All in a Monday Morning

Hope you're enjoying your sunny (hot) Monday!

So far today, we've picked up the latest meat chick order from the post office (2 didn't make it) and got them situated in their brooder tank.

 Last night, we moved the turkey poults from the brooder to the pasture to make room for the new arrivals. This morning, we found 4 dead and 1 missing which leaves 6 still derping and chirping. I guess someone gets to sit out with the turkeys tonight to take care of the skunk (at least, that's what we're assuming it was. Skunks leave tell-tale signs at the scene of the crime. They slaughter their prey which is usually a significant percentage of the flock (that's putting it nicely), let their kills ferment for a day, and then they'll return the next night to feast. Really disturbing. Really gross. But it means that we can deal with the perpetrator. 

On top of turkey drama, we need to get the first batch of meat chickens out of their brooder tanks and onto pasture. They've put on enough weight and size to be moved out. Guess we'll have to do the great chicken shuffle this evening since it's going to be too warm to do anything productive this afternoon. 

Today is a day for chocolate. And a lot of iced tea. Because it's too hot for a proper cup of tea. ;) 

Until next time!

SG

Turkey Trails

Some say that turkeys don't have brains; that they're 'stupid.' I guess you could say that they have a bad case of bird brains. Yes, they're dorky, somewhat resemble certain politicians, make a sounds like 'Derp!' and remind me of dinosaurs. Despite the odds stacked against them, they're smarter than they're given credit for.

It all started with the fencing guys replacing and expanding part of the chicken yard. One corner of the fence is included in part of the pasture that the derp-derps were in. Let's just say that I forgot about the little fence issue that morning while doing the turkey chores, and they were quick to find the lack of a barricade. They couldn't have been happier. They trilled and chirped their way around the house, barn, and yard. The chicken also didn't have an enclosure, so they were relishing their new-found morning freedom as well. Things were rather noisy, as you could imagine.

We thought that the dino-birds would hang around their pasture since they hadn't really had the opportunity to roam. But then, we couldn't find them. It was all hands on deck to find Thanksgiving dinners #1-14. We checked the road heading up to the neighbor's, we looked in the someday vineyard, we scanned the service road and the some-day vineyard. Nothing. Eli was unimpressed with our turkey searching skills, so he headed up the hill to conduct his own. The next thing we hear, "I FOUND THEM!"

Take a guess as to the turkeys' whereabouts. Just take a guess. Yep, they were in their pasture trilling and chirping like nothing happened.

Sunny Day

Baby Day!

We've been anxiously waiting all week for Mazy to have her baby/babies. For the last two weeks we've been able to feel some knobby legs kicking around in there. We've been feeling her tail ligaments to keep tabs on how close she might be to kidding. A the while she's bagging up more and more every day. Last night, the poor girl's udder looked like it was going to pop, and her ligaments were the loosest they had been. Just in case, we put Mazy in the cleaned out kidding stall with some heat lamps. Just in case. Right before bed, Mom and I headed out to the barn to check on mama goat - no new developments. At 6:30 this morning, Mom checked on the goat again, and still nothing. Although her ligaments were pretty gosh darn loose. We knew she'd kid today.

Fast forward only an hour. We get a call from the post office saying they had a cheeping box with our name on it. The baby turkeys are here! We've also been waiting for them all week. Mom started pulling herself together to go pick up all the tiny dinners. 

Jess had already headed out to the barn to do her chores when she hears this 'BAA!!!' Ohmyword. Baby goats! It's twins - a boy and girl. Jess comes in and tells Jake the latest and greatest in news from the barn (since he was the only one in the kitchen at that time). Jake runs up to tell Mom then runs out to the barn (with just a t-shirt and shorts on, might I add). There were two shivering little ones in the corner opposite the heat lamps. We just missed the birth (whine whine) 

Once we got the twins warmed up a bit, we realized that we still had to do chicken chores, meat chicken chores, goat chores, milking, and fetch the baby turkeys. Oh yeah... At least we already had a brooder tank set up for the turkeys. ;) I think our barn has reached maximum capacity now.

Well, I'll stop babbling and let you see all the new little ones! :D  

Turkey dinner. In six months.

Mamma goat. With a cutie bug in the background.

Thing 1 and Thing 2. That's little mister on the left and little miss on the right. We're thinking that we like the names 'Benedict' and 'Beatrice' from Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing. We'd call them 'Ben' and 'Bea' for short. :)

Our next doe is due in about 2 weeks! :D I don't know how we'll be able to contain all the cute that's going to be running around. 

Poultry Products

Well, we're down to the laying hens, the turkeys and the little pullets. Chores are done in mere minutes now. ;) 

One of these things doesn't belong with the others. 

Strut your stuff

I think she wants out. 

What is that circular thing in our run? I think it's looking at us.

Hello, handsome. You look big and tasty. 

A New Perch

Guess where our turkeys have decided to spend their nights. 

Don't worry. We shoo them into the coop at night so predators won't get a bite of our Thanksgiving investment. ;) 

Turkey Talk

We've done turkeys before. The first year we tried to free range great whites. Bad idea. They grow so fast that their legs can't support the weight. Then they end up just sitting there with their faces planted in the food dish. Such American birds... The next time around we gave broad breasted bronze a chance. The only issue that arose - we had to use the saws-all to cut the carcass just to fit it in the turkey roaster since the toms grew to be 40 pounds each (and we had 4 toms and 1 hen. The boys duked it out over the girl... I sense trouble). This year, we're trying out a heritage breed - Bourbon Reds.

I've always like turkeys. Despite their dorky, almost dinosaur-like mannerisms. (I think I've been hanging out with the mini-man. I'm starting to compare everything to dinosaurs!) Maybe I like them because they're dorky. Who knows? 

But these birds, they're even more turkey than the turkeys that we've done before. Before we shut them into the pasture, they roamed around the house, derping and trilling in their own special sort of way, and sitting in all the landscaping. No more! Get those turkeys off the porch! Shoo them off the deck! They leave a mess and destruction in their wake, and there's 12 of them. So after some shuffling, they ended up staying in the pasture with the walnut tree and llama. They :really: liked the walnut tree. So much so that they decided that it would be their new roost. They would climb up to the deck, hop up onto the rail, and fly into the walnut tree. Well, that lasted for about two weeks until they decided that they liked the deck railing more. NOOOO!!! 

Well, things were reshuffled, and the turkeys have been contentedly enjoying their new pasture with a rock pile. Yeah, they like to roost on that now. :P