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Post by katievt on Jun 1, 2015 17:02:42 GMT
We spent most of Sunday building a turkey coop in the barn. We were able to reuse lumber & tin, so that the only cost to us was a roll of chicken wire. We bought a big roll and used a third - so only have $18.00 into the pen! My husband let me use his air-compressor powered staple gun which was fun! Still have some details to finish (the door is a sheet of plywood screwed shut), but it is a nice, safe turkey coop. There were 2 hens sitting on eggs - one with 3, the other with 5. I carefully packed them in a warm cooler (heating pad & warm towels) for transport. My sister, purplequeenvt, fired up her incubator as a backup, but they got on the nests I made right away! They were on them this morning as well, so I'm hopeful. He also gave me 2 fresh eggs, which I have in the fridge for safekeeping. I'll keep collecting eggs and maybe we will use the incubator. Can you keep toms together? We put them in the same pen and they started fighting. Since we had to get a second load of turkeys, we separated them before knowing if they'd just do a little posturing, some jumps, and then be fine together. He is currently in our silo room loose (with a bunch of caged bunnies) while we decide what to do with him. We ended up with 3 toms and 4 hens, as the man's wife told him he couldn't keep his pet turkey. Since I don't know where I'd put 2 toms, much less 3, I gave one to my sister, L, who is thrilled with "Bubba". She was really jealous I was getting Narragansett turkeys. I'll try to post pictures later!
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Post by Deleted on Jun 2, 2015 0:25:14 GMT
We raise White Palm, Bronze and Blue Slate turkeys together and our toms don't really fight. We used to let the turkeys free range with some chickens but we lost a lot of chickens so we now have all the chickens and turkeys in a big run. We only have 2 toms left and they don't fight, but the Blue Slate walks around posturing a lot. You see some of our roosters try to mate with the turkey hens! We have 4 different houses the poultry can go in to and most of the turkeys don't even hang around with other turkeys. We have a bunch of guinea hens that follow around a bronze turkey ( maybe it is because they all have the same dark coloring.
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Post by bergere on Jun 2, 2015 10:01:05 GMT
Way cool, look forward to the photos!
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Post by shellymay on Jun 2, 2015 11:30:46 GMT
I don't own turkeys but I have seen toms together on other peoples farms, one would think that you could run them together, my friend did tell me that if your tom to hen ratio is to much the hens are always being mounted and they never get a break as soon as one tom done another on top of her, doesn't seem right by the hens sake...
I like the thought of finding the other tom a home with a family member as well, just incase you need to borrow it back someday, but if you have good hatching rates there will always be another born....
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Post by katievt on Jun 3, 2015 1:38:23 GMT
Not sure if this will work or not...
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Post by vickilynn on Jun 3, 2015 1:44:57 GMT
That tom is very handsome!
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Post by manygoatsnmore on Jun 3, 2015 4:53:09 GMT
OMGoodness, they are beautiful!
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Post by Deleted on Jun 3, 2015 9:05:10 GMT
They are really beautiful!
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Post by shellymay on Jun 3, 2015 12:19:04 GMT
Beautiful, wow just wow
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Post by bergere on Jun 3, 2015 13:55:58 GMT
Stunning Turkeys!
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Post by Mari-in-IN on Jun 3, 2015 14:44:57 GMT
Absolutely gorgeous!! Makes me want turkeys now... But alas, no room... Thanks so much for sharing!
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Post by katievt on Jun 3, 2015 15:34:36 GMT
We had our first turkey "adventure" last night and this morning...
"Turkeyman" has been living in the Silo Room amongst the bunnies, as he doesn't get along with the other tom. (The previous owner called him that - he was his pet.) Last night, I thought it would be nice to let him out to roam around. We were outside for awhile and he followed us around. Then I went in to make dinner. I checked on him a few times and he was sticking around. When my husband went to put him in at dusk, he was gone! No where to be found, but I tried not to stress. "He's just found a nice place to sleep", I thought. But this morning I still couldn't find him!
Until we were driving to work and he was a quarter mile down the road in the neighbor's driveway! He went to say hi! He was scooped up, driven back home, and locked back in the Silo Room. Any ideas on how to best apologize to our neighbors??? I can't bake cookies/brownies since I don't have an oven. Our chickens aren't laying, but I could see if I could buy some from my sister. Anything else make good "sorry for my crazy turkey" gifts?
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Post by shellymay on Jun 3, 2015 16:30:23 GMT
A simple apology would surely work, heck they may have enjoyed his beauty like we did, thank gosh no harm came to him......If he does it again then maybe some cookies from the bakery and I would leave the neighbor your phone number so with the cookie bribe maybe they will call you if it happens again and you wouldn't be out all night
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Post by aoconnor on Jun 3, 2015 22:40:46 GMT
Whoa! They are so gorgeous!!! I never thought turkeys could be so pretty...color me impressed:-)
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