Mon, 25th August 2008
Slapped Wrist!
One of my biggest fans gave me a virtual slapped wrist by email today as I haven't posted again for over 2 weeks (Sorry Simon!!! lol) As I usually only get on here in the evenings, sometimes my brain just feels too tired to say anything! But I know, its no excuse!!!!
Well I haven't weighed the turkey poults this week,but they are getting heavy now, and you can see where their breasts are developing. According to the chart I got from the hatchery, by the time they are 12 weeks old, they should weigh around 4.5kgs, so if we don't sell many as growers, we may kill a few earlier and put them in the freezer in case anyone wants a smaller bird. When you can only get them all at the same time, they all turn out similar weights. In this case the white plumpies can get up to 25lbs!!! Wait until you see a 45lber!!!!
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However, when we lived in Essex, we only had 50 a year, but Briancould buy as many or as few as he wanted from his Friend Don, so we had them in 3 different sheds and that way we had small, medium and larger birds.
They don't peep as much now they are older. they make a funny noise, its not like gobbling either. I'm beginning to get the sound right, and they talk back to me, but I have no idea what I am saying, but they seem to understand me!!!! how sad am I?????
talking to turkeys?????
A lady came all the way from Kings Lynn yesterday to buy 3 of the amberlink chicks. She had her house all set up and wants them more as pets than just for the eggs, so she wanted them as soon as possible! Mind you, I did sell 4 of them when they were 4 weeks old, but that was a special case.
There are only 19 Babcock's left now. 5 are going tomorrow, 10 in the week, and 2 were supposed to go yesterday, but the lady didn't turn up. I bet her husband took her away for the weekend and she forgot to call me! So that will leave 4, which is a bit anoying as I've had to tell people that I didn't have enough for them, and now I've got 4 left over!!!! Never mind, the phone keeps ringing!!!!! I do have a couple onmy list who live in Lincoln, but they didn't give me their phone number so I can't call them and they haven't called me, so if I don't hear from them soon, I'll have to sell their 2 to someone else.
I'm having a problem with the amberlinks at the moment, they will insist on sleeping piled 3 or 4 high, and this week we've had 4 dead chicks. We've never had such a mortality rate at this age before. And its not as if they are crowding into corners, as one of their favourite places is along the front of the house, but they still manage to pile 3 high there!
Tonight we put the red light on in the house and I've moved the feeders more away from the outside wall down one end that they like, and when I went down there tonight at 10pm, they were more spread out, so hopefully they will be okay. We'll have to wait ntil morning to see how they are.
When the turkeys were 10 days old, Brian de-beaked them, but I don't think he took enough off. I know it sounds cruel, but they were attacking each other and we lost 3 where their heads and necks had been pecked so badly. But I don't think Brian took enough off as I've got 4 purple heads at the moment, and one which is in a crate with another injured poult, has a breathing problem. Don't know if he/she will survive, but he/she seems to be eating and drinking okay, just this rasping sort of voice!
But I will weigh them in the week and let you know how they are doing!!
9 Comments on Slapped Wrist! »
Mon, 25th August 2008
julie @ 10:10 pm:
hi annie, need your advice, have a 20 week silkie pullet who seems to only be using one wing. have just noticed this and am worried it could be something sinister, having read up on mareks didease. hubby thinks am over reacting but she doesnt seem to be thriving as well as the others, and our silkie cockerel has attacked her rather viciously , in fact she lay so still afterwards that i thought she was dead. she doesnt seem to be in any pain when we lift her, and she is eating and drinking ok, but i would appreciate some advice on how to handle this, thanks annie. jools
grannieannie @ 10:37 pm:
Hi Julie, well I am no chicken doctor, but hubby and I don't think its Marek's. If it was, she wouldnt get it on her own, all of your chickens would get it and they wouldn't be eating and drinking as normal.
Hubby thinks the cockeral could have attacked it and maybe broke the wing? Is that possible? If it has, then it would be best to put it down I'm afraid. I'll ask on the allotment site, to see if anyone else has any other ideas.
