Everything is growing and getting bigger on the farm, except for me. I've lost about 15 lbs already this spring and I'm going to have to buy some new clothes.
The ducks and turkeys are thriving, I've been pulling them out into the sunlight when it's warm. It is supposed to take 5-6 weeks of gradually reducing the heat in the brooders from 90° before you can let them run free, but they seem to get used to cooler temperatures faster than that. I'd say it won't be more than 3 weeks before I'll put them in their pens and give them the option of coming inside under a heat lamp if they need to. I've gotten faster at cleaning their houses so it isn't quite the chore it was before. When I'm cleaning out the brooders I put them into cardboard boxes, this morning an adventurous duckling leapt up and sat on the edge of the duck box and then flapped it's little wings and jumped into the box of turkeys. I guess it wanted to see what they were eating.. The ducklings have also had their first swim. I used a paint roller tray so that they could walk up the inclined surface easily if they wanted to get out of the water. It was fun to watch them take turns jumping in and out of the water. The turkeys' wings have lost their down and are now fully feathered. Every now and then one will start running and flapping it's little wings, no successful take-offs yet.
The pigs are growing, as well. I'm guessing that they are both in the 60-70 lb range right now. Breakfast is still ornery but seems to be calming down a little, maybe it is just adolescence.
The garden is still doing well. All of the soybeans, pole beans and corn have sprouted, we are almost out of the first planting of radishes, the second planting should be ready in about 2 weeks. We had guests for dinner on Sunday and had a salad made exclusively from the garden, and I tossed some potato wedges with olive oil, sea salt, and fresh garden herbs and roasted them to accompany a beer-can chicken from the grill.
In wildlife news, we now have a rooster pheasant strolling around the yard and squawking. He walked within 30 feet of us sitting outside on Sunday. Haven't seen the fox again, but there was another wild turkey sighting Saturday morning .
3 comments:
Well it appears that I spoke too soon. When I got home this evening one of the turkey poults was extremely listless and nonresponsive. I put it in a separate box wiht it's own feed and water but it didn't make it.
There is also another turkey that is looking ill. It's head is drooping and it is not eating like the other birds. I tried quarantining it but then it got very active, so I am hoping it may make a recovery. We will see.
maybe a call to a neighbor who has turkeys, or a call to mCmurray might be beneficial if turkey #2 doesn't recover. combining heads may yeild a solution to ward off a possible concern with the rest of the poults. keep us "posted"
"Sicky" the turkey seems to have made a full recovery, so back with the rest she(?) goes. I haven;t seen any sign of others looking ill, so hopefully it was just the one bird and we don't have an epidemic.
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