Now to put some weight back on my sweet girl – they lose a lot of condition brooding on the nest.
Narragansett Turkey and American Buff Goose, sitting on eggs.
A couple of my ‘big girls’ are nesting. The ducks are too busy playing on the water, they’ll get broody later. I didn’t really expect a turkey to take up right beside the goose, but if they’re happy I’m happy. Oddly enough, the gander was a lot more high strung about chasing others away before the turkey settled in. Now he seems much more relaxed – someone can help keep an eye on his girl? I don’t know.
A mixed batch under each of them – goose, turkey, and duck. Guinness is really tolerant about me getting all up in her business.
Gentle girls let me peek. Cameo is a sweetie too. A bit of hissing, but no pecks. Quite a nice surprise – the turkeys have not been cuddly pets. I was expecting to get my hand shredded!
two toms, two hens.
And it’s a good thing, because I’ve been missing them.
the Ancona flock. I don’t breed from Kateri the crested black hen, but she’s an awesome broody. And she knows her name.
I culled several ducks from the flock this past month, taking the total down to 11 hens and 3 drakes. Extra hens got sold, extra drakes went to freezer. I selected my keeper males this year for size – as a dual purpose breed, I am pleased with my birds as layers, but I’d like them meatier. There were some birds in the last generation who were growing up to be smaller than I liked, and I wanted to arrest the trend. It wasn’t easy – I was very fond of some birds who weren’t the best breeders for what I wanted.. and the best-marked weren’t necessarily the body type I was after… and so on. Work in progress.
Here’s the flock today (along with Guinness and Murphy, the American Buff geese)
8 week old boys, very calm sweet temperaments. Available for pickup in north-central MA. Contact kim at toadbriar dot com. $20 ea.
2 black and white, 1 blue and white, 1 lilac and white. Lilac is silver (double blue) plus chocolate. Nicely marked and from a line of good layers.
black and white 8 week old Ancona drakes
the black drakes have mallard patches on opposite eyes. This demonstrates they each carry 1 extended black gene, for better random spotting.
Lilac and blue Ancona drakes, 8 weeks old
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