I was thrilled to discover one of my four Narragansett turkey hens leading her newly hatched poults through the flower bed in front of the house. It is such a sight to behold... the hen chirping to the poults and tiny little babies racing through the tall plants trying to keep up with mom.
Then a sadness overcame me as I knew that I needed to take them from their mom and raise them in the brooder pen if I had any hope of them surviving to maturity. I would much prefer to raise all our animals naturally with the moms but I have learned that the free roaming birds just don't fair well with young hatchlings. Last year I lost every turkey poult that I didn't raise in the brooder myself. Hard lesson learned well.
So, I grabbed the closest box and started scooping up the poults. After 7 poults in the box I could see that there was at least 2 pouts still skittering about and the hen was quite stressed. Against anyone's better judgement I left the last of the pouts with the hen so she would be rewarded for all her hard work in setting and hatching the pouts out for me. I just hope they do ok.
The pouts in the box got moved into the brooder next to the 16 chicken chicks with food, water and heat lamp. They seemed to calm down fairly quickly.
Then a sadness overcame me as I knew that I needed to take them from their mom and raise them in the brooder pen if I had any hope of them surviving to maturity. I would much prefer to raise all our animals naturally with the moms but I have learned that the free roaming birds just don't fair well with young hatchlings. Last year I lost every turkey poult that I didn't raise in the brooder myself. Hard lesson learned well.
So, I grabbed the closest box and started scooping up the poults. After 7 poults in the box I could see that there was at least 2 pouts still skittering about and the hen was quite stressed. Against anyone's better judgement I left the last of the pouts with the hen so she would be rewarded for all her hard work in setting and hatching the pouts out for me. I just hope they do ok.
The pouts in the box got moved into the brooder next to the 16 chicken chicks with food, water and heat lamp. They seemed to calm down fairly quickly.
1 comment:
Keet -- a new word for me! I'll use it just for Scrabble for a couple of years yet, though ;)
I REALLY like your farm -- Dexters! OK if I'm a little jealous?
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