Turkey Time-Out!

Welcome back!

I hope you had a good week.

We've had a little trouble keeping our turkey in the yard. I don't know why. He usually stays around the chickens and the goats. He usually sleeps on the fence by the goats in the winter, and he sleeps on the fence by the chickens when the weather is nicer in spring and summer.

We had a few neighbors see him in their yard. Yesterday before we started to milk we got a call from a neighbor who saw him across the street. I love our good neighbors! This time Mr. Turkey was two blocks away!

I wish there had been another person with Matt and me to take a video of us catching the turkey. Our neighbor was there, but he was helping us catch the turkey, too.

It took three of us to corner the turkey, catch him, and get him into a dog crate to bring him home. We followed him through four back yards and down the street for a little while. We don't usually run after animals that we're trying to catch because that scares them and they run faster. We usually follow them and try to get them into a corner where it's easier to catch them.

Mr. Turkey doesn't fit very well in the dog crate.
It's big enough to bring him back to the farm in the back of the car.

This is big enough for him to live in for a few days.
We call it "Turkey Time-out!"
Maybe I should call it "Turkey Think Time."
Hopefully after spending a few days inside the big cage he'll decide it's better to stay close to home instead of wandering the neighborhood.

If he decides to wander off again he may end up as Turkey Dinner. Our neighbors are nice, but they don't want a turkey wandering around in their yard digging up their flowers and gardens.

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I was able to catch and hold the new hen that hasn't grown her feathers yet.
I thought you might like to see what it looks like a little closer.
Do you see those small black 'sticks' coming out of her skin?
Those are new feathers.
I'm not sure why she hasn't grown her feathers back yet.

This is another one of the new hens.
Her feathers have almost all filled in. There is only one small bald spot by her tail.
All the small shiny feathers on her back are the new feathers.

These two hens are 'broody.' That means they want to sit on a nest and hatch out eggs. They are in the same nest every morning and every night. They won't leave.

I keep taking their eggs, anyway.

I may put some eggs under them next week and let them hatch.

This hen is a banty. She's a mini-chicken. She can hatch out 2-3 large eggs.
She's small so she can't keep very many eggs warm.

This hen is a regular size hen.
She can sit on 5-6 eggs and keep them warm.

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I haven't collected any duck eggs lately. I thought one of the ducks was broody and sitting on a nest that she had hidden somewhere. Ducks get broody, too. 

The ducks aren't broody.
They were hiding their eggs.

How many eggs do you see?
They are a little dirty.

I gathered up the eggs and floated them to see if any were nasty. None of them floated so I washed them and checked them with my special flashlight to make sure they were still good to eat.

It's been chilly enough outside that the eggs are all still good to use!

All clean!
Next month I'll send a bunch of eggs so you can see and feel the difference between duck eggs, chicken eggs, and turkey eggs.

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Matt and I needed to work on the bucks (boy goats) last week. We don't do much with them because bucks are stinky in the winter! 

They all needed their hooves trimmed.
Curly needed the 'tags' cut off, too.

'Tags' are mud and stuff stuck to his curly hair.

He didn't want to stand properly in the milk stand so I trimmed him while his front feet were up on the stand and his back feet were on the ground.

After a while he decided that was uncomfortable so he got up on the stand so I could finish.

It took about an hour to trim and clean up all three bucks. Now they are ready to sell! We're ready for some new bucks this fall. We'll miss Curly, Zeek, and Thor. We know they will be happy where ever they go!

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I hope you have a great Spring Break!

There will be baby goats when you get back. We've kept an eye on Serenity, River, and Misty. They are ready to have their babies any day!