2-3 week Turkey Update

The turkey-heads at 2 1/2 weeks. They don't hold still very often!

They always come over to see me when I get near the coop. 

Poor little Igor the Narragansett with the neck problem. His foot has since gotten better :) 2 1/2 Weeks

Bourbon Red Poult at 3 weeks

The turkeys are now 3 weeks old! I have been so busy that I missed the two week update. They have grown! At a week and a half old I moved them out of the indoor cage and into the outdoor tractor/brooder. They just didn't have enough room to move around as much as they needed to in the one and half foot by 3 foot ferret cage they were in. They peeped a lot and wanted a lot of attention, which I attributed to them being bored. The new set-up has a brooder box which measures approximately four feet wide by two and a half feet deep and has a slanted roof which is two and a half feet high at the tallest point and two feet high at the shortest. I moved the brooder lamp out with them but had to change the bulb from the 200 watt bulb I was using inside to a 60 watt bulb because it was so much warmer outside. The brooder has a hinged door which doubles as a ramp so that they can access the outer run. The run is completely closed in with chicken wire and measures 4 feet wide by 6 feet long and is approximately 2 feet tall. They have plenty of room to run and flap their wings now! I close them up in the brooder at night and open the hatch and allow them to move outdoors into the run but they still always have access to the brooder, where the food and water are located. At around 2 weeks old they started really playing with each other. They seem to try to tie each other up with their necks. They stand up super tall and chest bump, reminding me of adolescent guys when they get in each others faces. Some of the poults have started hanging their wings down to the ground, puffing their feathers up, and marching in little tiny circles around other poults which hunch down on the ground. They look like little tiny adult turkeys when they do it and I have even heard the faint sound of them drumming. I am assuming that the puffed up turkeys are the males and the ones that assume the more passive role, hunched down on the ground, are the females. I am looking forward to finding out if my assumption is correct. They have feathered out more extensively. They now have not only their wing feathers fully in, but also have tail feathers and are feathering out on their backs. Their tummy, chest, and neck are still covered only with baby fluff. The turkey-heads know my "call" of "turkey, turkey turkey" and come running to where ever I am closest when they hear it (funnily enough, so does the mocking bird who resides in my yard. He has started calling the turkeys too!). It makes it much easier to put them away for the night. I open the brooder, call them, they run in, and I shut the hatch. Much easier than the old way of picking each one up, putting it inside, and watching helplessly as it runs back out while I am picking up the next one. They also look forward to their daily treat of watermelon, which they get during the hottest part of the day to cool them down. The brooder is located under a large oak tree, in an area of my yard that is shady all day long, but it still gets warm in the southern Mississippi heat. I put pine chips in the brooder to absorb any waste that the messy babies leave. In the run I cut feed bags into long sheets and covered the ground and then placed hay on top of it to keep them from digging down to the soil. I am still worried about them getting blackhead from the chickens, or any other disease as their immune systems are not fully developed until they are around 8 weeks of age. I had to place wood and tin roofing over the run to keep the chickens from pooing down into the run since they insist on perching on top of it. They were living in there just a few months ago. The chickens have taken to standing outside the run and watching the poults. The roosters, especially, seem fascinated by them, and stand very still, right up against the wire so the poults can pull at their feathers. Surprisingly, they don't seem to be the least bit aggressive towards the turkeys. One of the turkey heads has something wrong with it's little neck and one of it's legs. It keeps its neck pulled all the way down to its chest and while it can extend it down to the ground to pick stuff up, it doesn't seem to be able to stand up straight.One if it's feet (where our ankles should be, a bird's ankle is actually what we would think of as a knee and it bends backwards) is swollen larger than the other. It just hobbles around, but is still eating and drinking properly. I've been keeping an eye on it but have decided to name it Igor and hope that it continues to function normally. The neck issue appears to be a permanent issue and although I think I would have noticed before last week, it looks like a problem that it may have hatched with. Only time shall tell how well it will do as it grows. As of now, they are all doing wonderfully and I am still really enjoying their bubbly little personalities.

