April 18, 2007

he turkey order arrived with Amy's Buff Cochin order today. So we have 22 happy-g0-lucky Bronze and Nicholas White turkeys. This year we are brooding them in Amy's spare bedroom as I have full grown turkey's in mine. I am dabbling with the idea of having Elena bring up 4 varieties of heritage turkey hatching eggs from Washington State when she comes and visits me in August. I would really like to be able to produce our own replacement birds and food and not have to have it shipped in.

Picture Above: 3 Nicholas White turkey poults. Probably hatched last night

Picture Below: Standing head and shoulders above the others, a Bronze turkey surrounded by alot of Amy's fuzzy footed Buff Cochin chicks.

Picture Below: About a 1/3 of the chicks in the brooder. This shows the color intensity of the red heat lamps which are over the chicks.

After we got the chicks all settled in, Amy went back to work and Mary and I went and got stuff to brood the chicks which should hatch tomorrow in our borrowed incubator from the feed store, and I got 2 bales of potting soil to transplant my tomatoes and peppers out of the indoor greenhouse out into the big one.

Then we set up the brooding facilities in Mary's basement to await the arrival of chicks from our flock's eggs here. The whole goal of getting chicks last year, was to be able to produce get breeding stock, so we could rear as many chickens as we needed for the freezers this year and for years afterward. Mary is getting some of this batch and getting used to having chicks before her expensive ones come in from the hatchery. 

It is so cool typing this tonight from solar power. And a light to see by, also powered from a solar battery bank.