Good Morning! in 2018

[Kbr42]

I'm thinkin' triple Yorker on this one. She's layed double before much smaller eggs. It doesn't fit on the egg carton .lol

[windwalkingwolf]

My goose is still laying. I found where she moved her nest to, and have been popping good eggs in the incubator (some froze)...I think there's 9 or 10 in there now, and I threw out three. Plus whatever the dog stole and ate. And, my old turkey girl Lacy is laying again, for the first time in a year and a half! Two eggs in the past three days, and from the way she's carrying on out there, soon to be three eggs. But chicken eggs? Nothing. I got three a couple weeks ago and thought that surely they were starting back up again, but not a one since. Kind of funny that the only birds giving me eggs are seasonal layers!

[WLLady]

my turkeys just started laying. 3 eggs yesterday. and one of those monster eggs from an old layer. size of my hand, 2 full sized yolks. alas bad day yesterday, my silver welbar (ya, the NICE one) had to be put down. and i found my barred rock cockerel dead. at 9 months old. likely a heart attack i'm thinking. nothing outwardly (or inwardly) wrong, and he ate sunflower seeds and food and was drinking and happy the night before. sigh.
i'll have to also put that turkey down that had the epic beating, can you believe, he's recovered (but will lose his snood) and the MINUTE we had sun and opened the barn door out he goes and gets into another epic battle with every bird (even the girls) through the fencing. even the dog was breaking up the fighting. i can't have that.....i don't have room, or patience for it. so i'm afraid he'll be freezer camped as soon as the withdrawal time is up for the aspirin he got (should be this weekend). some birds just do NOT learn. they nearly killed him the first time (and it was a hen that nearly did him in) and he goes right back for more. how dumb can one be??!
anyways, the silver welbar loss is a big loss, he was the closest to SOP i have on my lines so far (european SOP)....and my replacements are not nearly as nice as he was. sigh. we'll see.....i'm sure there will be other boys coming up this year from my other pen. but it'll set me back a bit.
@Kbr42 here's the monster i got a couple days ago.....OW!!!!

[Kbr42]

@WLLady sorry for your losses...and that egg must have HURT!

[Jaye]

So sorry you had to put down your Silver Welbar, WLLady. What was wrong with him?
That egg looks like it could have done some damage to the hen that laid it - OUCH! Poor thing.

[Killerbunny]

Sorry to hear about your losses. It's my dominant turkey girl that puts the boys in their place but, as you say, some don't learn!

[ross]

WWL like a dog with skunks or porcupines . Critters just don’t learn as u know .

[Ontario Chick]

Good morning,
Gray and snowy with some freezing rain patches.
Speaking of not so bright turkeys, one must wonder what the survival rate is for the wild ones.
There was a flock of about 20 birds this summer and lately all I see is four and one single.
Just as I was watching her jumping up to try to get at the remaining Fire bush berries in the middle of the lawn and wondering how exposed it must be to any predator, two Peregrine Falcons flew over.
I have never seen them around here before, so perhaps word is out on plentiful food supply here.
Have a safe one.

[Killerbunny]

I think that is why they have huge broods in the wild. On the behaviour side they are very different from chickens where Mum will check on them, round them up and be very motherly to them. Turkey Mums still teach them to eat but there is a lot of vocalisation and the poults are expected to keep up with her because she won't go looking for them. I had a little one stray off into the grass and was sounding pitiful one morning but Mum didn't look for it, concentrating on the larger number of poults. This was the little chilled one I gave to Sister to rescue! It's just a different survival strategy, you have to be a strong poult to keep up.

[WLLady]

yeah i checked all the girls, and i think it was my one 5 year old hen that has not laid a thing in about a year....she's the only one not moulting, and actually looking fairly decent right now. she used to lay an extra large egg every day when she was younger. she's just living out her days here putzing around doing whatever-bugs in the summer and mostly eating sunflower seeds in the winter lol. oh, and running the coop.

the welbar had gotten de-spurred about 3 (2?) months ago. he was doing great, and the new spurs grew in and hardened and then he ripped one being a dumb bird with another bird through the fence. bandaged up with stop bleed and antibiotics, and all good....then about 2 weeks later did it again-somehow (not fighting, i actually think he chewed it off!). and i did the same and a course of antibiotics and pain meds and he was doing fine not fussing, being normal, breeding the girls etc, but then came home 2 nights ago and he had actually managed to remove about 2/3 of BOTH spurs doing something and his comb was white...and i got him cleaned up, warmed up, bandaged, stopped bleeding, cat food, babying and he just did not pick up and yesterday he was down and wouldn't stand....sigh. i had almost lost him in the summer when he wouldn't stop picking a blood feather....so i guess it was just a matter of time. chickens. the girls are laying still so i'm going to check if he fertilized anything and if so i might be housing chicks in the basement through winter ARGH!