Chasing Turkeys

I still have 22 turkeys, they are all pretty much full grown too.  We don't leave our poultry out at night so every night we do a turkey roundup.  Some nights it is easier than others, sometimes I can get our oldest turkeys to follow me into their coop...they will follow me if I have food or scratch grains.  The younger turkeys, just a few will follow me to their pen, others make a run for it. A lot of turkeys have to be cornered and picked up and carried to the pen...not easy to do when they weigh 20 to 35 pounds.  Some of them fly up on top of coops, into trees and walk around on shade tarps I have hanging around.  A lot of the time my husband gets them rounded up while I get food out for the rest of the poultry, I grab any that get close...but some are wise to our ways and we end up chasing them around the yard, trying to get them in a pen or cornered so we can pick them up without getting hurt or hurting them.

I have to many male turkeys so, if we can stand to do it...we will more than likely be butchering one or two during the holidays.  Turkeys eat quite a bit, but weighing around 35 pounds you have to expect that. The females are generally only 18 to 20 pounds.  Both can fly pretty well, it is amazing when we open up the pen for the younger turkeys...they run and take off flying over fences and coops, they have an impressive wing span and their wings are very powerful.  I learned that the hard way...broken glasses from getting buffeted with wings.  Once they get heavier they don't fly as well, but their muscle size and strength gets better as they reach two years old.  Some of my turkeys are just five months old, so it will be awhile yet.  I believe I have seven young females and eight young males.

I started this blog post a couple of weeks ago, The time has changed since then so...I am on my own getting the turkeys now.  I have been trying to feed a bit earlier and put food in their pen first.  If I put food there they don't eat out of the troughs and four or five of the males will follow me and go into the pen...hey, I don't have to catch and carry them so I will take what I can get!

We had company just before Thanksgiving, two of our kids came with their families.  It was great to get to see them all, but one of my granddaughters was sick and we all ended up getting sick.  I have been battling this cold for three weeks now.  I don't feel horrible, just coughing and congestion now...but I did very little outside the first two weeks.  I am trying now to play catch up, we are due for a very hard freeze tonight.  It will get down in the lower twenties if not the teens here.  I had some 4 millimeter plastic that I have covered several of the coops with, but I ran out...so I have been stapling bright pink feed bags up...looks kinda funny, but it will keep the weather out and block the wind.  I really need more plastic, I hate using feed bags...they have no UV protection and only last a couple of months and then deteriorate...the poultry pecks on them and bits and pieces come off...it is strange seeing letters laying around the yard, why whole letters come off perfectly is beyond me.  It could be they are darker and deteriorate at a slower rate, I guess.  Any area that is black lasts longer, go figure?!

I guess I will have to take some pictures and post them, lol...my chicken ghetto.