My First Time Culling Chickens

Yes... I did the deed. I sent my first small batch (5) of chickens to "Freezer Camp". The roosters in question were becoming very aggressive and bullying the other chickens. One of them was aggressive toward me, as well. I always put the last of the chickens that are roaming around the coop into the coop at dusk so I can close them in where it is safe for the night. When I reached down to pick this one up he flew at my face, feet/claws first, flogged me, and left a 6 inch scratch down one cheek, Thankfully I backed up and turned when he started toward me because he nearly got me in the eye. I have never had one of my roosters attack me like that. I sat and watched the chickens, like I usually do, at dusk, and waited for them to go into the coop. Each time one of the bullies attacked another chicken I marked him with paint so I would know which  they were the following morning. Four of the five were white, which I thought was odd considering that there are a number of different breeds. Three of them were Red Star roosters, one was a white wyandotte, and the last one was affectionately called "hell Turken". I had always read that Turkens are really friendly, and the others in my flock are, but not this one. He bullied everyone, despite the fact that he was much smaller than them. The next morning my fiance, Brad, and I rounded up the roos that made the most wanted list and placed them in the recently vacated ferret cage, which became death row. The one that flogged me was first, because I was still pretty upset about him attacking me, and I thought it would be easier for me. I had only culled one other chicken. He had been brilliant and had eaten all but about 6 inches of a 7 foot long feed bag string that he had found laying next to the feed bag (who knew they would do that?!) and wasn't going to make it. It was mercy killing. I admit that, although I cussed and swore that I would enjoy dispatching that... darn... rooster the following night when he had flogged me, I cried and felt terrible when the time actually came. My main issue is that I am afraid that I won't do it right the first time and they will suffer. For this reason I decided that the best way to do it is to completely sever the head. They can't feel pain if the brain is not connected to the pain receptors in the body (I hope) and it is instant death. Brad held them upside down by the feet, which calms them a lot. I assume that it is because the blood rushes to their head and they get a bit whoosy. I prefer to think that they are whoosy, anyway, and would happily give them a drink to calm their nerves if I could. It would make me feel better. Brad insisted that I do the deed, which I understand. This was the intention when I ordered the chicks, and I have a lot left to send to "Freezer Camp", yet. If I don't get it over with now, I will never be able to do it. It was over pretty quickly. I held each one, petted it, and thanked it for giving its life to feed my family before it was dispatched, which may have made it harder to do, but I feel better about it in the end. After the head was severed, and muscle contractions ceased, they were hung upside down over a bucket to drain. Cleaning them was much easier, as they were no longer in pain and I could then stop looking at them as a live animal, but as food... or a cadaver. All of the dissection experience at school helped immensely, the pigeon from avian biology , in particular.The science part of my mind took over and it went from there. I plucked three of the white chickens, as they dress out better because of the feather color not leaving dark marks on the meat. I heated a large pot of water, dunked and swirled the chicken until I couldn't lift it by a wing feather without the feather coming out. This made it very easy to pluck the bird, as the feathers came out by the handful. I have considered going into more detail about cleaning the actual bird, including pictures, but I am still debating whether it would be appropriate to post. That may be a future post. After aging in the fridge for 48 hours, I was very pleased to be able to cook my family a dinner, made almost entirely from food that I grew myself. Chicken, green beans, onions, fresh basil and rosemary, and finally, potatoes and garlic (neither of which I grew.... next year!) all combined in a casserole dish and baked. It was amazing and such a satisfying experience. As much as I hate the culling part of the process, I love every other step, and the end result is worth it. Delicious chicken for my family, with more flavor than factory chicken, higher in Omega 3's, vitamin D, and many other vitamins and nutrients because it was free ranged, it lived a happy healthy life in the sun and grass, and died a quick and as pain free of a death as possible. Anyone can say I am cruel if they feel they need to, but I think that I have made not being a vegetarian as humane as it can possibly get, and for that, I feel wonderful.

Building an Above Ground Vegetable Garden

My new garden (2011) I had forgotten how sad, dead, and desolate it looked just last year! I have worked a lot on cleaning the tree line up and getting the grass to grow in the yard, as well as on the garden itself. It is AMAZING what a year can do!

