Archive for category Blue Feather Blog

Who says turkeys are dumb?  Not me!  Somehow, Swan managed to predict a near record stretch of warm weather would occur just as her babies were ready to hatch

I raced out to the edge of the pasture yesterday morning to take a peek, but since it was still cold and damp, she was so tight on the nest that I couldn’t see a thing.  By late morning it had warmed up, and a little face popped up from beneath her breast when I spoke.  A few minutes later, I could see we had two Blue Slate and One Black Slate babes and one ominously still babe on its side under the edge of her wing.

By early afternoon, I was able to see we had at least 4, and was also sad to recover the perfect little body of the dead poult from the nest.  As of last evening, we had 6 live poults, with 5 eggs left to hatch.  So far we’ve had 5 Blue Slates and one Black Slate.  We shall see what today will bring!

As you can see from the photo, she’s currently surrounded by a large dog kennel to keep the predators away.  Tonight, she and whatever babies she has go to the barn!  I’ve got a nice area all set up, with a heat lamp that will be over the small feeders and waterers for the babies.  We put marbles in the waterer for the babes, so they don’t accidentally trip into the water and drown – we’ve had such a loss in the past.

Since Ewe One and Ewe Two (we still don’t have names yet!) are getting tamer, they got to go out into a small fenced area outside the barn – and the look on their faces was priceless as they munched on the long grass of the pasture!  It was so nice out that we ate outside last evening and watched the night creep across the clear sky – surely we’ll have few more days like this!

Well, the last of the tomatoes have ripened on the back table, so need to get canning.  Can’t wait for it to warm up so I can check for more babies!

Today’s the date I have on my calendar as a possible hatch date for Swan’s eggs.  We’re having a stretch of lovely dry, sunny weather – it got to 23C yesterday afternoon.  Nights are clear and cold, I scraped frost from my windshield to come home this morning, but the days are glorious.  I guess she may not have been so unwise in when she decided to sit anyway.  She’s all protected by her kennel and a wrap of chicken wire out there, and I’ve been bringing her dishes of food and water every day.  I’ve not seen her off the nest at all for the past few days – which makes me think she may know she’s got babies in those eggs!

After a good deal of work, and changing our minds several times about who would best go where, all the poultry except Swan are settled in their spots.  In theory!

Last night Hubby got home after dark to find all the big turkeys in the henhouse.  It was a wee tad crowded, as there are already 30 layers in there!  But carrying unhappy, heavy turkeys in the dark didn’t appeal to Hubby at 10PM, so there they stayed.  Not sure why they want to roost in the hen house – they have a nice, dry, secure shed/barn with lots of room, about twice as much as the henhouse, a loft to boot, and similar roosts.  And they’ve always lived in the turkey barn, except for Swan, who bunked with the chickens her first winter as she was the only turkey.  Wouldn’t you like to know what your feathered friends are thinking sometimes??

The Araucana babies, having gotten new food from Hubby before he left for work, were all sound asleep when I checked on them when I got home this morning.  5 little balls of fluff in shades of gray – so sweet.

The broilers are doing well – and already weigh about a pound and a half or so – good since they’re out of here in 4 more weeks.  I’ve another with a bum leg – why did I agree to raise these poor birds?  But, they seem happy enough, and it should be warm enough today for them to get outside and get some greenery – although when I tried that the other day, not a one would go outside.  They’re happy in their nice large dry barn with their food and water nearby and soft clean straw to nestle in. So today, I’ll cut some grass for them and see if I can get them to get the idea it’s good to eat!

Never did get any plants in the hoop greenhouse, but I should have time today.  And I want to try seeding some leeks and multiplier onions in there – not sure if they will make it through the winter or not, but even if I used the greens for seasoning in soups and such, it would be worth the trouble.  Will seed in a bunch of different greens.  All too soon there’ll be nothing fresh and green for the chicks, and so the extra goes to them – they find greens in December a real treat!

