Has not been a good year for hatching eggs. We took the incubators out of the closet and they got unplugged for about 24 hours. Then being out must have affected them, because I haven’t had any hatch to speak of. I have 6 poults that have hatched out of approximately 50 plus eggs. I took 19 out of the hatcher today and tossed them.
But the good news is that I also put 13 turkey and 5 chicken eggs into the hatcher. They should hatch about Wednesday. I changed the hatch days so they would hatch before the weekend so we could try to sell them at poultry swap meets on the weekends. So in the incubators I have some that should hatch this week, next week and the week after that. About 5-9 each week. I’ll get pics as they hatch.
Monday, April 25, 2011
More Birds
25 April 2011
Today is my mother’s birthday. Called to wish her happy birthday.
A lot has been going in here, and I haven’t been able to get on here to write any of it down.
Must have been last Wednesday or so was sitting on the bed and saw my Chocolate Slate come frying around the corner of the house. Followed closely by a dog. Well, the dog never left the yard, but then I couldn’t find the Tom. Looked all over for him, that day and that night. No sign of him anywhere. After a day or two gave up finding him. Just listed him with the others I’d lost. I mean at that point I only had three turkeys left, two of which I had to buy a few weeks ago. The two Bourbon Reds I have cooped up in the new pen next to the Peacocks.
So then Saturday Morning I get a knock on the door. A neighbor down the road says she thinks my turkey is in her back yard, and been there for a few days. So we go down there in the rain and sure enough, there he is on the deck of a trailer out in her back yard. He sees us coming a takes off. Not a chance of catching him. So I decide to try to herd him toward home. He takes off into the horse field next door, then decides to double back toward the trailer. And somewhere along there I lose sight of him and can’t find him. We look around everywhere in the woods and Can’t find him. Saw a group of wild turkeys but not him. So we came home and gave up. When I came home from work that night about 1am and went out to check on the birds, there he is on top of the pen next to the Bourbon Reds. Tried to grab him and he got away and hid under the Star trailer. So I left him there for the night. He’s done ok so far. Haven’t been able to catch him.
So tonight, Monday, we went out just after dark and he saw us coming and took off. Looked for him and couldn’t find him again. He had gone back up on the pen on the other side next to the Peacocks. So I had Jeanne shine the light in his eyes from one side while I snuck around the other side and grabbed his legs. Finally, Houdini was caught! Yep, what other name could we give him but Houdini? And with all this, he had to have a name. So we took him into the regular chicken coop and cut all the feathers off one wing. Hopefully that will keep him from getting out of the chicken yard. And if he hadn’t been out of the chicken yard to begin with, the dog couldn’t have chased him. Speaking of which, if the other birds hadn’t been out of the yard, the dogs or whatever couldn’t have gotten them. Never did find either of my old Toms, the old Red or Stripes. They were just gone.
These are the two new toms.
Speaking of peacocks. Jeanne has wanted peacocks, India Blues, so we have been looking for a pair. We found a pair, but the pair we found had been sold. Then they hadn’t. Come to find out, I wanted them for my wife for her birthday. The lady that was going to buy them wanted them for her husband. And she was looking for turkeys, So I sold her two hens that weren’t laying any more. One was a Spanish Black and the other was a chocolate slate, and I want to raise Bourbon Reds or the Narragansett’s. So getting rid of them was part of the plan, and they had both been broody and weren’t laying any more.
Basically that means that we are starting over this year with birds. I have my bourbon red hen and the new tom I got, and whatever we have for the Narragansett’s. They didn’t have Broad Breasted Bronze poults today, so we’ll go back and get them on Wednesday. I am considering keeping a BBB hen and breeding her with a Narragansett tom next Spring. See what I get. Depends on how big she gets and if it is feasible or not.
Today is my mother’s birthday. Called to wish her happy birthday.
A lot has been going in here, and I haven’t been able to get on here to write any of it down.
Must have been last Wednesday or so was sitting on the bed and saw my Chocolate Slate come frying around the corner of the house. Followed closely by a dog. Well, the dog never left the yard, but then I couldn’t find the Tom. Looked all over for him, that day and that night. No sign of him anywhere. After a day or two gave up finding him. Just listed him with the others I’d lost. I mean at that point I only had three turkeys left, two of which I had to buy a few weeks ago. The two Bourbon Reds I have cooped up in the new pen next to the Peacocks.
