Timmy and Tillie

A few days ago I saw an ad for Royal Palm turkeys on Craigslist. The price was great, and it was for a male/female pair, so I called but the man told me they were already spoken for. The next night he called and said the person was a no-show, and if I wanted them they were mine. The next day I picked them up after work. He'd already named them Timmy and Mattie (Matilda), but I changed Mattie to Tillie since it was easier for me to remember.


They're nice looking birds and I'm so glad I was able to get them.



After a few turkey-spats with my Buffs, they all settled in nicely.



My goal is to have a breeding pair of Buffs and Royal Palms next spring so I can hatch and sell poults.

A Big Scare and Animals on Video

This little lamb you see here almost died today, and it was scary. I mean really, really scary. You see, I normally feed the animals when I get home, after I let the dogs out. Today, I let the dogs out and saw that all the animals were fine so I went inside to eat the mango gelati David brought me from Rita's. After we ate our awesomely delicious Italian ices, we both fell asleep on the couch. I woke up about a half hour later and decided to feed the animals. I was getting something from the kitchen when I looked out the window and saw the electric netting fence moving. I thought it was just a chicken sneaking under or through it, but I looked closer and saw one of my ewe lambs tangled in it. Crap. Crapcrapcrap. I ran outside and hopped over the fence and knew immediately she was REALLY tangled. As in, choking and couldn't breathe tangled.

I grabbed the fence and started trying to untangle her, which wasn't easy because she was almost on her back and had one front leg wrapped around behind her head and in the fence. I was having a really hard time figuring out how to free her. I knew I couldn't yell for David because he was still sleeping and trying to wake him is like trying to wake the dead. I knew I couldn't take time to run inside and try to wake him up, so I just kept grabbing fencing and pulling. By this time the lamb had foam coming out of her mouth, along with a drop of blood. Crap. By the time I finally freed her (which was probably only 20 seconds but felt like a lifetime) she had stopped moving. I thought she was dead. I thought to myself, "Great, I just got her freed and it's too late. What are we going to do with a dead lamb? How are we going to dig a hole?" (we're having a drought) I layed her on her side and pushed on her ribcage pretty hard a few times, then shook her a little and massaged her throat. She finally started gasping for air. I sat down with her head on my lap thinking "Please, please breathe." After a few minutes she was ok enough to stand up, and then she stood panting so hard for a few more minutes.

She's ok now, but I really thought she was a goner. What if I had slept one more minute? What if I hadn't seen her in time? That was really scary. I left the sheep out grazing while I was at work today, but I definitely won't do that anymore until I'm sure the charger is working reliably.


But now that everything is ok, I wanted to share a video I made of the animals tonight. It's just a quick tour, and I apologize for anything dorky I may say. It's hard to think of what to say on camera!

Early Developers

The turkeys are a few days shy of 8 weeks old and already they're practicing their displays of manliness. The other morning I heard a strange noise and realized it was one of the young turkeys gobbling. Gobbling already!! Last year my turkeys didn't gobble until they were about fully grown!

And look at this guy below....strutting his stuff!


The pictures aren't the best because they are pretty shy, but I wanted to get pictures of the display. There were 2 males showing off for each other.


The lady turkeys better look out!

Morning Chores

This morning I took pictures as I was doing chores so I could share my daily routine. I skipped the inside stuff, like letting the dogs out to potty, feeding them, etc. After I get the dogs fed and pottied, and I get showered and dressed, I head out to feed the outside animals.

First stop is the barn to let the 8 turkeys and 3 pullets out for the day. They've been enjoying free-ranging during the days and only go back to the barn to roost at night. They're growing pretty good, and starting to actually look like turkeys. I've seen a few strutting too....very cute to see a pint sized turkey displaying his feathers. :-)


Then I head out to see the sheep and goats. June and Ida are waiting for me. Normally Brutus is up on the gate with them, but not this morning. June looks funny because I clipped her body but not her head. Can you see the color difference? I open the gate and try to hold the baby goats back, and let June slip out so she can go to the barn to be milked.


After I milk June, I open the headstall on the milk stand so she can make her way back outside to the pasture. I take a few moments to feed the Romney lambs (still for sale, btw). I fill their haybag with hay and make sure they have water.

Then I take an armful of hay and grab June's collar to remind her she's supposed to be going back to the barn. Sometimes I'll just leave without her, and she'll come blasting out of the barn running and jumping all the way to the pasture gate. I put the hay in the feeder and watch everyone pig out. Soon I'll order some electric netting so the sheep can graze more in the yard. It would be nice to stop feeding hay.

June has to get the best hay, and everyone knows the best hay is at the top!

The goat kids follow along and think they also need to stand in the feeder to get the best hay. It's a goat thing. Notice how all the sheep are standing nicely, and all the goats have to be rebels.

Purl said, "Why are you taking pictures of us eating hay? Do you mind?"