The sheep are getting much friendlier – especially if you have a slab of hay in your hand.  Hubby said he was almost bowled over this morning when he fed and watered them.  I did spend some time up there Wed afternoon with a book, some hay and some beet pulp, reading aloud a bit of a biography of Beatrix Potter to them to get them used to a female voice.  We’re still working on names… Ewe One and Ewe Two just don’t cut it!

When it warms up a bit more, it will be a busy day here!  I’ve already set up the big Rubbermaid tub in the unused upstairs bath and the heat light is warming everything up.  The 5 Araucana chix will go there for a few weeks.  They are a lively and entertaining bunch, and at least two have little fuzzy ‘cheeks’ that will be tufts as they grow.  There may be more than two – even though there’s a large window in the old incubator I’m using as a brooder – they all caper around so much I can’t tell! I should have a better view when I get them in the larger tub.   They are a chattery bunch – I’ll miss their happy peeping in my kitchen.

The meat birds are going from the kiddie pool in the back section of the turkey shed out to what is the outside “sunroom” for the laying hens in the winter.  It’s attached to the hen house, has a roof with light panels, very secure fencing and clear plastic sheeting all around.  It has a door that can be closed to the hen house, so it will be a good place for the broilers and on warm days I can open the outside door so they can wander out on the grass.  The broilers are being butchered Nov 3, so we’ll then give the sunroom a good clean and a foot or two of nice dry leaves and open the door to the henhouse before the weather gets too snowy for the hens to want to go outside.

The back section of the turkey shed (it’s about 2.5m x 5 m) will be divided in two.  One half will be for the 7 turkey poults that are about a month old.  They’ve been living in the large stock tank in the garage, and they need more room now!  We’ve had bitter cold nights below freezing here for several days, and the weatherman says we’ll have warmer weather for the next 10 days, so now’s the time!  They’ll have a heat lamp for awhile yet, the electric company will love us!

The other half will be for Swan and her new babies (you’ll notice I’m being optimistic here that at least some of her 12 eggs will hatch) in a few days.  Right now she’s still tight on her nest in the large dog kennel out at the edge of the pasture, but my best guess is eggs should start hatching late this week.  Starting tonight, we’ll wrap chicken wire in several rounds so if we do have poults hatch, they can’t escape far.  Plus it will give us an extra layer of protection from predators.  I have to say, I’ll rest far easier when she and her babies are safely in a barn.  She’ll never be culled – she proved herself one tough bird, being the only one of many dozen eggs that could hatch in our old incubator.  She imprinted on us, since the hens we tried to put her under with a few chicks rejected her, so she’s our “baby”.  Even though this is NOT exactly when we wanted more baby turkeys, we’re pleased she wants to be a Mama!

Everyone will stay in the back (with heat lights-sigh) until we’re sure everyone is old enough to be blended in with the older turkeys.  We’ll feed 3rd cutting alfalfa and fresh grass since they won’t get any time outside due to the weather.  I’m worried about how the toms will act, so they may get locked up for awhile when we introduce all the younger birds in a few months.  I’m quite sure Swan will protect her bunch, but I’m not sure how the others will fare.  If any of you have any experience with blending new turkeys with older birds and have some good advice, I’d love to hear from you.  The turkey shed is quite large, and half has a loft, which the older birds love, so they should all have lots of room, and their door is opened any reasonably decent day during the winter, which means any day with sun over -5C.  They seem to mind the snow less than the hens.

Well, time to get moving, as I want to get all the birds moved quickly so I can perhaps transplant some broccoli and cauliflower seedlings into the hoop greenhouse, and I’m hoping to take some beet pulp up to the sheep to make better friends with them.  They’re doing quite well for only being here 5 days, but we would like them to be very tame with us living so close to a subdivision!

