Monday, April 28, 2008

Oops, Brown Turkeys!

The previous post shows some pictures of my turkeys poults. We had separated the white Royal Palms from the brown Bronzes a month ago because we wanted purebreds in order to sell them. Plus some people may want a white feathered bird instead of a dark one.
So far the only eggs that were ready to hatch were from the Palms, so much to my surprise when I got up this morning I found this in my incubator!





It should have looked like this!





The first two that hatched this morning looked very similar, kinda like a Bronze but then the third one was strange...kinda funny, it has a brown stripe down it's back and a polka-dot on it's forehead. I cannot even imagine what it will look like when it gets big. This coloration may be common in crossbred turkeys, I hope someone will let me know.

See the stripe?

You can kinda see it better in the next picture. Who knows...maybe it will disapear as it grows. It might be one funny lookin' turkey.

I belong to the Rare Heritage Turkey Group at Yahoo and I have asked if anyone there has crossed these two breeds and knows what they will look like when they get big. The group is a really good place for all information about turkeys. The moderators as well as the members have a wealth of knowledge to share. I have learned more there than anywhere else! I hope they will fill me in.
On now to the subject of Roosters. As you can see from the picture below..."One of these things is not like the other"!



We have a new man in town and his name is Dominic. He just looked so very Italian, what with the black and white and red accents. My brother-in-law, Tom said I should name him Checkers but for some reason Dominic fits him.

We have sold the Phoenix roosters to a nice lady that lives down by Marietta, she is coming to get them tomorrow. Plus, I want to hatch some chicken eggs and want a heavy breed so the babies and their eggs will be big, also I can't wait to see the colors when he gets mixed with the others.


Speaking of my brother-in-law...here he is actually holding a baby turkey. This is huge for him. He is the absolute definition of "city boy". He and my sister bring a change of shoes when they come to our house and he tells her that she has to leave them in the garage when they get home. Two weeks ago Kevin had a tick on his arm, probably from the cat, and he goes in and acts like he is going to put it on Tom. Well, you can imagine.

When Tom came last weekend for our bonfire, he brought mosquito and tick spray with him and sprayed it on himself before going fourwheeling. I would rather pick a tick off of me than spray that stuff on me. We don't have deer ticks here so I'm not worried. Don't get me wrong, they still creep the heck out of me if I get one on me but what can you do.

(I have another turkey egg piped and can't wait to see the color, I will up-date when he/she arrives.)

Happy Spring!

Beth

1 comment:

grady said...

Hi, I used to artificially inseminate turkeys part time when I was in the Air Force in the early 1960s, to make some extra money. All the turkeys were white at some ranches and the others were the black color. That was almost 50 years back, so I was shocked to see Brown turkeys while riding my bike the other weekend. Have brown turkeys been common all these years, Grady Overstreet, Santa Barbara, CA. 93110 email dlbglo@verizon.net