I've neglected to show you our turkeys, haven't I?
We got them about two weeks ago and they're awfully cute.
Both the chickens and turkeys grow so fast out of their chick phase and these ones are no different. These heritage breeds are already about eight inches tall and will be ready by late fall. I've been pushing a bit for turkeys rather than chickens for meat. More meat, less death and all. But I think we may have a more difficult time slaughtering these guys since they'll be with us longer.
So far they've been very calm and playful.
They love to track the bugs :)
That little guy in front has an issue with his eye. See? It's not infected and doesn't cause him pain or anything but it can't open all the way. We can open it with our fingers a bit but it's almost like the slit just didn't form long enough. So he's our little one-eyed turkey.
They are going to outgrow this run quickly, I think. Not sure where they're going after that! These guys apparently get big! Like as tall as our toddler big. (And here's hoping they won't be too loud for the neighbors...) I also have no idea where they are going once they are processed seeing as I don't think we have the freezer space available. Huh. Guess we should figure this stuff out...
Brian built this chicken tractor (run) himself. It allows the poultry free range to eat their natural diet but still be protected from predators and it can be moved around the yard to different foraging spots. He did a great job on it. The farmer down the street wants him to build one for their chickens. Not sure that's going to happen, though, as we have plenty of our own projects here to keep us busy...
So there's our newest venture into mini-farming! And just hold on to your hats for more later this week because this girl got all crazy with the internet ordering the other night...
I really like the one standing on top of the water. The turkey run is cool - I love that you can move it around the yard. I wish we could have chickens and turkeys - you can in Portland, but not in our town. : ( Hopefully in a couple years we'll move out to a little more land.
ReplyDeleteI am in LOVE with your chicken tractor. We totally need one of those, for realz. The ghetto situation we've got going on right now is just not cutting it, predator-wise. Sigh. Being ghetto sounds fun, but being fancy really is better....
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