Turkey Washing

  Since today was my day off from my "real" job at the vet's, I had every intention of sleeping in a bit. Unfortunately, I was awakened quite early by the unmistakable sound of young turkey poults in distress. Baby turkeys, more than any other poultry we raise around here, seem to have a specific set of sounds they make when they are hungry, excited, sad, and happy. From the bedroom through the closed door of the office, I could hear the sounds of the poults upset about something. 

   Usually those sounds meant they were out of food or water, but when we checked on them we found them with plenty of both. Unfortunately though, every single turkey to the last poult was a soaking wet mess! How could this happen? I had just checked on them right before bed, and they were fine.

  Well you see, with this most recent batch of newly hatched turkeys, we had a surprise duckling! We try very hard to keep all our duck, chicken, turkey, guinea, and goose eggs separate. Usually it's very easy to tell them apart, but every once in a while one egg slips past us. So we've been brooding this one surprise duckling in with the turkeys, and you know the old saying, when you go to bed with ducklings, you wake up wet!

  Not only were these turkeys wet, but they were crusted with feed and poop. Yuck! I swear they were fine the night before. I have no idea what kind of party was thrown in that brooder while we slept, but I knew I was going to have to be the one to clean it up!

  With young poultry, temperature is everything. So keeping these little ones warm while I got them cleaned up was my first priority. I brought them into the bathroom and started up the space heat. Then I rinsed each one under warm water until they were nice and clean. 

  Next I wrapped them up in a towel in my lap a few at a time and used the blow dryer on a low, warm setting to get them all warm and fluffy again. 

  Here they are all clean and re-fluffed and none the worse for the ordeal. Just in time too because today they will be moving outside to make space in the brooder for a new batch of freshly hatched chickens!

Turkey Wing Clipping

The Bourbon Red Turkeys that we hatched this year are now old enough and pen trained enough to run loose with the rest of the flock.

Big Onion had to go out of town recently, and in the process of doing chores alone one evening I didn't realize that some of this group had not gone into their pen for the night.

It wasn't until the next morning when I found a loose turkey trying to get back into the pen with the rest of the group that I realized something wasn't right. One more was pacing and calling from the other side of the fence by the creek. It was in retrieving that bird that I found the mostly eaten carcass of one of the bourbon reds. Rialey found a second dead bird in the tall grass of the pasture. That evening we found the skeletal remains of a third bird floating in the creek. The only thing left on that bird was the wing feathers which I spotted floating under the bridge. It was very creepy looking.

  I'm pretty sure what happened was that a group of these turkeys had flown over the pasture fence then could not find their way back before dark. The turkeys are very good at doing this. They have the sense to fly over one way but are dead set at walking back the way they came. You find a turkey just pacing back and forth, back and forth, calling and staring through the fencing. They are not the smartest of birds.

  This incident coupled with the fact that I actually saw some of the birds flying up and hanging out 30-40 feet up in our pine trees during the day made us decide it was time to clip some turkey wings!

  We used a sturdy pair of Fiskars kitchen shears, and I held while Big Onion did the clipping. It was easier to keep the turkeys on the ground and just brace them against my legs. Unless you flip them upside down, suspended turkeys tend to kick their legs a lot, and nobody enjoys a dirty turkey foot to the face. Trust me.

  You want to only clip one wing. This way the bird is off balance and less likely to get enough air to get itself into trouble. Clipped like this, the birds can still hop up onto the perches in their pens. We like to leave the last few outside feathers for appearances. When folded against the body, it's almost impossible to tell their wings have been clipped.

Here is another set of pictures with a different bird.

As you can see, we just clip those secondary feathers and leave the last 5-6 of the primaries.

The aftermath. 

Since the clipping, we haven't seen any of the birds up in trees or on the wrong side of fences. Luckily it seems that only the teenaged turkeys need this done. None of the other birds having a penchant for getting themselves in trouble like the younger turkeys. 

"Ok, ok, we can't fly over fences anymore, can we have our breakfast now?!"

Administering Fowl Pox Vaccine to Turkeys

  In years past, we have had problems with fowl pox and our turkeys. It's a nasty virus that is often spread by mosquitoes that results in uncomfortable sores on the head and neck of the birds. The sores can cover the eyes, nose, and sides of the mouth keeping the birds from eating and drinking. Last year despite our best efforts, we actually lost a couple of young birds to this disease.

This year since we are raising so many turkeys, we decided to vaccinate all the birds with the Fowl Pox Vaccine. Due to circumstances and schedules, we ended up vaccinating them later than is recommended, but I don't think it will be a problem.

  I was able to purchase the vaccine from my local feed store. It comes in two vials that have to be refrigerated. When you are ready to use the vaccines, you just pull the metal rings off the tops of the vials, pull out the rubber stoppers, and pour the powered vaccine into the colored diluent. A quick shake, and it is ready to go!

The feed store also gave me this nasty looking device for administering the vaccine.

The vaccine is given into the webbing at the top of the wing. I really recommend having two people to do this properly, one to hold the bird and the wing in position, and the other to administer the vaccine.

  I was doing the holding. I was just sure that Big Onion was going to miss the bird, stab me with the blue stuff, and turn me in to a were-turkey! Luckily, this did not happen, and I haven't starting gobbling at the full moon yet.

Dip the needles into the solution before each administration.

Locate a place on the wing webbing away from any veins.

Insert quickly then remove.

And you are left with two blue dots that should turn into little scabs in a couple of weeks. Surprisingly, the birds didn't seem bothered by the actual insertion of the needles. I guess they don't have a lot of nerve endings in that area. They were more upset by being held still and on their backs for the few second it took to give the vaccine.

Our bourbon reds and bronzes are now safe from the pox!

Unfortunately, the vaccine does not save well once it has been mixed so we will have to get another set of vials for all the broad breasted whites very soon.