So then Saturday Morning I get a knock on the door. A neighbor down the road says she thinks my turkey is in her back yard, and been there for a few days. So we go down there in the rain and sure enough, there he is on the deck of a trailer out in her back yard. He sees us coming a takes off. Not a chance of catching him. So I decide to try to herd him toward home. He takes off into the horse field next door, then decides to double back toward the trailer. And somewhere along there I lose sight of him and can’t find him. We look around everywhere in the woods and Can’t find him. Saw a group of wild turkeys but not him. So we came home and gave up. When I came home from work that night about 1am and went out to check on the birds, there he is on top of the pen next to the Bourbon Reds. Tried to grab him and he got away and hid under the Star trailer. So I left him there for the night. He’s done ok so far. Haven’t been able to catch him.
So tonight, Monday, we went out just after dark and he saw us coming and took off. Looked for him and couldn’t find him again. He had gone back up on the pen on the other side next to the Peacocks. So I had Jeanne shine the light in his eyes from one side while I snuck around the other side and grabbed his legs. Finally, Houdini was caught! Yep, what other name could we give him but Houdini? And with all this, he had to have a name. So we took him into the regular chicken coop and cut all the feathers off one wing. Hopefully that will keep him from getting out of the chicken yard. And if he hadn’t been out of the chicken yard to begin with, the dog couldn’t have chased him. Speaking of which, if the other birds hadn’t been out of the yard, the dogs or whatever couldn’t have gotten them. Never did find either of my old Toms, the old Red or Stripes. They were just gone.
These are the two new toms.
So today Jeanne went to the hatchery and picked up 10 Narragansett poults. These should look like Stripes from last year. What we are hoping for any way. The plan is to try and raise them and sell the eggs back to the hatchery next year, or hatch them ourselves and then sell the poults. This is what they look like.
We also got one gosling, sexed to be female. She is supposed to replace the female goose that was killed this spring by the dogs. None of the goose eggs hatched so we didn’t get any that way. Was thinking of buying a goose from a lady down the road, but went for the gosling instead. Think raising them from chicks makes for better birds and they know this is home and where they live.
The plan is also to build different pens to keep them in. I built this pen for turkeys, but it isn’t what I really wanted. Don’t think it is big enough, and I built it way over what was needed for strength. I’ll try to get some pics of it up. It was designed to have three runs in it, each about 5 feet wide and 20 feet long. So I took the wire out separating two pens to create a larger one, and put the peacocks in there, and put the two Bourbon Reds in the other one.
Speaking of peacocks. Jeanne has wanted peacocks, India Blues, so we have been looking for a pair. We found a pair, but the pair we found had been sold. Then they hadn’t. Come to find out, I wanted them for my wife for her birthday. The lady that was going to buy them wanted them for her husband. And she was looking for turkeys, So I sold her two hens that weren’t laying any more. One was a Spanish Black and the other was a chocolate slate, and I want to raise Bourbon Reds or the Narragansett’s. So getting rid of them was part of the plan, and they had both been broody and weren’t laying any more.
Basically that means that we are starting over this year with birds. I have my bourbon red hen and the new tom I got, and whatever we have for the Narragansett’s. They didn’t have Broad Breasted Bronze poults today, so we’ll go back and get them on Wednesday. I am considering keeping a BBB hen and breeding her with a Narragansett tom next Spring. See what I get. Depends on how big she gets and if it is feasible or not.
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
Spring in the Garden
Went out in the garden today and planted some stuff. Got 3 short rows of red potatoes in and about 5 hills of Gurney Girl tomatoes. Planted a few cabbage plants in with the ones that over wintered. Also put some cilantro and basil and marigolds around them.
Did some looking on companion planting and tried to put the right things together.
Some of the turkeys started to hatch today. Had 21 eggs in the incubator and when I moved them out of the closet, they got turned off for a while. SO wasn’t sure what would become of them. 4 of them hatched and are in the brooder, a few more are pipped and waiting for them to hatch.
Have to work all day tomorrow so I’ll just see what is there when I get home.
I'll get some pictures up soon.
Drove to Nebraska over the weekend and met up with Angela to pick up Yaco and bring her back. Was great that she got to spend time there, but we had missed her and it’s great to have her back. Even when she screams really loud, or talks all the time. She says “Cory” now a lot. Not loud, just in a soft voice. Usually about 3 or 4 times in a row. And didn’t take long to pick up the chick chirping again! She is a riot.
Got the riding lawn mower out and mowed the lawn yesterday, until I ran out of gas.
And let us not forget the San Antonio Spurs. They play the Lakers tonight and even though we are resting our Big 3, we are tied at the half. We are riding a 5 game win streak and they are riding a 5 game loosing streak. We have the #1 seed in the West and possibly the best in the NBA. That or Chicago Bulls will. Season ends tomorrow night, play offs start Saturday.
Go Spurs!!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)