The Birds

Palm, Laurel, Hardy, and a Stooge

It has been a long time since I sat down long enough to give an update.  We were given the opportunity to purchase our neighbors house.  I had hoped to get it and keep it as a rental but it has turned out to be way too expensive for us to keep.  Buying it has allowed us to take care of some drainage problems it has that leads to drainage problems for our property.  It has been a lot of work but it will be worth it every time it rains. 

I will try to update you on all the animals as quickly as I can. 

Palm trying to impress the new ladies.  The Shrew told him she was not interested and to stay away from her and Tomas.  

Las time I wrote we had 1 Tom turkey, Palm was hopefully a girl, we had the 2 turkey hens, and four babies.  All the baby turkeys died; 2 died in their box, 1 ran off and we couldn’t find it, 1 went in to the roosters pen and was killed.  While we were fixing our Flip House we forgot to lock up Dakota and he broke out of the house.  He killed one of the turkey hens and one of the chickens.  A few weeks later a coyote got the other turkey hen.  So we were left with just Palm and Tomas.  Palm is looking like he is a boy but Palm still has not started getting any black marks on his feathers so I am starting to think he may be a different breed than the Royal Palm.  We were looking new turkey hens but it took a while to find some close. 

Tomas strutting his stuff.

 We found 2 mixed breed hens.  We brought home Lolita and The Shrew.  They are 1 year old and we are getting an egg about every other day from them.  I have made some awesome scrambles! 

The chickens stealing fodder.

Most days all the birds roam free so often we find eggs in unexpected places.  Letting the birds free range has cut down on our bug population.  I had hoped they would break up more of the sheep and cattle poop but so far they are not going into the cattle pasture unless they are stealing fodder in the morning.  

Brooding Turkeys

Our turkeys are amazing fun animals.  I do not know why everyone doesn’t have one.  They are so fun – we have only had them a few months so that opinion could change. 

When we got the turkeys, Penny, one started laying eggs the first day.  The problem was she would lay them in bad places.  When she lays the egg or makes the nest she looks like she is dying.  My cats have learned to leave turkeys and chickens alone but when they are laying with their neck stretched out flopping about in the dust one of the cats couldn’t help herself and jumped on the poor hens head.  The hen walloped her and the tom then chased her away from their area for a few days.  She also placed them under trees that cannot be fenced around or under a stack of building scraps.  We would find these eggs sometimes after they had been broken but IF we found a whole one we put it in the turkey coop and hopefully she would eventually start having eggs in there. 

The other hen, Henny, started laying eggs after they had been here about 10 days, in one of the nesting boxes we put in the turkey coop.  Yay! One of my animals is behaving properly.  After she laid 17 eggs she started sitting or brooding on the eggs.  She gets up once or twice a day to eat and drink then goes back to her nest.   One thing I started noticing was Penny would sit on top of Henny for a while and push her around and then walk away.  So I did an egg count when Henny was up for a short walk and we have 24 eggs in Henny’s nest.  Penny has been putting her eggs there!  Some of those eggs will take an extra week to hatch.  I could find nothing on the internet about if the last ones that were put there will hatch.  

We moved Penny into the chicken coop, gathered up all the eggs we could find of hers and put them in a nesting box in the chicken coop.  The first night Little Palm chirped and cried for hours.  The second night we put Palm into the chicken coop too.  At first the chickens were not real happy but when the temperatures dropped down at night they moved over on their roost so they could enjoy Palm’s extra heat.  

I am working on getting a camera again but it is back ordered.  

The Problem with Rescue and Gift Animals

Photo by www.porterturkeys.com

When we bought our first sheep, the owner said they were registrable but is wasn't something he did.  Then when we went to get them we didn’t know anything about sheep I looked up on the internet so we would know what to get.  They were supposed to be Shetland Sheep and maybe they are Shetland crosses but even though I had looked up information as to what to look for I was so excited to get the sheep I didn’t pay attention to anything I had read the kids fell in love with 4 sheep and we brought them home.  While we were talking to their owner it became clear he ran a kind of private rescue operation.  At the time all our animals have been rescues or pets people didn’t want so it didn’t bother me.  We thought they were Shetland Sheep but,  I have no idea there real breed.  Deer I think is crossed with a hair sheep.  Blackwell looks like a Shetland – except she is larger and it looks like she had horns removed.  So here I am with 2 sheep who’s breed I really know nothing about. 

Palm (formerly known as Butter Ball) with the chickens.

When our friend gave us Butterball I kept asking her what it’s breed was.  She thought it was something broad breasted and since BBW or Broad Breasted White is a pretty popular breed we went on that assumption.  Today I went to the feed store and asked if he knew what he had sold to my friend.  Butterball isn’t a BBW at all.  Butterball is a Royal Palm Turkey.  http://www.avianweb.com/royalpalmturkeys.html

A beautiful, beautiful breed but we need to change it’s name, I don’t know if I will want to eat it if it is a boy.  But I don’t want a Royal Palm Tom around with the Bourbon Red turkeys.  Royal Palms are lawn decorations and not usually eaten.  If it is a girl will I want to cross breed it with the Bourbon Reds? 

Palm follows Tomas everywhere!  At first Tomas would try to herd Palm back to his enclosure but now he looks for Palm when he isn't within 5 feet of Tomas.