The small garden and the new faucet I installed near the garden. THEN (2011)

and NOW (2012)

Along with the chickens, turkeys, and blueberries that I have been busy with, I also have a veggie garden (among my other gardens). I started out with a typical garden. The soil was tilled and seeds were planted directly into the ground. Unfortunately, nothing grew very well like that. The soil got compacted quickly because people were walking on it while tending to the plants. The soil, itself, was poor, and consisted mainly of red clay. The topsoil had been bulldozed off along with the trees that were standing there shortly before we moved onto the property. Hence, it was sitting in large piles along with the remnants of the trees. It is really difficult to amend a whole large garden's worth of soil! When the garden was watered, the water just puddled up in some placed, creating large bogs, and ran down the hill in others, creating huge ruts. Something had to give... One of the large piles of trees and soil that had been bulldozed where still in good condition, and were stacked neatly on top of each other. I measured 6 foot sections of the logs(except for two- 11ft and two-8 ft logs for the tomato garden), Brad cut them (as, while he lets me do most things, he won't let me use the chainsaw... pout), and we hauled them up the hill. My son, Keegan, and I measured 4 foot walk ways and laid the 6 foot logs into squares. Once the logs were placed into 8 perfect squares with pretty little walk ways running between each, and one 11ft by 8ft rectangle, I began putting the topsoil to use. I filled the beds by hand (this took a couple weeks of steady work as the topsoil mound was at the bottom of the hill and I had to transport it using a wheel barrow and a shovel) and made sure not to pat the soil down. The beds were then, officially, "No Walk Zones". The soil never has to be tilled or turned over if it is never compacted to begin with. Several inches of cow manure mixed with hay were placed in each bed and allowed to age and compost was added. Even with all of this work, last year's garden was not wonderful. This year it is amazing, though! At the end of growing season I put hay and chicken manure onto the garden, as I clean out the coop, and allow it to age and decompose over the winter. In the spring, when I plant my seeds, I add compost and then cover the garden beds with clean hay, leaving only the small area where I plant each seed slightly exposed. The hay is thick and keeps weeds from growing, as well as keeping moisture in. This spring I added an irrigation system. It still needs a bit of work, but has cut down the time I spend watering the garden drastically. I cut two 50ft drip hoses into fourths. Trenches were dug between each bed and pvc was laid. Reducers were placed on each end and attached to a drip hose with a metal clamp and pvc cement. The drip hoses were run around each bed and the pvc was buried. The two rows (each row has 4 beds) were connected via a hose splitter, and a main hose is connected to the faucet. All I have to do now is turn the water on and all 8 veggie bed water themselves while I water the tomatoes, strawberry patch, blueberry bushes, flower beds, and herb pots by hand with separate hoses.

Veggie Garden

The tomato bed in the foreground and the smaller beds behind it along with a few random sunflowers that sprouted in the middle of the yard. I must have dropped seeds and didn't have the heart to cut them down.  :) Several of the beds are equipped with plastic netting to protect the plants from the free ranging chickens that like to eat what is planted there. 

My little garden <3

Cucumbers and corn with watermelon growing out into the yard

Cantaloupe, corn, sunflowers, tomatoes, and watermelon.
All thriving in a 6 foot bed. 