After the small ruminants are looked after, I head to the chicken coop. I used to let the chickens out first, but I got tired of walking around and over them, so I now let them out last. As I walk to the coop, one crazy pullet flies up and hits the wire mesh over the window. She does this every morning. I think she's telling me to hurry up and open the door! So I oblige her and open the door and watch the poultry rush out in a tumble.

Then I watch the feeding frenzy for a moment before I head back inside.

On my way back inside I see the turkeys are once again trapped in the small pen, even though the gate they walked through to get in the pen is wide open. They'll figure it out, they do this at least twice a day.

Once I get back inside I strain the milk. I use a coffee filter instead of using the ones that go to the stainless funnel I have. The gold mesh coffee filter works so well and I can re-use it. It cost about $10 but will last quite a while.

June milked about a half gallon this morning. She's milking about a gallon a day now, which is way too much for us to keep up with. The kids are only here half time, and David isn't a big milk drinker. I've been making pudding and farmer cheese to try to keep up with it! I would like to expand my cheese-making abilities and try something "real" like cheddar or mozzerella, but I need to order cultures and I have been putting that off. Right now I'm on the hunt for a young piglet so I can feed it all the extra milk. Apparently nobody breeds pigs around here!

After all the chores are done and the milk is labeled and put in the fridge, I quickly pack my lunch, let the dogs out one last time, put a diaper on Scooter (more on that later), and head out the door to work.

Oh what I would give to be able to stay home!

Now head on over to Verde Farms for Farm Friend Friday to see all the great farm blogs out there!

Turkey Pile

The turkeys I hatched out a few weeks ago are growing fast. They're feathering out, and getting pretty cute. The eight turkey poults have 5 friends. Can you spot them? They're chicks one of my broody hens hatched out. Unfortunately the broody died the night the last chick hatched, so they had to go in with the turkeys. I was a little worried about the size difference, but they all get along just great!


I bought buff eggs and slate eggs, and it looks like 7 are buffs and 1 is a slate. It's hard to tell at this age, but they could be mixed breeds too. You just never quite know what you'll get at auction.

The one above is the slate looking one. I'm hoping I'll be able to sell a few mature pairs of these turkeys if they're true buffs. I'd like to make a little money off of them. If they turn out to be a mix, I'll probably just raise them out for Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners.

I'm debating keeping a breeding pair of turkeys. I'm not sure it's worth the hassle to house and feed them year round just to keep from buying poults. It might make more economical sense to just buy poults each year.

Peep Peep!

This morning I had a surprise when I woke up! New new turkey poults! I have 18 turkey eggs in the incubator- 6 slates and 12 buffs. Day 28 (the incubation period for turkey eggs) is tomorrow (Wednesday). These two were running ahead of schedule, apparently. Today when I got home from work there were 2 more pips and one of those is working hard to zip out of that egg! I'm really crossing my fingers lots more will hatch!

Turkey Processing Part 1

DISCLAIMER: Please don't read the following post if you don't want to see pictures of turkeys being processed for food. I'm not showing the actual killing, but I do show plucking and there is a little blood and some folks might not care to see. If you'd rather not see them, this is your warning!

Two weekends ago David and I processed 4 of our 9 turkeys. We started by getting the scalding water hot. We used the old fashioned fire method because we haven't yet bought a portable gas burner.



After we killed each turkey, I'd scald it in the pot and then pluck it. Plucking was the longest part. It took about 5 minutes per bird to get all of the feathers out. The majority of the feathers came out easily but there were straggling pin feathers I'd have to pick out individually.


After the bird was plucked, it went into a cooling bath of cold water for a little while so I could kill and pluck the next bird. After they were all killed and chilling in the water, I started the actual cleaning part. This stainless table works really well. I set up three buckets...one for entrails, one for feet, and one for "keeper" organs. I keep the feet for stock, and I keep the necks, livers, hearts, and gizzards for cooking.


I gutted and cleaned each bird, which took a few minutes. I think this is my "favorite" part. I don't mean I really enjoy it, but I mind it the least. It was really nice to have that large body cavity versus the broilers which seem tiny in comparison!


I am really happy with how the birds looked!


Here they are all ready to go in the freezer. Out of the 4 we killed, 3 were broad breasted white and 1 was a broad breasted bronze. The bronze was a tom, and he was pretty lanky, weighing in at 15.2 lbs. The largest was a white tom which weighed in just shy of 20 lbs. The other 2 whites were hens and they each weighed 16 lbs.


Two of these birds are for my sister, one is for my mom, and the other is for Thanksgiving. The remaining 5 are for us and other family members. They'll be processed in the next few weeks.

I thought I'd be more sad to say goodbye to the turkeys, but it really didn't bother me as much as I thought it might. It probably helps that I still have 5 left. I can't wait to taste that first bite of Thanksgiving turkey!

