Newest members of the new, small farm and other farm updates

7 years ago

Since I started this small farm just a mere few months ago, I've acquired several animals, from ducks to turkey poults to cows, goats, chickens, and rabbits. I've had many chances to breed the rabbits since then but have put it off, until proper facilities were made to handle the mamas and their babies. I did, acquire a new male rabbit, a New Zealand X Flemish Giant cross, which is pretty huge. Maybe I can get a good pic of that later. We did allow the muscovy ducks to breed. In the above pic, we have our first batch of animals born on this new farm, 11 ducklings.

I will keep one male and possibly all of the females, for egg production and breeding stock, because I don't know the age of my breeders. The rest of the males will probably be sold, when they are old enough to tell apart.

These are the chickens. I believe they turned out to be: 5x isa brown hens, 1 red rooster, which is possibly a cross, and 6 Ameraucana or crosses, which I believe are two roosters and four hens. Interestingly, Isa Brown chickens are supposedly capable of laying up to 350 eggs per year.

Here are the first shipment of turkey poults, pic taken on the 25th. So, they are appx 25 days old in this pic. I have eighteen of them, all heritage breeds, and expect at least another 15 to come at the end of August, which will include more heritage breeds, as well as wild turkeys.

So,the breeds I have (and/or are getting soon) are Narragansett, Royal Palm, White Holland, Blue Slate, Bronze Standard, Chocolate, Bourbon Red, Rio Grande Wild, and Black Spanish.Out of all of these, three of them are threatened, according to the livestock conservancy: Royal Palm, White Holland, and Black Spanish. None of the threatened or critically endangered turkeys are listed as recovering, but since they are domestic, man-made (or man-bred) species, they don't really have protections. It basically means that, in order to have heritage breed status, they have to be obsoleted by new breeds. In the case of turkeys, the broad-breasted turkeys have a much better feed intake to weight gain ratio and cost much less to raise.

By the time we raise the poults and sell the excess males, we'll probably have around 20 total turkeys, for our breeding stock.

Here are the turkeys when they were about three days old. Since I couldn't find any feed stores selling a game bird starter or turkey starter, I had to make my own, which is 28% protein. They'll eat this until they're twelve weeks old.

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Comments (5)

dirtygardener73
7 years ago
You're doing great! I admire you your pluck. I had a 5-acre farm once with goats and chickens, and it was way too much for me to take care of by myself, even at 40 years old. You have way more energy than I did, even then.
xentar_gw
Original Author
7 years ago
last modified: 7 years ago

Thanks for the encouraging words. Sometimes, I think I'm moving too fast, but other times, I think I'm moving too slowly, in terms of getting the farm up and running.

As of now, I'm waiting for a shipment confirmation or notification on some Saxony ducklings. Hopefully I got the order in in time and won't get a call saying that they couldn't fulfill my order because it's the end of the hatching season for them.

I would like to add some Yokohama chickens to the group, mainly as show birds/breeders, but the hatching season may be over before I can get to it. They are considered critically endangered by the livestock conservancy. Phoenix and Sumatra chickens are considered a bit too wild and flighty to be raised in a coop, according to what I've read about them. So, I think Yokohamas would be a perfect alternative.
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xentar_gw
Original Author
7 years ago
Khaki Campbell Ducklings
Newest member of the farm, a black American Alpine
Gracie, another Alpine/Nubian cross doe

After selling three of my extra Pekin duck males, I have a total of 77 farm animals now. Unfortunately, I didn't get my order in on time for the Saxony ducklings. The broker tried to get some in for me, thinking there would be enough during the last hatch, but it wasn't meant to be right now. I'm sort of expecting the Pekins to lay eggs any time now and really would like to get an incubator by September.

So, why more goats? I wanted one that would be ready to breed early fall, and Gracie came into heat basically as soon as we brought her to the farm. We bred her to the Alpine male. If the breeding took, we should have some goat kids in early January. In the long run, I would like to shift gears into pure bred goats, and eventually, all registered ones. The new American Alpine doeling is ADGA registered, and I already had an unregistered purebred male. Whether or not the other three does get bred before January 2017 depends all on their weight. By then, the youngest one will be 8 months old and the other two will be 11 months and 1 year.

The turkey poults have made it through what most people call the critical stage, 12 weeks. They are in a 10x10x6 pen right now, and I will separate them, by breed, into more 10x10x6 pens, when I find out I have at least a pair of each breed. I'm reasonably sure that some of the breeds I have are potentially all Toms. So, despite having 6 breeds, the final number of pairs or trios which will have their own separate pens will probably be around three to four. The extra Toms will probably be sold off.

Apparently, heritage turkeys mature at around eight months old. So, I have 4+ months to get all of their pens ready. But wow, after reading so many horror stories about people having a death rate between 50% and 90% with poults, I was really nervous going in and kind of on pins and needles, until they did hit that 12 week mark. I had to come up with my own feed mix, because none of my local stores or mill sold a turkey or game bird starter, or any poultry feed in a high enough protein range.

As of now, most of the older ducks and chickens have been put on lacto-fermented feed, and soon, the turkeys will also be put on primarily that. I can already see a difference in the ducks, as they no longer attack the feed storage room every time the door is open, when they used to have an unending hunger. I mean, the Pekin ducks would just peck right through the tough feed bags in seconds and jump into the storage area.... You'd think they were goats... After several weeks, they just stopped doing that and started acting as if they were no longer hungry. The change was so abrupt that I thought something was wrong, but it's been awhile now, and everything has been A-OK. The chickens, well, that's another story. They still seem to have an unending appetite.

Well, that's about it for now.
whgille
7 years ago
Xentar

Congratulations on your work and all your animals, it seems to me that you are enjoying the ride and I am sure that it keeps you really busy, they are all so cute!

Silvia
suncoastflowers
7 years ago
Great pictures! You are creating a wonderful farm!

Newest members of the new, small farm and other farm updates

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dirtygardener73

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