My favoritest turkey of all the breeds is the Bourbon Red. They have such rich, warm colors. Both sexes have such sweet dispositions and will follow you around. Last spring we ordered 15 poults from Murray McMurray Hatchery. I think that they must have gotten chilled in transit and we lost all but 5. Of course, there were 4 toms and 1 hen. That is just the way things work out. We put 2 of the toms in the freezer and kept the remaining 2 toms and 1 hen. She had started laying the most beautiful spotted eggs. Visions of little poults danced in my head. Well, there once lived a horrid fox at the top of the hill and he wanted a nice plump turkey for dinner. We made that his last dinner. So, now we have two lonely toms who are searching Craigslist for a girlfriend.
We cranked up the incubator from last season. It was a gift from my guinea hen crazed mother. We had guineas growing up and she wanted us to have guineas too. Boy do we have guineas. Great incubator with an amazing hatch rate. Online we went to Craigslist for Bourbon Red turkey eggs.
The only eggs we found were in Candia, NH. That is about 3.5 hours away. Hmmm....that sounds like a day trip to pick up turkey eggs and to visit my daughter Sue. Well worth the trip. Off I went Monday and we had a wonderful visit. I met a very nice lady named Cathy, who raises all sorts of fowl. I paid $40 for a dozen and she threw in 6 more for free. I hope there are all hens. Hahahahahah. Never. If we are lucky there will be a 50/50 split.
They are all placed in the egg holder with love and care.
The thermostat and humidity all set .
There they are all snug and warm in their bed. The turner is on and we will check daily to make sure the reservoir is full of water.
In 25 days I will turn the temperature down to 99.5 and increase the humidity. At the 28 day point we should hear little pips and POULTS.
Monday we are putting some eggs in for a neighbor. Chicken eggs take 21 days so they all should be hatching at the same time. We finally have a couple of broody Buff's and we are going to let them set. Babies everywhere. SPRING!
We have been having rain for days now. The hayfield is green and growing. Looking forward to a first crop of hay.
Being thankful for rain here.
Much Love and Prayers from Mainely Ewes Farm
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2 comments:
How awesome! That's a high-tech incubator! Good luck with your hatching. Chicken hawks are our biggest problem; but a fox got one of my big hens once :(
Oh, you are so lucky!! We have tons of wild turkeys around here, but I love the look of yours! I am down to 4 hensm another was grabbed last week. Chris got a shot off at the fox, but missed. If we weren't selling and hopefully moving, I'd be ordering some of everything!! GOod luck.
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