This morning I took the last 4 blue eggs from the incubator, as it seemed certain the hatch was over.  I have 5 of the cutest chicks I’ve ever had – 4 appear to be lavenders and one is gray with a yellow head that looks like the chick version of a Blue Slate poult

I posted the eggs – two had obviously died sometime in the last week or so, possibly due to the fatal gene, but two had perfect fully developed chicks that failed to pip or hatch.  :-(  Now, my rational self knows these two were weak in some way and so it is good they didn’t hatch, but my heart says otherwise.  And so does my pocketbook, as they were expensive eggs.  As it worked out, each of the surviving chicks cost $10, so that’s not so bad.

And… these are some of the most entertaining chicks I’ve ever had – they are lively and peeping away most of the time – a nice contented peeping, mind you, but since they’re in my kitchen in the old incubator I’m using as a brooder (it has a nice big window), it sounds like a group of good friends just having a nice chat – a hen party!  What fun!  We had a birthday dinner here yesterday for my son-in-law and my son, so the chicks got a lot of attention, especially from my 3 year old granddaughter, who was absolutely charmed.

This morning I spent some time tearing down and cleaning the incubator in order to put it away for the winter.  Fall is surely here – many of the trees are now showing bits and pieces of riotous colors.  We had a chance of frost last night, but seem to have dodged it.  I need to go up and pick the last of the tomatoes, I did take cuttings of one of the nicer plants last night, just in case, as I always try to grow some tomatoes in the conservatory over the winter.  I’ve got 3 big pots of them simmering on the stove, so they’ll go in the canner later this afternoon.  It’s cool but sunny and breezy here, so all the flat linens are out on the clothesline, blowing in the breeze.  Fall is such a beautiful, but bittersweet time.

Our Blue Slate turkey hen is still tight on her nest – the eggs are due to hatch late this week maybe?  Then I’ll need to find a place for her and her babies as well!  Today the broiler chicks get a larger area in the barn, and I’ll clean out part of the hen house that can be partitioned off for the 7 month old turkeys, but we’re about out of spots here until Nov 3 when the guy brings his trailer to butcher the meat birds.  Which reminds me, I need to get out there a move birds!

It’s been an exciting and exhausting day here.  We had a few more chicks hatch, we are now at 5, and that looks like that may be all.  The last little one has a curled foot, he took a long time to hatch, so may be doing some foot massage on him.  He’s the only one left in the incubator, all the others have gone to the brooder, as they were all acting thirsty and hungry.  Sure enough, when we put them in, they all started eating and drinking after being shown where the good stuff was.  We’ve got 3 lavendar, and 2 other color Araucanas, and at least one is going to have tufts – you can already see them

The sheep came to live here shortly after noon, and they’re not at all sure they like it.  They are about as close to each other as they can get in the barn, but they have found the food, water, minerals and hay, so I suppose they’ll get used to us in time.  We are trying to come up with a pair of names for the ladies, we know we DON”T  want Thelma and Louise, but may consider Lucy and Ethel.  Still, we really didn’t want TV or movies names, so if any of you can think of any famous pairs of women, tell me!

Tomorrow we’re having a family party for my son and son-in-law’s birthdays.  Both are past, but it’s so hard to get everyone together with all of our odd schedules.  Two apple pies are cooling, and a cheesecake is in the oven.  We’ll have ham and scalloped potatoes, bruchetta and broccoli.  And lots of laughter as usual, it seems we always laugh ’til we hurt around here.  Our granddaughter only knows that MiMa and Poppi have new animals, so she’ll be excited to see the chicks and the sheep.

She’ll be disappointed that she can’t hold the chicks yet, but they’ll grow and eventually she’ll be able.  I suppose because there are only 5 that they will be very spoiled indeed, but the eggs were so costly that I guess that’s just fine.  I’ve always wanted Araucanas, I had Americaunas once, and they were nice, but I think these will be better yet!

Raced home this morning to check on the two chicks Hubby told me I had last night, hoping for more.  I have one other egg pipping, but nothing from the rest, as far as I can see.  I do have one obviously lavender chick, and the other seems a little darker, but may still be a little wet.  Gosh, they’re tiny – since the last things I’ve had as babies were turkeys and broilers, these guys look positively teeny.