I love growing my own vegetables. The taste of veggies straight out of the garden and the pride of knowing that I grew it from a tiny little seed is something that I find really fulfilling. I plant my garden beds differently than most people do, however. It is partially due to the fact that I have several above ground garden beds, rather than a single in ground set-up. I prefer the above ground beds for several reason. It is much easier to water and fertilize efficiently, to begin with. It is easier to concentrate my effort on distinct areas, instead of a large area, part of which is just going to be for path ways in between rows. I also love not having to turn the soil.... ever! Yep, no tilling required. The beds have 4 foot paths in between so the beds are never walked on and compacted. Most plants that  are grown for food don't require sunlight to ever penetrate the soil. Weeds, on the other hand, thrive in freshly exposed and turned soil. No tilling means less weeds. It also means no soil erosion, because all of the soil is kept in by sides. Because I only have a specific area to plant in, I plant my garden differently. I don't plant only one type of plant per bed. I let them compliment each other. The plants that grow in long vines but have small fruits, such as cantaloupe, cucumber, and zucchini are planted with plants that grow up, such as corn, sunflowers, or spare tomatoes. The ground covering plants keep the soil cool and prevent much loss of moisture while the taller plants can still get sun. Beans and peas can travel up corn and sunflower stalks rather than having to put in poles or trellises. The plants that grow long vines and have large fruits, such as watermelons and pumpkins, are planted on the other edge of the garden at the very side of the beds so that they can extend into the yard and not take up valuable bed space.The taller plants, such as sunflowers are planted along the outer edge, as well, so they they don't block sun from smaller plants. The only beds that I have planted with a single species are the bell and hot peppers,which are neither tall or vining and so need the room for themselves, and the tomatoes which bush out enough to block light from everything else. In the other beds, I have around four different plant types, all in a six foot square. And guess what? It is working beautifully! In the cucumber bed I have corn planted every foot, and watermelon vining from in between them out into the grass. In the eggplant bed, I have pie pumpkins vining out into the yard, and it too, is lined on one side by sunflowers. The cantaloupe bed, has not only sunflowers and watermelon lining one side, but  is also supporting several corn stalks and four tomato plants that I thinned out of the tomato bed. I have read about the three sisters sway of gardening, which the Native Americans used, and altered it a bit. The three sisters method calls for corn stalks, peas or beans planted at the base to vine up, and a type of squash planted close by to shade the ground. It worked for them, without chemical fertilizer and irrigation systems. I am proud to attest to the fact that it still works. I have never had such a beautiful garden!

Pruning Blueberry Bushes

As strange as it sounds, pruning and thinning plants is stressful for me. It is something that I dread doing. I hate being wasteful and feel like that I am throwing away something that is still perfectly useful. I know, however, that it is of greater benefit to prune and thin plants than to leave them all crowded together. The blueberry bushes are pretty much done producing berries this year. I have been putting off pruning them for about a week, but I finally got it done today. When I moved onto our property, the blueberry patch was very overgrown and dying. One of the first things that I worked one, before we were even completely moved in, was cleaning them up. There were very few berries on the bushes and a ton of dead limbs and brush surrounding them. The following two years I was amazed by the amount of berries we got off of the plants! We could easily pick 30 lbs of berries each time and we picked at least twice a week. This year was different. I didn't prune the bushes since the first year because they were doing so well. Why mess with a good thing, right? Wrong. This year we didn't even get half of that amount, despite the typical fertilizing of the plants (twice, once when they start budding and once around a month later when the blueberries are really starting to grow) and normal watering. Blueberry bushes grow shoots. The shoots start to produce berries at about a year old and produce the best at around 3 years of age. Once the shoots reach around 7 years old they don't produce well any more. The branches tend to crowd each other and keep proper light from reaching throughout the bush. I have read contradicting information as to when the best time to prune. Some say to do it in the spring once you can see where the buds are centralized. I went with the method of pruning them as soon as they finish producing. I made this decision because the new berries are produced on last year's growth. Once they stop producing berries they start filling out and growing next year's shoots. Any branches that will hang down and touch the ground when heavy with fruit should be pruned. Branches that are too high to reach and don't look like they will bend down soon (old growth hangs down on the sides and many times the new shoots grow straight up initially and then hang down to replace the older ones that have been removed, kind of like sharks teeth) should be cut to increase the light penetration. Any branches that are crossing over each other and not giving each other room to grow should be thinned. Not too many shoots should be cut at the same time, however. Pruning old growth, a couple of large shoots and a few smaller branches each year, will keep a succession of shoots growing and producing. As much as I hate to prune them, I am excited about the potential of having much higher fruit yield next year! This year I have a couple of gallons of berries in the freezer and I canned 12 half pint jars of jam. I am already compiling a list of options to use next year's blueberries! 

