Sunday, January 15, 2017

Rain, wet and our Poultry

We are getting rain. Lots of rain. Today though there is a bit of a lull and the poultry is taking full advantage of it. They are every where. Scratching and pecking, running to the roosters, running away from the roosters.

The ducks are playing in their water troughs, splashing like maniacs. We are sure they splash out four times more water than we put in!

The turkeys are wandering around the yard looking resigned to the gray weather. The young turkey hens occasionally fly up into the old Oak tree and see how high they can get. Its a happy scene. So here are some photos of our crazy poultry.

 A group of the young hens, they look so nice, no pecking problems so they all have beautiful full feathers. They are sassy girls and very talkative and curious.



 Two of the three amazing poults. I still marvel at them, being hatched during a cold spell in December. You ask...is that a Black poult? Yes it is, we were quite surprised but found out that the Blue Slate turkeys have a Black Phase, we have one Blue Slate hen, Lilac, this poult is her baby.
The Turkey hen moulted just after hatching and looked dreadful, she is starting to get her new feathers. She had her children out and about today.  She is very watchful.


 Here is the little family, the poults have feathered up quickly and are stocky things. They have loud strident peeps and cause the hen a lot of stress as they learn the ropes of going outside.


 Our winter chicks are growing  like weeds, there are 10 of them and the hen is really super protective. Beware anyone who gets too close. This Australorpe hatched chicks in the first run of brood hens. We leg band any hen that has chicks. When Ralph put this girl in the nest box to set on the eggs, we found her to be banded. She is a wonderful hen.



 I took this photo as a cat walked down the driveway about 10 feet from the poults. The turkey was ready for battle!


 The chicks came in a wide range of colors, we did not expect white! We have no white chickens. Now though we have two, a pullet and this handsome young fellow.


 Turkey Talk....they congregate in font of the deck and talk about everything.


Two of our first hatchings. The Rooster is Henry, he is an Australorp X Buckeye.  The hen is one of our very favorites, we call her 'Copper'. She is laying lovely eggs and is a Buckeye X Buff Orpington.


So there you have it, scenes from our yard during a rain free few hours. It has started to drizzle again and if you look out now...there is not a bird in sight.

God Bless you all and keep safe and well.



9 comments:

  1. I especially like the turkey talk photo. :) And glad to hear about your 'Lorp being such a good mama. The Australorps seem to be the breed we've settled on and that was the one big question about whether we'd go with them or not: broody and mamaness.

    Our chickens aren't real keep on rain, but snow was an absolute no-no. They looked out the door and refused to leave to coop! At least it melted fairly quickly.

    ReplyDelete
  2. You surely have some beautiful birds. Maybe I should get some turkeys too. My daughter brought down a hen and rooster of a different breed when she came down for Christmas. I can't recall the name right now but they are completely white, and much, much larger than my own chickens. They seem to be blending in well with the flock.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Those turkey poults are just adorable. All of your poultry looks fabulous!

    ReplyDelete
  4. What a joy it was to see the pictures of your beautiful, healthy animals and read about their antics! Hope you and Ralph are doing well. Hugs

    ReplyDelete
  5. Very very nice pictures. Love all your cute poultry!!! I really liked reading about all of them. Thanks for sharing:)Jessi

    ReplyDelete
  6. Hi Fiona & Ralph-

    I didn't see an email addie, so thought I'd try asking your thoughts about the two wheeled tractor package you went with. Are you still happy with the choices, are they doing the jobs you'd hoped they would do? Would you go a different route if you were to do it over? I find myself trying to figure out whether we should rent as needed, buy an assortment of the two wheel products, or get a small tractor, and thought it would be wonderful to hear your opinions now that you've used the products for a bit. Thanks for your time, Julie.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Check your blog😁
      I posted my info...it did not go to moderate....lol
      I look forward to getting in touch

      Delete
  7. I will get Ralph to post about it. We are impressed with what it does. It is not perfect. But it did everything we wanted it to do

    ReplyDelete
  8. I am trying to post a reply.
    We will do a blog about it

    ReplyDelete