« A Day Early | Main | Some pictures of flowers »

June 6, 2008

Turkey timeline

May 13: turkey eggs in incubator begin to hatch.
May 13: napping after hatching. They don't look like much at this stage.
June 5: Same turkey poults spend their first night outside. The one who is yawning is the first one hatched (pictured above).
June 5: I have removed some eggs from a turkey hen. Sometimes they make good mamas, sometimes they don't. This one had been sitting on some chicken eggs as well, and lost all but one chick (pictured). I took 4 turkey eggs from her too. You don't need much for a brooder: here I have a light, a cardboard box (from canning jars!) and a sock. Baby birds like to snuggle, to get under things, and the sock is a good sustitute when you are dealing with only 3-4 babies.

June 5: Proud daddies wait outside the front door for news.
June 6: The older turkey poults explore the grass. They are too small to roam without supervision. Inside, 3 of the 4 turkey eggs have hatched. Each of them is completely white.
June 6: Murphy keeps a close eye on the babies. It's hard to believe he was once this size!

Posted by roosterh at June 6, 2008 4:33 PM

Comments

Post a comment