot this fall. I was out there last night and saw a skunk. He was real cute and not far from me, but I know what I've read about what they can do to chickens. My dogs used to kill opossums, so I know they are around as well.
I was thinking about making one large pen with the 1/2 inch all on the bottom and sides, but that hardware cloth isn't cheap, so I'm not sure what to do. I want them to have a nice place to live.
I may end up with two or three chicken tractors, or pen and tractors. Sometimes I could go out and free range them in the evenings like you do, but not all the time. These chickens are almost impossible to catch if they don't want me to touch them. So it's not like I could put them up anytime I wanted to.
Last night I was sitting in my chair outside and the smallest chicken I have, I call her baby buff, jumped from the ground into my lap. I was startled. It was nice, but I didn't know they could do that, or would even "want" to do that. Several of them are getting kind of friendly with me. :)
Remember when I started this and I asked about chickens around my vegetable garden? Someone said I would have to fortify it like Fort Knox . I think we forgot to fortify our real Fort Knox because all of the gold disappeared... someone didn't fortify ... hmm... how my mind wanders. Nevertheless, the chickens ate all my sweet potatoes I had worked so hard to grow. I am a first time gardener too, so I have temporarily put the 1/2 inch hardware cloth around the garden. It's all fun. At least I am learning.
Should I apologize for these long posts? I dunno, but thinking about that gold, I googled and found this site, if anyone else is interested in where our gold went. Pretty interesting. http://www.apfn.net/Doc-100_bankruptcy10.htm
Karen
Karen, we have found out that, for some reason, critters don't like the orange snow fencing, and they stay away from it. Our coop (yard) is surrounded on three sides with that and we haven't many critters even come around in the past 4 years that we've had chickens there. We did have a possum 4 years ago and another one this year. We dispatched both of them. Our next door neighbor doesn't have it around his garden, he doesn't have chickens, and he gets visited by all sorts of critters. So, I think it works to keep critters out of gardens and chicken coops.
We put it around the pumpkin patch last year and the deer didn't come anywhere near it. So, it kept them away too.
GG
Wow
Granny.......orange snow fencing, WOW. Who would have thought it would work so well as a critter barrier? I told my DH we were going to have to something to protect the garden or we would lose it. Nothing yet. Today I caught our 14 jumbo whites in the garden and how to shoo them out. With those great big mouths and beaks of theirs, they would have cleaned us out in no time. I told DH he just wasn't going to be able to let them out to run when no one is outside to watch them. So far, the chickens have been busy in the pasture and haven't found it. (knock on wood!)
Christy
pic of the jumbo whites.......they are a lot bigger now. The Royal Palm is no longer with us....he was the first one we got to eat. (the dog got a hold of his tail feathers)
ladybug, that white tom is beautiful. I didn't realize that the jumbo white toms had so much color to them. If I ever decide to get turkeys, those are the ones I would get. We have wild turkeys all around us here, and of course they are bronze.
GG
Yes I agree just beautiful. A little while down the road I do plan on getting some turkeys also. We dont have many people here(unbelievable I know) that raise birds of such, so maybe I will have a market to sell them and recoop some $$$. Anyway, When I do I will get this kind. Question tho, are they spiteful . Are they mean. I go out to feed them and they want to be on top of my head or try to attack me.
Tia
Granny......the tom with the color is a royal palm. The others in that pen are the jumbo whites. He is the one that we couldn't figure out if he was a he or she for the longest time....he wouldn't puff out or make any noises while we had a more dominant Black Spanish around. After the BS was gone he started acting like a tom so we called him Mr. Big Shot. He was quite a bit bigger than the jumbo whites, but with him being the only other turkey (his lady hen was sitting on eggs) he was lonely and would spend most of his day outside the jumbo white pen, so we put him in with them.
The jumbo whites are pure white and grow a little bit like cornish cross chickens. So fast that their feathers can't keep up with their skin.
Tia....we haven't raised near as many turkey's as we have chickens, but I have not noticed any of them being mean or spiteful. In fact they are VERY friendly. When we let them out of their pen to graze, they love following you around everywhere. It can be pretty funny to watch.....it looks like a parade going through the yard.