Wed. we put the now month old poults out on some clean grass in the yard.  Oh Dear!!  They say Toms are the mouthy ones – in that case I have 5 Toms and only two hens!  Hope at least one more is a hen…  Will try and post some photos of their outing soon.

Must be off, today is Sheep Day, I think we’re all ready!

A quick pop in before I leave for work.  Got up and raced to the incubator this morning as it’s to be Hatch Day.  Sure enough, at least two eggs have pips Crossing my fingers for the other 7!!

Can’t wait for later today when Hubby will return home and tell me what’s happening then.  Tomorrow morning, I’ll get to eyeball the results myself!

Exciting day!

Got home this morning and rushed to the incubator.  Nothing yet!  Of course, since I don’t EXPECT the eggs to hatch until tomorrow (when I’ll be at work – drat!), I don’t know what I was expecting to see.  Why is it SO hard to wait out those last couple of days?  I think Ma Nature should have made eggs grow translucent those last few days, so the impatient among us could watch the action

Need to get the old incubator that I use as a brooder for the first few days disinfected and running today, and go to the elevator and get turkey, turkey starter, layer, broiler, and chick starter feeds.  As well as a bag of kelp meal and a bag of beet pulp for the sheep arriving Friday.  They’ll be glad to see me today!

Had to splint the legs on one of the broilers Monday, but by yesterday morning it was looking better.  I can’t believe I didn’t remember how fragile those broiler birds are.  Oh well, Nov 6, they’ll be gone, my customers will be happy, and I’ll be relieved!  Next year, I’ll get my order for that lovely French bloodline that is bred to pasture and forage and not just a feed bag extra early, so I won’t deal with these issues again.  Those birds take an extra few weeks to grow, but they were beautiful and far less trouble.  And tasty!

It’s cold here, and predicted to be even colder by the weekend – we’ll have night temps of 1-2C overnight on Saturday and Sunday.  Makes it hard to get motivated for morning chores!  Once all the babies have gotten larger, and the broilers are gone, we can do chores in the afternoons and evenings when it’s not so chilly.  Of course, by then, it will be Really Cold… Can you tell I’m not fond of winter?

Well, have put off chores long enough, time to bundle up and get out there and get all those hungry and thirsty birds happy!

What an interesting morning already, and it’s only 8 AM.  I was a bit late getting out of work, so headed east down the big hill towards home just as dawn was breaking.  Mom Nature was pulling a blanket of clouds over to the East, and I was treated to a cotton candy sky of blue and pink.  Beautiful!

As I was walking in the house, the phone was ringing.  The friend who’d done my poultry chores for me yesterday was calling from the road on her way to teach, seems she’d forgotten something and I needed to run over to her house – and oh! – be on the lookout for a loose cow.  They had gotten a call from 911 saying a cow was out.  Her husband was out in the field counting noses, but they didn’t think it was theirs.  It was not, but just after I saw the heifer, I saw a pickup going sl-0-wly down the road, annoying those speeders bent on getting to work on time.  I slowed down to flag them, annoying yet more drivers and was able to give them a pretty recent location.

So now I’m sitting here with a hot cup of tea and layers of clothes, the temp is only 4C here this morning, but at least there was no frost on my windshield like there was yesterday!  We’ve had to lower the heat bulbs in the brooders, as both the broiler chicks and the turkeys were huddling beneath the lights.

Friday was… butchering day, never my favorite.  I canned the legs, thighs and breasts of the old hens, and the rest went to the stockpots, as did the two extra roos.  I’ve kept one Rhode Island Red and one Black Australorp roo.  I also saved my one crossbred hen – she’s just so pretty and she appears to be laying eggs.

And then there was the sneaky old girl who went into a different barn the night before – did she have a premonition?  I didn’t find her until the next day, but as she was laying an egg, I decided she would spend the winter with the new girls as well.  Hopefully they two old gals will integrate into the new flock.

