It's all his fault, I swear!

It's all Hubby Dear's fault.

I gave him explicit instructions as to the kind of poultry feed to buy. I buy the most "natural" brand available in our locale. It's made by Cargill, so it's not exactly local or organic, but at least it doesn't have added antibiotics like all the other chick starters the store carries.

Well, Hubby Dear managed to come home with the wrong kind of feed, so we had to go back the next day and exchange it. I was going to let him haul all 80 lb of feed by himself, but he casually mentioned that the store had baby turkeys when he was there the day before. Baby turkeys? I had to go check that out.

I had been thinking about adding turkeys to the mix on our homestead. In fact, I used part of my prepping budget this month to buy Storey's Guide to Raising Turkeys because I wanted to learn more about them. I hadn't cracked the book open yet.

Although I didn't know much about turkeys, I did know that I wanted to raise heritage breeds. A heritage breed is one that may not grow as fast as the kind preferred by factory farms but is one that would taste better and would (theoretically) be able to reproduce without AI.

And wouldn't you know it?  The farm store had two heritage breeds in stock along with the standard Broad-Breasted White turkeys.

Dang, those turkey poults (the technical term for a baby turkey) were cute. The kids loved them. And, even better, they were on sale for 25% off.

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You can see where this is going, right? Just remember this is all his fault.

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Red Bourbon (foreground) and Blue Slate turkey poults 

We came home with two Red Bourbon and two Blue Slate turkey poults. Since this was a complete impulse buy, we didn't have a brooder prepared and I didn't really know much about what I was getting into. I recalled that Harvey Ussery said in The Small-Scale Poultry Flock that turkey poults were really fragile. After we set up the brooder and released the poults into their new home, they surprised me by immediately trying to fly out. So much for delicate and fragile. We scrounged up some bird netting and taped it across the top of the brooder guard. That should keep them contained for a few weeks.

Chomp, chomp!

The way they are chowing down, though, we might be moving them sooner than later. We need long term plans for their housing, stat.

And there is the little issue of the Ancona ducks that are due to arrive next month.  <sheepish grin>

I might be suffering from Poultry Acquisition Disorder, but just remember, the turkeys are all Hubby Dear's fault!