Can't have too many babies!

Happy news tonight as one of our mama turkey hens brought us 6 brand new babies.  Well, it wasn't her intention to bring them to us but, since she was showing them off, we scooped them up and put them in a brooder.  She's very distressed and her calls tug at our hearts but we know from experience that predators will take their toll and she'll lose most of them.  She had her nest up in the woods, stayed with it for four weeks and hatched all but two eggs so she's done a very good job.

The 15 chicks we ordered from the hatchery (plan B) arrived on time.  Those plus the first 3 a turkey hen hatched make 18.  One of the babies died (17), plus these 6 make 23 chicks.  There are still two hens sitting and we think one is in the process of hatching as she's all puffed out instead of sitting tight like the other hen.  Hopefully, we'll have a lot of turkeys to choose from when it's time to butcher in November.

Tomorrow I'm teaching two workshops at the Gorge Grown Food Forum in White Salmon; one on raising backyard poultry and one on canning.  I'd love to take a couple of these chicks to show off but they're just too new to be without a brooder for a whole day.  Besides, they're really noisy calling for their mama!  I was also going to take equipment as an example but that's the last of our extra lamps and feeders.  Pictures in a Powerpoint presentation will have to do.  One interesting note - White Salmon zoning doesn't allow backyard poultry so I've got a little information to help change the city father's  minds if folks are so inclined to ask for a zoning change.  Every backyard ought to have a chicken or two in my opinion!  Happy birthday, baby chicks.