I did give a half dozen of the older girls I was sure were still laying to a young couple who are just getting started and had their whole flock killed while they were on vacation.  They now have a different, more secure coop, but had no money to get another flock started.  I don’t need that much canned chicken, and they need they eggs  - they have small children and times are tough in our area – unemployment is over 14% in our county.  I was glad to see my girls going where they were needed.  I hate butchering hens, but there is a limit to how many chickens we can house and feed, and the ones laying the eggs help carry the load for the others.

While we were butchering (my friend and I, Hubby HATES to be involved) we had a lively discussion of whether it was worth it to save the feet.  I’d just read an article about how delicious chicken foot broth was, how truly special.  After we eyeballed the pile of feet and figured out how much work was going to be involved in preparing them …. into the compost they went  I pride myself on wasting very little of my birds, but there will be no chicken foot soup for me!  I still have three stockpots full that I need to finish off and can today, so the chicken foot soup will have to wait for some day when I have less to do.

Tonight I need to re-house the new hens and  turkeys and they’ll all be shut in for a few days to acclimate to their new homes.  I hope.  For some reason, this summer the turkeys decided they liked sleeping in the hen house better, but it will be far too crowded in there during the winter when they’ll be shut in for days at a time.  Back to the turkey barn with them!  The new turkeys will go where the new hens were, and the new hens will go where the old hens were…. and just think!  In a few more days I’ll have chicks hatching in the incubator!  They’ll go in the upstairs room under a brooder for awhile – if all the remaining eggs hatch (unlikely) I’ll have 9, so hopefully I can juggle birds until the broilers are gone!

The day after the eggs are due to hatch – the sheep arrive.  Never a dull moment here!

I’d noticed lately that my “blondes”, my Buff Orph girls, seem to be spending less time outside the henhouse.  I hadn’t given it much thought, to tell the truth.  However, my ever observant daughter, who did chores for us a few weekends ago, also noticed.  She took the time to see what was going on!  Seems that whenever the blondes left the henhouse, there was a stampede of feathered testosterone and the poor girls were beset!

After she related this to me, I took more notice, and indeed, she was right.  It seems my roos – particularly the two Black Australorps and the Rhode Island Red are absolutely smitten with blondes.  On the other hand, the Buff Orph seems bored with blonde, and goes for the brunettes and redheads!  Who knew?  All I could think of was an old hair dye advert that used to ask, “Do Blondes have more fun?”  Sorry to say, my buff orph girls don’t seem to like that kind of fun!

We’re having a spell of warm weather, and yesterday I was working outside in the sheds, finally relocating the broiler chicks into a bigger area, when I heard a familiar trill.  Swan, my setting Blue Slate hen, was just outside the door, doing her usual begging routine.  She’s the only one of my turkeys who trills, so there was no doubt who it was!  Seems she was taking advantage of the warm day to stretch her legs and beg some treats.  I gave her a nice ripe tomato, and put a fresh scoop of feed in the feeder for her.  She ate, walked around for a short time, got a good long drink from the bucket, and then was back to her nest to do her “Zen Turkey” impression.  She has a long set yet, she’s not due to hatch until somewhere around the 7-9th of October.  Weather will be cold here by then, so we’re scrambling to find somewhere to move her to where she and her babies will be secure from both predators and the Toms.

One more week until I’ll know for sure if I have any successful Araucana chicks. Instead of just throwing out the eggs that didn’t develop, I saved the best colored of them and blew them so I could save the shells to use in an Easter wreath come next Spring.  I suppose that makes me either resourceful – or horribly cheap!

Have 3 pots of tomatoes simmering on the stove waiting to be made into and canned as sauce, and a half-gallon of grape juice waiting to be made into jelly.  There’s a huge yard sale being put on by a local food pantry I want to visit, so need to get busy for the day.  May you all have lots of eggs and no mites!