I think raising them is a good idea, but I will warn you........there seems to be a learning curve on them, a little different than chickens.......in my opinion and limited experience. I don't know everything about them of course, but I know they can be very 'dumb'. When you first get them you have to put shiny stones or pebbles in their water and food and keep a very close eye on them to make sure everyone is eating and drinking..........some can't seem to find the food and water and instead of looking for it, they'll wonder around and starve themselves to death and die. The shiny stones seem to work really well though. To me it seems that they can get breathing problems more easily than chickens, like colds, and it can kill them if not caught and treated. With treatment though, they seem to recover quickly.
I think they are for sure worth raising, and there was never better tasting turkey!
On a side note.....our little black spanish hen has hidden in the tall grass across the road with her nest and we are waiting on pins and needles to see if she has babies soon. They would be a Black Spanish/ Royal Palm mix.....I'm wondering what that would look like.
a pic of the hen.....she makes a quick dash out of her nest once every other day to eat and drink.......I was lucky enough to catch her this day.
Molly.....how is Hanzel doing now? Are they all still running on a short fuse or have they calmed down?
Christy
wow wonderful, good luck on the new babies. I will consider raising turkey. I want to but I need the coop for them. I bet it is a parade. Would love to see pics of that.
Christy things are a bit better right now. I just added some fencing and made their space about 1/3rd larger so they're occupied eating new stuff and exploring :-) Thanks for asking.
on those turkeys. Next year I'm going to try my hand at raising a few for the freezer. What breed would give me turkeys to butcher at 20 pounds size the fastest? How long would I have tor raise them to get to that weight?
MollyD
also awaiting an answer.
i would go with naragansetts... good for your climate... start them early
About when is considered early TF ?
MollyD
well, i was thinking most start the fast growing turkeys in may or june for eating in Nov... you could start yours so that they are full feathered and ready to go out about the time you get grass, when would that be? then let them grow slower by free ranging them. you would save on turkey feed and they would taste better. and get them in the freezer well before the holiday...... counting backwards i guess i am thinking end of March...
tf, when you say free range on grass, are you saying no feed at all just the grass in the field? Maybe an occasional treat, ie scratch, scraps.. whatever?? Do you want a nice clean grass - weed free field for the birds or will they taste funny? Do you raise turkeys on chick starter feed?
OK, enough for now...
Hi tf,
Grass and being outside here would be around April and some years well into May. We've had blizzards in April.
If I start them in March won't they freeze on the way to me? March can have sub zero weather here. Would have to keep them in the house or heat their space outside. Cost of fuel for 2 months or more would outstrip any savings on feed during the summer!
Free ranging is impossible here between predators and loose dogs. Even my chickens etc are in a very large penned in area to keep them somewhat safe.
I'm not worried about the holidays. I think of turkey as a year round meat.
MollyD
yeah, MD< guess you will have t o wait then.
i was thinking of these "chicken tractors" i have seen for cornish cross. they are basically the size of a pickup camper shell. and you just put thenm out in a different location every day.
chickens love weeds, esp little sprouts. i don't know enough about turkeys, just brain storming out loud. pretty much safe to do that with Molly LOL, but looks like i just stirred up your brain fran!
i dont' think weeds woul dmake turkey meat taste funny. just looking at the need for all of us to cut back on our grain consumption to save on our feed bill. obviously they would be eating bugs as well.
chick starter is too low protein. they need turkey starte or game bird starter. some people say turkeys have to have the amprolium antibiotics in their feed to prevent cocciodosis, i wonder if this has anything to do with them not being so smart?
if i ever get to raise turkeys for meat, i want to see if i can do it with little grain...
tf
well,,,, hello.. of course you stirred my brain. You should see ME & U, they are both on their way to 15 pounds.. I wonder if anyone has every seen a cornish X in love.. they both think DH is the bomb... I HAVE to do a video of them running to him... one day they will both (the cornish, that is) keel over in the middle of thier "bo derrick" love scene trying to get to mike.
Anyway, If I can handle these two mindless wonders.. and the silkie gang.. I can certianly eat.. opps, I mean raise a few turkeys..
I was wondering about the free rangeng though.. I keep hearing it.. and have heard in fact, I could keep U & ME alive longer if I stopped feeding them and made them forrage for their food. As it is they have for their grain food now.. I do not bowl it... they have to search for it.. a little exercise..
thank full they are getting thier excercise... you are too sweet to keep them happy and comfortable before you consume them...
thats what the "tf stands for.... TOO FUNNY! ;-)
LOL!
;-D