Chicken Chatter...Turkey Talk...

Pick whichever catchy title works for you. Let's talk about the birds on our farm. Turkeys: These curious little guys just arrived last week. All four brooders are full. They will live in the comfort and safety of the brooder for the first 5 weeks. As their feathers come in, we will slowly transition them off of supplemental heat. At around week 5, they will go out to pasture. First, in the pasture houses that we move each day, and later they are opened up to freely roam the pasture. Right now, though, I'm babysitting the brooders. Chickens: Our egg layers are not super productive right now, and it's not really their fault. They are a little older. Node along if you understand this: The older ones are just not as productive as the younger ones. We...I mean they... may be a little wiser, but just not quite as productive. The reason we have older than normal hens is because the baby chicks just were not available in the early part of this year. I was planning to start some in January, and you probably remember the Avian Influenza problems around the country that led to several hundred thousand birds being "depopulated". Because of that, the entire availability of chicks was being redirected to resupply the big laying operations that were now empty. I was finally able to get some baby chicks around the middle of April, but that put me months behind. Those birds are doing well, but they are still a little over 2 months from laying the first egg. Unfortunately, we may be a little tight on eggs for a few weeks until the young hens come to the rescue. In the meantime, we will treat the old girls really well.