“ Most teens ’ mammy leave notes like ‘ There ’s lasagna in the fridge , I ’ll be back at six , ’ ” my girl Kelsey observed today . “ My aliveness is so weird . ”
The note I ’d left for her read : “ Kelsey , can you please gibe poult to see if he ’s flipped over ASAP ? Just set him vertical again ( if he ’s not dead ) . Back soon ! Love , Mom ”
I suppose that is kind of weird , now that she mentions it .
As you may have pretend , another Republic of Turkey saga has begun on our farm .
This past weekend , we bought four Bourbon Red poults , the inheritance variety we raised last year , and two Royal Palms , which will ( hopefully ) originate into striking white and black Meleagris gallopavo ( read about inheritance turkeys and see picshere , clack on turkeys ) .
After define them up in a brooder box in our mudroom — where I could keep a stuffy watch on these notoriously fragile babe — I spent the even mother over them to ensure they had control the artistry of deplete and crapulence . Unlike dame , poults are slow learner in this regard . I unremarkably tapdance the food with my finger and dip their beaks ( just the tip ) in the water until they charm on .
All seemed well , but the next 24-hour interval the humble Bourbon Red had become sluggish and rickety . After a daytime of extra babying and dipping her beak in electrolyte water , she seemed to recuperate . But then the flipping initiate . I kept feel the poor poult on her back , foot kicking , ineffectual to compensate herself .
Then , returning home from a schooling event , we found a different Bourbon Red on its back , barely breathing and cold . He ’d become stuck and exhausted outside the light - warm area ( I should have used a brooder guard ) , but lento revived after I warm him up again . I placed the two “ flipper ” together in another box for the night , and sadly , the littlest one died this good morning . The larger one seems pretty much back to normal , but still flips over every so often , so I ’m constantly insure on him .
None of our turkeys last year experienced this strange and frustrative behavior , so the right way now I ’m hear to dig up some answers — that is , when I ’m not contain to see if our poults have flipped again . I ’ll let you do it next week what I find out .
~ Cherie
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