Eating Machines

We have 9 turkeys left. I sold 2 to a friend a couple of weeks ago. The remaining 9 are very large and eat a ton! I feed them (along with the chickens) in these two troughs just inside the chicken run. The turkeys used to have free-range of our property, until they started wandering waaaaay too far. I caught them across the road once, and I put a stop to their roaming ways.
Now they stay in the sheep pasture, but I had to figure out a way to feed them so the sheep (and goats) couldn't eat their food. This works really well. The turkeys reach through the fencing to eat, and the sheep can't get to it. The feed cost is really starting to add up though. The chickens and turkeys go through 2 bags of feed per week. Add that in with the 2 bags per week for the broilers, and it's an easy $36-40 per week in just poultry feed alone.


I think I'll be processing the turkeys soon, maybe this weekend or next weekend. They're really pretty, and I'll miss them, but I won't miss their food bill.


It's funny, but many times I catch the turkeys in segregated groups. The white ones will hang out and the bronze ones will hang out.


Pretty soon my freezer will be chock full of turkeys!


Many are going to friends and family. I think we'll keep 2, and we may have an extra turkey or two to sell or barter.


Next year I hope to get a few heritage breed turkeys to keep year round. I'll miss having turkeys on the homestead.

Show Offs

Today all the animals were feeling great thanks to the lovely weather we're having! It really is perfect out....warm but not too hot, and nice and breezy! Our AC has been off and the windows open all weekend.

June and the ram decided they wanted to play head butting games.


They were really getting into it!


Then Darla decided she was going to join in too!


The whole time I was in the pasture the turkeys were showing off for me. They would follow me around and strut, trying to impress me with their lovely feathers and blue and red heads.


Turkey heads are weird and bald and wrinkly, but they do have pretty colors.


Oh yes, Mr. Turkey, you are very impressive. I'm amazed at your good looks. I can't wait to eat you invite you for dinner.

Qualiy Time With Turkeys

The weather was really nice yesterday, so after getting a few things done in the yard, I took a lawn chair under the shade and spent some time with the turkeys. I got a few really cute pictures!

I love how he's peeking from the side here.


This guy was extremely curious!


I love their big ear holes. Kinda creepy, but cool!


I love this picture. I'm going to enter it in the county fair next week!


And there were lots of turkey naps yesterday. Don't fight it, big guy.


Just relax...


Ahhh, there. That's nice.


These two were so cute snuggled next to each other.


The broilers also wanted some attention.


This big guy sat on my lap for a few minutes...then I worried he'd leave me a present, if you know what I mean.

Yard Birds

A former coworker of mine always called chickens yard birds. I guess it's a common term, but he's the only one I know who said it. It give me a small chuckle when I hear it. It doesn't take much to amuse me.

It's been a while since I've done a broiler update , so I wanted to show you a few pictures I took last night. I'm sorry they're slightly blurry, but it was getting dark. These are the broilers I'm raising for my sister. They're now 9 weeks old. They're going to be about 10.5 weeks when they're processed, which is a little older than normal for broilers (who are usually processed between 6 and 8 weeks). Becky is coming for a visit soon, so we wanted to time her visit with their processing date so she can help out. I think I'm more excited about it than she is, but I'm sure she'll do fine.


The broilers are still doing really well, despite their large size. Many people think these Cornish X broilers always get lame or keel over and die at the drop of a hat, but it's really not true if they have proper management. I started letting these birds free range when they were about 4-5 weeks old. I started them in a brooder pen in the barn, then moved them to a 'tractor' when they were 4 weeks (and completely feathered out). I left them in that pen for about a week, then let them free-range- partly because it was so hot out (and I wanted them to have shade in the woods) and partly to keep them strong and healthy, so they could run around and build muscles. I'm also not feeding them 24/7 like some people do. They get fed in the morning and in the afternoons, and they gobble up all the feed and then free-range the rest of the day. I wanted to make sure they didn't grow too fast, since they'll be living longer than they're "supposed to".

I lost a few of them during shipping and 1 day later, and only lost 1 when they were "grown" to what I suspect was a respiratory issue combined with abnormally high temps. I did have a close call with 2 of them when it was over 100* out. They were not doing well at all, so I put them in a bucket of cold water to bring their body temps down. The next day they were fine and I couldn't even tell which ones were sick. Since then, they've all been great!


The bird above is the biggest one. I call him Chickenzilla. He's large and in charge.

My biggest problem with the broilers now is they see me as the "food lady" and they mob me whenever I walk out into the yard! I can hardly walk to feed them because they swarm around me. They also like to peck at my ankles. That hurts!


And they try to follow me when I walk away!

Oh yeah, and the turkeys are getting big too!! They're starting to strut more now, and the other day I had to break up a fight. They grab each other's wattles and hang on tight! Ouch. And the funniest thing....yesterday when I was screwing the lumber together for the bachelor pen shelter, the screws were making a screaching noise in the wood, and a few of the turkeys gobbled!

And check out that guinea (on the right)! She's one of the babies I bought at the Auction in April. I wound up getting a male and female. That's lucky!