It’s been a crazy busy week around the homestead, just active, lots to do in the this beautiful spring weather.
We’d like to get all the “heavy lifting” done before the middle of June, when the weather starts to turn from fantastic to a bit hot… I’d rather be digging holes and moving mountains of compost and barn litter in the high 60’s and 70’s than the humid 80’s! So we’ve all been working hard and staying at it. Maggie is really the super trouper of us all, she stays at her tasks all day long and into the evening if we don’t stop her!
So, sorry to say, I have a little blog catching up to do!
We were really excited about the poultry swap at the fairgrounds, and had seen flyers and heard about the whole week before. J & J went in their car and us in Blue because were both anticipating bringing home a lot of good deals. Well, that didn’t really pan out at all! In fact, truth be told, it was a little lackluster. There were at least 4 people selling only ducks, and this fellow selling lovely cages, but hardly anyone really there. I think in all, there were less than 10 swappers that showed up. Owwww…..
These little chicks were cute… they were loose around this big cage with roosters and their mommas in and they stayed right around it. I thought about getting them but there was only about 5 or 6 and they were just straight run, mixed breed chicks, nothing really special. So I passed. We wandered a bit, hoping maybe more would show up, but the one of the organizers had said “wow, so many people showed up!” that we knew, this was kind of a bust.
J & J got a nice pair of buff hens, young girls. And we did get three little day old turkey poults for Maggie. They are adorable and are doing well, a week later. We have them in the house in a small brooder. We are taking no chances with them!
There was a little excitement when a big rooster got loose, but that only lasted a few minutes. He was caught with a big fishing net pretty quickly.
We did get 6 nice 6 foot heavy duty t-posts for our fencing needs for $2 a post. That’s a good deal. We were just hoping for a bigger showing. So we all went out to Chinese for lunch and of course, hatched our own plan for our own swap two weeks later! (gg) So, we’ll be having a plant and poultry swap with our homesteading clan next Sunday afternoon, the 20th of May. That should be fun and exciting. We might not have that many more folks come, but we’ll give it a good try!
Everyone in our clan had wanted a get together, and a lot wanted to swap seedlings and such… so we decided to just go ahead and see what comes of it. Might be a bust, but hey, who knows? We have about 110 families in our group and we spread the news around. Should be fun, no matter what. And it’s a good reason to keep working hard on all our plans at the farm!
The little Buffs drinking from a sauce cup we borrowed from the restaurant. They are a pretty pair for sure!
Jessy took all these pictures and she had to take some of the lovely lilacs all blooming! I love lilacs… and she knows this well! My four little bushes by the garage are doing well, and two are blooming pretty. A nice dark dark rich purple! So lovely!
Our little trio of turkeys are doing fine. They are different than chicken chicks. First off, their fluff is coarser, not quite as fluffy as chicks. And they have such big eyes! And they are very quiet. In fact, the only time we hear much from them is when I play the banjo or if I have a bluegrass CD playing in the kitchen! And then they peep up like nuts! I’m not sure if they like it, or if they hate it! But I think they like it, because when it stops, they peep for awhile longer!
We were a little afraid of these day olds. Everyone was telling us how hard it is to raise them. And we sure remember the turkey disaster of last year. But we’ve been reading and learning and the best thing I read was a state extension PDF that said… “Raising turkeys is not hard, but they are not chickens and most people make mistakes by thinking they are chickens and treating them as such.”
That got me thinking hard. Okay, then what do we do different. Well, first off, they don’t need as much heat as chicks do. Okay, we raised up the brooder light and checked the temps closely. And they like to have super clean litter and water and food. So we have been crazy meticulous about those things. We’re keeping them indoors for a few weeks, in the dining room so that we can keep a really good watch on them. We got a special bag of game bird starter, and they really like it. And we are planning our outside large bird coop carefully and with great research. We will move these birds to the bigger brooder, out in the poultry barn in a couple weeks. We want to make sure they get a really decent first month start under our very watchful eye.
We’re hoping to go next weekend to auction for some more and then maybe even get some at the swap on Sunday. Thats the plan at least! We would like to end up with about 15 to 20 birds by the fall. Some to keep for our own table, but plenty to sell for Maggie’s coffers. She is the bird girl around here and is doing a good job so far with her little charges. They are blue slate and red bourbon birds. We think they might all be hens, if the feather sexing works for turkey poults as it does for chicks. They are pretty cool to watch, quiet and easy keepers so far. In fact, they are much calmer than chicks this age. They are cute when they practice their flying though, they will run real fast and flap their little stubby wings before running into the other side of the brooder. A lot of folks point to getting a kiddy pool for turkey poults… so I’m pretty sure one of those will be on our town list! The nice big area gives them a round pen of sorts to run around in and no corners to confuse them. Poor turkeys… so many things to mess up a silly little birdbrain!
Pin It