1 Week Turkey Update

Being a student, I believe, has influenced how I look at almost everything in life. When I decide that I want to start a project I make it a point to do research on it before hand. When I decided that I wanted heritage turkeys I started the search for everything turkey related. When I began raising chickens I did the same thing. Luckily there is a ton of information on keeping chickens. Turkeys, not so much. Not heritage breeds, anyway. All of the information I found was related to factory farming and the broad breasted breeds. I went to book store after book store, searched online, and asked people I know that farm. Nothing! I did find a couple of forums that have been a godsend. People that raise turkeys and are interested enough to want to join a forum are the best people to ask for advice and to learn from. The forums that I found to be most helpful are http://www.backyardchickens.com/f/20/turkeys and http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/RareHeritageTurkey/ . The first is a forum that you can go to look through questions that people have had in the past, and the answers to them, and ask your own. The second is an email group where people ask and answer questions to either the whole group or to individuals as well as simply to share stories. They both have been unbelievably valuable to me. What I still have not been able to find, however, is a place that I can see week by week pictures and information on development and personality. Perhaps I am just an overachiever and feel the need for much more information than most people. Even just pictures of the size of the turkeys would be helpful, in my opinion, because it is difficult to gauge how much room they need as they grow. And they grow rapidly.... at least that's what I have heard, since I can find no pictures! I have found a source that has been invaluable to me with chickens, and the lady posts daily pictures of a chick that she hatched in an incubator. It is really helpful as well as being highly entertaining. I don't have the time or the creativity to do that (although I would like to share her page addresses, as soon as I ask her permission, so others can benefit from her wonderful information). I am, however, going to start taking weekly pictures and sharing general information about my poults.

 The turkey-heads are a week old. They are VERY curious! Some might say nosy, I prefer curious. The want to see everything you get near them and try to figure out what it is, including my camera. The first worry I had was whether I was going to be able to get them to eat and drink. I have read many things about turkeys, one being that they are too stupid to figure out how to eat and drink on their own, and have a tendency to just forget, and die as a result. Taking the advice or many turkey keepers, I put a chicken chick in with them to show them how it was done. It only took about 30 seconds of them "chewing" on the chick for me to decide that wouldn't work. I put a supplement in their water to help boost their energy and keep them hydrated (from the hatchery but I believe you can get it at any feed store as well). After watching my hen, Idgie, with her babies I figured the best way to do it was to show them like she does her babies (I am "mom", after all, right?). I didn't put my head in there and peck at it... I opted to use my fingers instead. I dipped my fingers in the water and then into the food so that it stuck and then held my fingers up for them to peck at. It worked! For water I dipped my  fingers in the water and held them up so that they could peck the drips off of my fingertips. I did this every so often throughout the day and eventually I saw them starting to eat on their own. For the first few days I put paper towels down in the bottom of the cage and sprinkled the food on it, along with keeping a feeder in there. The bedding is likely to confuse them and with only food on the ground at their feet they are much ore likely to find it.They are eating and drinking with no help or reminders now and are doing great!
The make a peeping sound, which I believe translates  to "MOM! MOM! MOM! MOM!". It kind of sounds like a wet sponge on glass. They do this a LOT! They always face whichever direction they think I am... I can see them from my bed while I am trying to sleep. When I go over there to hold them and talk to them they stop for a while. I believe that they get bored and lonely. They have a stuffed animal in there with them to cuddle up to and it helps. I also have started putting toys, like giant cat balls, in there to amuse them. The jury is still out on whether they are stupid are very smart. I've never seen a chicken need toys to play with. They have a stick to perch on, but they are still working on landing on it. They tend to over shoot and hit the frog. When I put my hand in the cage they step up onto it to get some personal snuggle time. Much to the dismay of "my other half", I have taken to carrying them around in my shirt (well... bra if I don't have a tank top on) which keeps them warm and gives them cuddle time AND I have my hands free. They seem to enjoy it and I want to make sure that they have

