Farm News 06-26-05

Sunday morning, after chores

Thanksgiving Quits at Seven

After incubating the remaining eggs for an extra week, Thanksgiving decided it was time to start eating regularly again. She went back to her nest a few times, but after a couple of days abandoned it. I might put her on a high protein feed and see if she will start laying again, but seven little turkeys is probably enough for one year.

The poults are doing fine, eating and growing. Thanksgiving seems to have lost interest in them, which is fine with me. I'm a better mother than she is, unless the electricity goes off. We had a two hour outage on Tuesday but the temperature was in the 90's so the poults didn't chill.

Their wing feathers are growing out but I still can't tell what colors they are. Half of them should be Blue Slates, one fourth pale blue, and one fourth bronze, according to what I have read. Thanksgiving's poults don't look like they are going to turn out that way. Two of them look like they will be black and two look white, the remaining three are blue.

They are starting to come out of their house, now, and explore their run. Hyperactive Trusty watches them closely, wagging his tail and barking occasionally, which tends to make them think they should stay inside. They'll realize soon enough that he's harmless.

Mockingbirds

Mockingbirds are sort of sparse around here. Driving down the road, I see a Mockingbird about once every five miles. Each winter a single Mockingbird, a hen I suspect, winters at our feeder, which features a year-round water supply. I suppose I could raise a box of meal worms every year, freeze them, and then feed them in the winter, which might make her happy, but I doubt if it would induce her to sing for her supper.

The Web, which is able to cater to every bizarre taste imaginable, is home to a Yahoo! Group called Turkchatter. This group is primarily composed of old hippies who now raise heritage breeds of turkeys. One member, Julie, now practices animal rescue and has nursed and released a great many wild animals, according to her dispatches to Turkchatter. From Turkchatter, I plagiarized and distorted the following message from Julie, subject 'In celebration of my birthday...':

Some folks blow out candles, I release birds....

This morning, before I came to work I turned the Three Stooges (my fostered mockingbirds) loose for their first day of freedom. I've had these little monsters since they were blind and featherless, so successfully raising all three through to release was a great thing.

The boldest one of the group flew out to the trees over my chicken pens and called his siblings. He came back and forth for "just one more bite of breakfast worms" several times.

The two more timid hopped up on top of their cage and promptly turned around and gaped for food from me. It's been more than two months since these birds have been hand-fed, but they never miss a chance to beg. The twosome were still hopping around on top of the cage, investigating the wisteria and going back into the cage for a snack when I left.

Their cage will stand open with food in it as long as they keep coming back. If they return there to roost, I'll close it at night to protect them from predators.

An adult mockingbird called to them from her roost. As I pulled out of the driveway, the bold one was sitting on top of our house antenna alongside the adult mockingbird, begging to be fed. The adult promptly punted her off her roost.

I got some pics - I'll post later today....

:)julie

Turkey Poult Has Adventure

Thursday evening there were only six poults in the brooder house. I looked carefully and, sure enough, there was a little low spot where an agile small bird could squirm under the edge to freedom. One of the poults, now named 'Squirm', had escaped confinement and was free in the barnyard.

Squirm is one of two poults with jet black bodies and bright yellow heads, just like the Yellow Headed Blackbird. I don't know what they will look like as adults, but it seems they will be black. The Blue Slate color is the result of the influence of several genes, perhaps four, but the exact genetics of the color is still a matter of further research. It is interesting that docility, a behavioral component, is so closely associated with the color. Anyway, none of the stuff I have read about Blue Slate genetics predicted black poults from a Blue Slate x Blue Slate breeding.

Calvin and I searched all over, with much non-help from Trusty, but found no trace of the poult. The sun went down and we finally gave up our search. We were both a bit sad as I took Calvin home.

Friday morning, while doing chores, I saw a black streak flash across the barnyard. Squirm had survived the night! Squirm is just the size to be able to run straight through a 2”x4” welded wire fence without breaking stride, an ability which can help make a young poult very difficult to catch in an area fenced and cross fenced with such wire. Squirm went through, I went around; Squirm showed no signs of docility.

Another Woman Writes

'M', D.V.M., my heart surgeon, has felt the urge to write again, also. My heart surgeon is a D.V.M. because when I last had heart surgery the M.D. did it with his new backhoe. Vets are more concerned with reducing patient stress than are M.D. surgeons. Good vets are gentle and wouldn't think of doing surgery with a backhoe.

When 'M' was a first year vet student I contacted her and asked her if she would do any future heart surgery I might require. She graciously (and naively) agreed and has been studying hard ever since. I thought this was all pretty clever of me, a little flattery and I get a good heart surgeon for a hell of a lot less than an M.D. would cost.

Like a good student vet, 'M' has been attending the local livestock sale, in this case in Athens, Georgia.

The Sale Barn

“Engine engine number nine, coming down the Chicago line. If the train goes off its track, do you want your money back?”

This cadence from Roger Miller is the base for the auctioneer’s call. Start slowly, then pick up speed, then insert a syllable or doubletime for each word. Then add cattle, cattlemen, money, and chewing tobacco and you have yourself an auction.

All types of animals are sold at livestock auctions, the local one here in Athens runs on Wednesdays. The day starts with small livestock like goats and chickens in the morning and progresses to cows in the afternoon. The building itself is built like an amphitheater with spectator looking down on the animal in the pen in front.

The pen where the animals are shown has an entrance chute to a small ring where the animal runs, and then an exit chute. The animal is weighed while it queues to enter the ring, with the weight broadcast on TV’s above the ring. There are workers auctioning the chute and harassing the cattle to keep moving so buyers may check gait. The animal is released into the ring, and then runs around a bit while she’s auctioned. If it is a cow/calf pair, the cow will be auctioned first, and then the calf will come into the ring and the two will be auctioned together to see if they bring a higher price. If not, the calf is sold separately and weaned from his mother that day, thus giving him the appellation “bucket calf”.

Weaning is the most stressful time in calf’s life, with transport and mixing at a sale barn close behind. So, take a group of calves, most of whom have not been vaccinated, put them in a truck on a hot day, bring to sale barn and put them in a holding pen with one hundred other calves with an unknown history and sell. Wait 7 to 10 days and voila! Drooling, coughing, honking calves. For those of us without children, this rather sounds like what happens in schools and daycare.

Now here is a good reason to quit spending so much money on education. Schools are distribution centers for disease organisms so shutting them down would be good for the public health.



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