I'm sorry I'm not being much help am I?
Tue, 26th August 2008
julie @ 8:37 pm:
thanks annie, have been away and our neighbour was lookin after them, and she said hannah was very quiet when we wetre away, so i reckon she maybe has had an over zealous attack from our cockerel. the wing doesnt hang loose at all, so am going to get one of the experienced chicken men from our allotment site to give her the once over. hope we dont have to put her down cos shes a lovely natured hen, and shes so pretty. will keep you posted, and thanks again for your advice joolsx
Sat, 30th August 2008
Poulet @ 2:36 pm:
Hi Annie,
We used to debeak day old turks on the farm I ran a few years ago. They were all free range but later on when the treading started we had a few problems so the guy I worked for used to just snip the tip of the beaks off with nail scissors on the day they arrived.It grows back quite quickly but isn't as strong as it would be if it hadn't been done and it stops them hammering each other later on. Sugar beet tops hanging from the roof on some string also helps, they wolf them down and it takes their mind off attacking each other.
grannieannie @ 10:24 pm:
Hi Poulet! Thanks for that, we did snip them again when we put them over into Brian's converted workshop! And they love their CD's hanging, and cabbages. Must keep my eyes open for sugar beet tops!!!! lol 2 of the pecked ones now are nearly clear again, but one of them has a wheezy chest,so not sure what other damage was done to her. The third one is trying to scratch her scab off, so she won't be long, then hopefully they can go back in with the others. If not, Brian will be building another shed!!!! lol
Sat, 6th September 2008
julie @ 6:22 pm:
hi annie, just a quick update on my "cockerel pecked" hen, she not doin well at all, is falling over all the time, and yesterday she was unable to get herself under cover and was like a drowned rat when i went across to check on her. i have made the decision to bring her into the house and let nature take its course. she seems to be enjoying herself, she roamin around the kitchen as if she been here before. she is eating slightly more today, so we all have our fingers crossed, but preparin ourselves for the worst. i didnt realise how nasty chickens can be to each other, have been brought up short on this one. luv juliex
Thu, 9th October 2008
Amanda @ 7:50 pm:
Hi My name is Amanda and i run wood crafts i think that this website is great and have decided to join in and talk to other people and share my times with me hobby of keeping birds of all breeds i also have a website however i don't want to say in case your not meant to it does ask for your website when you write and i have also put a link on my links page so other users can find this website so i guess it will be ok.
I am not very good at starting things off so i would like to here from other website owners that work in the bird houseing area or people that keep birds i would like to try and post 3-4 times a week KIDS depending well if you have read this then thank you please vist my website wood-crafts and tell me what you think feed back from you would be so helpfull thank you
Amanda
chicken house @ 7:54 pm:
Hi again I did hope that one would look at my chicken houses and also give feed back.
cheers
grannieannie @ 11:03 pm:
Hi Amanda, Sorry I've not replied earlier, but I've only just come online. so your second comment which arrived only 4 minutes after the first one didn't give me much time to go have a look at your website to be able to make any comments on it!
Your poultry housing looks good quality and is quite reasonably priced. You said that you use easy clean timber on the roofs and don't use felt anymore. So how do you treat the roof timbers so they don't leak when it rains? We still have felt roofs on our chicken sheds, and I was given some onduline which we'll use on the next one, but it would be nice to get rid of the felt, because like you say on your website, it can harbour red mite!
But under the felt, some of the roofs we have are made of sterling board, not proper timber!
You said you wanted to chat to likeminded people, but I don't actually have a chat forum on my blog, people just leave comments now and again. But if you rally do want to chat chicken now and again, you must go and join the allotment forum I belong to link to it is on the left hand side of my page under allotment growing.
We have a lot of chicken minded people there and I'm sur you'll enjoy yourself. We have a good laugh and I have learnt more about chickens on there than anywhere else!!!
I'll put a link to your website on my sites I like page!!