enough one-on-one time to ensure that, when they are 30lb giants, they don't chase me around the yard and try to attack me. In my opinion, him thinking that I am weird (like he doesn't have a thousand other reasons to know that already) is worth the benefit the turkey-heads seem to get from it. Other than growing a bit, the main difference a week has made in their physical appearance is that their wings have feathered out and their energy level is through the roof! They still have nap time quite often though, which scares me every time I see them. All those little bodies laying everywhere with their necks bent at odd angles... I just know that I did something wrong and they all just fell over dead! As I rush over to the cage, nearly tearing up from the horrific scene before me, they pop up, bright eyed and wondering what great treat I must have to have come running over in such a hurry. Speaking of treats, they LOVE blueberries! I only give them one or two a piece every day. Without grit they are unable to properly digest anything other than turkey crumbles. The turkey crumbles must be high in protein, think around 28%. I use turkey starter/grower but game bird feed can be used if turkey feed is not available. Chicken starter/grower is not suitable. So far I am LOVING being a turkey-mom. The only thing that I am really worried about at this point is getting too attached to them. Maybe it would be a good thing to let them turn into 30lb giants that chase me around the yard...? Only time will tell... until then I'm going to continue enjoying my nosy little turkey heads. :)

Twitchy Momma Hen

 This year has been full of new experiences for me. One of which, is hatching chicks. I have gotten all of my chickens up til now from breeders, the feed store, or mailed from a hatchery, as chicks ranging from a couple of months to a couple of days old. I can't take the credit, really, for hatching chicks. Miss Idgie did all of the work. She is the only chicken that I have left from the original 6 that I got last year, all of the others having been lost to predators. Two batches of chicks after that were thinned as well, by the same means, and I only have her, Jack (the head rooster), and Lola (the hen that turned out to be a rooster). Two hen disappeared last month, only days before I left to go on a school trip to Ireland, and Idgie went broody the same day. In order to keep her from being "paid too much attention" by the two competing roosters while I was gone, I put 14 eggs under her (adding to the one she was already incubating). Happily she hatched out 11 babies about two weeks ago. I blocked off most of the upper level of the coop for her and her babies, to keep them safe from the roosters because I didn't know how they would react. Idgie has been a wonderful mommy! I go out to feed the chickens, let the "babies" (the 13 week old chicks that are in a separate coop), and check on Miss Idgie, first thing every morning. The past few days I have been noticing her acting a bit strangely. She has been twitching and making odd neck and head movements. I didn't know what to make of this. The last couple of mornings she has jumped out of the coop when I opened the door to feed and water them. She only walked around for a few minutes and then, owing to her babies chirping loudly and panicking because mom had disappeared, she jumped back in so I could close them up again. This morning she really didn't seem to want to go back in. I feel terrible for keeping her locked up and have gone through every possibility that could be making her act weird. Could she have a vitamin deficiency? Perhaps she is going insane... she does have about a dozen toddlers, right? (Haven't we all had those moments? LOL) Could she not be getting enough to eat because the babies swarm her head every time she pecks at something? Maybe she is getting too hot? None of them checked out. Finally today I just couldn't bring myself to force her to go back into the coop, and instead, took her babies out of the coop and directed them toward where mom was pecking around on the ground. I watched her closely to make sure that the other chickens didn't attack her or the babies. Jack, to my surprise, ran directly over to her, circled her a few times, and then walked along beside them, protecting them from anything that might get too close. Idgie, thrilled to be out of the coop, clucked and pecked happily with her babies swarming around her. The first order of business? A dust bath! I had been told and had read that it is best to put seven dust on hens when they start sitting on eggs to keep mites off of them. I couldn't imagine feeling comfortable with putting chemicals on my chicken that I didn't even feel comfortable putting on my plants (it can kill honey bees which are having a difficult enough time recently and I don't like using any kind of pesticide). Dust baths naturally deter mites, but when incubating eggs and being closed up in the coop that isn't possible. It finally struck me! Miss Idgie has mites! No wonder she has been twitching and acting funny. Bless her heart, she has probably been itching terribly! I'm still worried about predators hurting the chicks but I am going to remain vigilant and hope that this is the lesser of two evils. Jack and Idgie are on guard (the proud parents) and I am so very proud of them! Another lesson learned on Sunflower Hill. :)

I bet that was the best dust bath she had ever had!

The proud papa standing guard while momma shows the babies how to take a dust bath. 

Taking the kiddos on a stroll to the other side of the driveway

                                 The end of my latest chicken tail... ummm... tale :) Couldn't resist!