April 25, 2007

t must be Spring! It was hailing and snowing yesterday and a miniature yellow daffodil variety called "Tete a Tete" appeared as the first blooming flower on our land this year. This variety was developed by Alec Gray in 1949. It is one of my 2 varieties of heirloom Narcissus (which most people know as Daffodils).

I get a call from Amy this morning as she is stating the fact that my turkey's are flying the coop out of the brooder and flying and attacking her. They must come to my house. I actually had my mountain of laundry half folded that I have been trying to get to for the last few days and instead go and clean out the turkey house. We started getting the 'honeymoon' suites for the breeding pairs going and we tossed the pair of Improved Broad Breasted Bronze turkeys in there for 'storage' while the baby poults overtook their former home.

There will be 4-6 of these sized pens to use as breeding facilities to keep the breeds purebred. Hopefully by next week we will have the rest of them all together. I may have a lead on someone in British Columbia who has heirloom varieties. The people I went to see yesterday had a breed which suspiciously looked like Slates or Lilacs and I asked for them to get me the phone number for me to contact them.

In the picture below, this is some of the turkey poults of ours and in their new digs. However, they are imprinted on Amy and they follow her around quite well and huddle by the door to await their return. After Amy and Mary sat in there for awhile with them while I was helping my guy (who you can sorta see in the picture above watching the adult Bronze), the poults decided to stay closer to the heat lamps and not the door.

I really like the Bronze better than the Nicholas Whites. We have had 3 of the Nicholas Whites die at Amy's (not her fault) and another one had a prolapsed rectum here or in transit from her house. Not one of the other breed has had a problem. I think they are a much thrifter bird.

In the picture, this is not all the birds. The rest are meandering about their home.