Kaye's other than rabbits journal

[Kaye]

One of my turkeys has finally decided on a place to nest and if she lays 2 in a row in the nest instead of randomly around the coop, I will put the other 6 eggs with those 2 and pray she sits on them!!

 

[Kaye]

We have two eggs today!! I'm going to be putting the other 6 with them soon!!

 

[Kaye]

Up to 16 turkey eggs now!! I moved the nest and they kept laying I have tried this before and had to sneak the eggs under the hen at night after she switched her spot when I moved the nest.
Now my problem is that they are all in one nest... three hens on one nest trying to sit sounds like a lot of broken eggs to me. I'm thinking about splitting up the eggs and making a different nest. Maybe the one that decided to be a copy cat will do it again and try my new nest. I really want this to go in my favor.
I cleaned up the entire coop and put some alfalfa hay 'dust' on the ground. They also had a bit of dog food as a treat for being so good even cooped up
All eight buns and four bobs are doing great, my Serama hens are still sitting, and my game bantams have started laying again. I'm going to trade a Serama rooster for a couple of game bantam hens. I hope I can this Sunday.
In other news I got a new tattoo. I have a paw print, a clover, the name of my first pit (Mallichi), and now I have an owl. My next will be polydactyl paw prints (one with 5 toes and one with 6 toes), then I want the name of my first service dog (a seizure alert pit named Tonka).
I also have been seizure free for over 7 months now!!

 

[Kaye]

31 eggs now. Had to break up my Serama hens and Pricilla is still trying to be broody. If she goes back to the nest I'm going to put a turkey egg under her so she can try to hatch something.

 

[Kaye]

Day 4 in the incubator: I have 32 eggs in and 6 more in the nest. I will check tonight and see if they're all fertile and developing. I was thinking of selling some hatching eggs next year. Depending on how everything turns out this year. Boogsey turned 4 on the 5th. Been busy with her birthday party on Saturday so I haven't been able to do anything besides feed and water my babies and check on their babies. My Serama roosters want to kill each other and are now attempting murder of each other. Also my neighbors' rooster (a barred Cochin mix. With 'boots on, as Boogsey says) is wanting to come breed with my tiny Serama hens. And so my Serama roosters want to gang up on him. Oh my heart!! And my hen didn't try to get back to her nest :/
I'm getting my Bob fixed because my poor kitty has had to many kittens of her own and now she needs to get fat and lay around lol the good news is that I already have a kitten sold!! And the only one from the last litter is probably going to be adopted out next weekend. Bye Shishka Bob!!

 

[Kaye]

Wow. It's been a long time. So my next door neighbors' dog destroyed my turkey flock. Out of 5 adults and 24 babies I now have only one turkey. I have to start my turkey flock all over. Thinking about starting back all babies and just get a few of each breed of turkey.
I know I don't want to go through Cackle Hatchery because of bad experience with them before. I was very unhappy with them. Anyone know of another hatchery that's better than sending dead chickens??
I don't want to order turkeys to have them arrive dead. I'm in Alabama and the hatchery decided that wasn't hot enough, so they taped a heat pad to the side of the box. Inside another box and basically fried my chickens on the way to me in the middle of summer in Alabama. My daughter saw them and cried. It was horrible. Then they refused to refund my shipping costs even though it was their own mistake.
My bantam chickens were attacked as well, but faired better than the turkeys. I had two hens sitting on eggs at the time so the dog left them alone. My rooster and two other hens were spared, but my favorite hen, Diva, was lost in the battle. The good thing is I now have 10 baby bantams running around being adorable.
My rabbits are doing well. I did have a stray cat that tore into one of my rabbits cages and killed 3 baby rabbits. I have the best tom cat in the world, so he ran the stray off after he saw it attempting to eat one of my baby chickens. Thank you, Booger!! Good kitty. He also ran the neighbors' dog off. I was going to shoot him the next morning, but I watched my bobcat run the dog away after a nice little fight. Booger came back and marked his sent on everything he was allowed to mark. I love my Booger Bob. My pit bull,on the other hand, ran. Scared. lol
My daughter starts preschool this year. I don't know if I am ready for this. She says she is, though!! I'm just not sure about it yet

 

[Bruce]

Wow, really sorry to hear about the carnage! Have you done anything to prevent the dog from getting on your property again? Serious fencing? Electric fence baited with something so he will get tagged really well and never again approach your property?

I don't have turkeys but I have ordered 7 chicks twice (2015 and 2017) from Meyer and they came in very good shape. This year they were hatched on Sunday, shipped Monday and arrived Tuesday. They were 15 weeks old yesterday. Meyer is in Ohio and have a number of turkey breeds. I think their catalog and website are very good. They have detailed info on the birds they sell, unlike some websites that can't even manage a picture of the bird, and the website is easy to navigate (again unlike some).

 

[Latestarter]

Sorry to hear about your losses. Most folks just don't realize the damage a "pet" can do to their animals. Many times it's a "neighbor's" dog or a stray, but it can just as easily be ones own dog that is guilty. Have you contacted the neighbor to seek restitution? You should! You should also report the incident so if it happens again you have a history. Hope you can strengthen your animal's protection so you don't have to go through this again. I only ordered poultry once and used Murray McMurray with great results. Best of luck with your preschooler!

 

[Kaye]

I haven't seen the dog or neighbors again since then. I think that they seriously just up and moved!!
I have heard a lot of good about McMurray and Meyer. Never again will I use or let someone use Cackle. I'm just worried about that mess that happened with my bantams happening to any babies I might order again.

 

[Bruce]

Things do happen, fact of life. Guess I've been lucky, always got healthy live chicks. My wife is a PO clerk, she's gotten boxes with dead chicks. There is a farm just up the road from her PO that gets a ton of meat birds several times a year and layers every year as well. Don't know where they get their chicks from or if they are the ones with "losses", I should have her pay attention.