This is one of our Broad Breasted Bronze hens setting.Of course she has a name; it's Lucy and she's 4 yrs old
and has raised 5 batches of poults( two clutches, last summer)
Here are two of Lucy's babies from last summerher good mothering has passed down to them, or so it seems.
All total, between the three nests there are something like...
50 eggs, actually we've not bothered them for a week, so
if they are still laying it would of course be more. One thing
about turkeys is their hatch rates are pretty low. After two nest,
last summer we ended up with 9 babies that survived, we had
a hatch of 12 poults. Two died after the struggle in getting
out of the shell, another one Mama stepped on.
Some of our eclectic collection of chickens. Wehave 37 hens and three roos. The breeds range
from Barred Rocks, Plymouth Rocks, Americanas,
Maran, Buff Orphingtons, Rhode Island Reds, Black Austrolopes,
and our own, homegrown MUTTS!
Look at their muddy pen( UGH!), makes for muddy eggs,
as they climb in and out of the nest boxes.
Casino and Tuffy banished to the mudroom, look at theirpaws( click on the photo to enlarge, it's a bit blurry) and...
their undersides were just as muddy and wet!
2 comments:
The hens are all so pretty. I like the black n white speckled ones and the red on sitting on the
water bucket. Pretty colors. I didn't realize turkeys were so hard to produce. Do you sell them to eat? or as breeders? or both. I don't know a thing about turkeys except they are good to eat...debbie Happy Easter!
Debbie,
We have sold them live and have sold them butchered. This is actually the first year we'll have more than one or two to sell or butcher, we have 4 hens and 5 toms.
I'm showing bias here, but you've never had turkey until you'd eaten a naturally raised one. Ours are so tender( even the toms, who dress out at 30-38lbs)that the meat literally falls off the bones.
The Chicken on the water bucket is an Americana, they lay green eggs. The black and white ones are Barred Rocks. These are Cortney's business, she sells eggs. She doesn't make much profit, as grain costs have gotten so high, but she loves them.
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