Sunbathing huddle. It’s been thunder storming quite often the last few days, but the weather paused for a bit today.
I think these poults enjoyed the break from the rain. Their pen stayed dry, but there were 8 poults sunbathing at once, at the height of the little frenzy I witnessed.
Got my first two little strutters and gobblers. I don’t know how old these two are? They just started strutting and gobbling on top of their heater though, absolutely ridiculous. I’ve been looking forward to this for months haha.
I’ve been in the same boat before. Last year I had at least 3 or 4 black poults start strutting and trying to gobble before they even hit a week old, I believe. It was a big thing I’d been looking forward to this year given how silly it was, but even with poults almost a month old, I haven’t had...
I think I hatched out a regal red poult?
It came from my red turkeys, of which my male and 2/3 of my females are bb’, and it’s super white. It’s the first poult of the year to hatch from them too, which is exciting. I wasn’t sure whether I’d actually get any. Hopefully it does wind up solid red...
I’m aware, that’s the reason my breeding slate pen tom is a lavender. The 100% chance for his poults to get the dominant slate gene was something I was really interested in, and he hasn’t disappointed.
The rusty black didn’t come from him, that was from an egg collected after her pen move… I...
Thank you. The head color part was what had me a bit hesitant. I don’t think I’ve seen a rusty black or rusty slate poult homozygous for the black base before, with such a white facial marking.
The tom I had her under was a lavender, he couldn’t have produced rusty blacks. I was using “slates”...
I don’t know. I’ve been using a lavender tom from McMurray to breed slates for the last two years, and I don’t know what their practices over there are like, or whether something like that could’ve happened.
I do know that last year i didn’t get any weirdly colored poults though. Just the...
I do have chocolate hens, but in a separate breeding pen from the slates. Shouldn’t be possible for them to interbreed.
I had a rusty black hen in with the slates for a short period of time though, so rusty slates were possible.
I also mark eggs with the pen they’re from as soon as I collect...
Asking for confirmation. This is a rusty slate, right? Like 90% sure but I’ve never seen such a white head from the photos people post online of rusty-colored turkeys. I’ve really only seen the ones where nearly their entire faces are black or grayish red. I’m guessing that just means this poult...
Thank you. They’re some of the most beautiful birds I’ve ever owned, I’m really thankful I was able to acquire them. Their legs are honestly some of the most vibrant pink I’ve ever seen in person on a turkey’s legs, I’ve only got one other turkey besides them with a similar shade of leg...
Some of my hens. I find them beautiful to admire, and most are pretty photogenic. The rusty black hen rarely stands still for photos though, and when she does, my photos always come out blurry.
Some of mine do as well. My black tom doesn’t have a beard because of his hens. Some hens don’t pluck though, so my breeding red tom has a fairly long beard. The bachelor flock males quite often tend to grow longer beards than the breeding males, as they’ve got no hens to pluck their beards, and...
Welp. I won’t be hatching White hollands this year. Somewhere between 2-3 dozen eggs were laid by the hens while I had my White holland tom in with them, and not a single fertile egg. He was being an awful breeder, so I cut my losses and he’s been slaughtered. He injured one hen breeding as...
Yes, sorry. They don’t come with the incubator itself, I believe a relative 3D printed or bought these when we originally got the incubators. They increase the height of the incubator, giving poults more head room and honestly the main reason I like them, they make it easier to see whether all...
That’s amazing, being able to see them go to roost, and seeing just how high up they can get. I’ve seen my domestic toms get fairly high up with surprising ease, but the wild ones are so agile, it’s a bit shocking.
Finally got my rusty blacks together! Super excited about that pen. Lots of variation to expect from them. On top of that, my chestnut reds have just started breeding, so hopefully I’ll see eggs soon. 25% chance of regal reds, hopefully I see that happen. In general, I’m looking forward to all...