There was a chicken mommy in the barn sitting and sitting and sitting, and never hatched out anything. 🙁
But, other hens did, and so to reward the first mommy for her efforts, we put her in the summer kitchen with all the new chicks that followed, which did occur over time. 🙂
And that included another turkey chick too! We didn’t have any place to put it with its mom, so we put it in with the chicken hen.
And first hen raised them, and did a fine job!
Here’s their video, a little later in the process, where, since the young were all different sizes, we eventually moved the larger ones into the main turkey run to give them more room (apologies for the blurriness of the first part — can’t really go and re-do it now 🙂 ):
We are grateful again to the Lord for His continued provisions this 2025!
It started with a chicken mommy hatching out some turkey chicks. Since turkey hatchings were more rare for us some years ago, we actually purposely tried that, since chickens were better sitters, and there were more of them. Well, I believe lots of them died when we tried that, and we thought perhaps the Lord was chastising us for trying to force something in a way that He hadn’t set up.
But, this year, He seemed to take things that way, and so we let it ride, with the idea that, we put that hen and her turklets (ie. like chicklets for turkeys :D) in the summer kitchen, and if a turkey mommy hatched some out, we’d swap her in with them.
We put that first mommy in the summer kitchen. Another chicken mommy hatched out turkey chicks, so we put them in there. I thought we had tried the two chicken mommies in there, but if I remember right, that didn’t work out too well, so we stuck with the first one.
Then, a turkey hen did hatch out some turkey chicks, and so we did swap her in.
And then, it all broke loose! Chicken mommies, turkey mommies, hatching out every which way, all kinds of turkey and chicken chicks, and so, we just kept shuttling them into the summer kitchen with the rest of them.
One day, I had left one of the storm door open and the screen-ish door loose, and I scared that turkey hen in the summer kitchen enough to where she pushed her way out, and so, that was the end of mommies for all the young in there.
But, they kept growing, and we kept adding. And graciously only a few died along the way.
Just recently, the biggest ones were big enough to start shuttling into the barn at night for them to begin their lives outside.
And now, here’s a video of all those collecting and shuttling chicks into the summer kitchen. I know it’s long, but I wanted to document every one because to us, every one is a gift from God. Still, the avalanche starts around 6 minutes in, and then the last 3 minutes is the final scene of them at the point where it was time to start moving the largest of them into the barn:
We thank the Lord for His provisions — He really was extra gracious with them all!
After our last 2024 turkey chicks update, there was some more progress on the last ones that were still growing in the summer kitchen, and then the addition of two other turkey chicks!
The video takes you through the release of the last group plus the new ones’ intro. And then to release day of those last two new ones, with sadly, the one of them not doing well…
This is the last known update for turkeys this year at this time. We are always grateful to the Lord for His provisions, and His graciousness of all the new turkeys this year!
Just a catch-up video on the turkey chick goings-on since our May turkey post.
I believe in the video below we cover pulling 3 groups of young turkeys out of the summer kitchen and putting them in the barn at night to begin their life with the turkey flock.
Funny too, but apparently a couple of chicken eggs ended up with the turkey eggs because we ended up with a couple of chickens in with the turkeys. 🙂
Here’s another picture of them in the summer kitchen before moving them out:
Something we learned: One turkey hen ended up sitting outside and hatching out quite a few turkey chicks. We thought we’d experiment and let her raise them out there and not move them into the summer kitchen, but sadly all of them ended up disappearing or dying, so we have decided to not do that again and just grab any turklets (my name for turkey chicks, kind of like “chicklets” 😀 ) and put them in the summer kitchen.
And on another very sad note: Our “matriarch” of the flock, Trina, died since the last update. Originally, she just showed up on the homestead one day and moved into the barn, we bought her a mate, and the rest is history. Here’s the blog post we did about her arrival from back in 2016.
This should be she, and should be her first chicks…
Goodbye, Trina…we thank the Lord for bringing you here in His kind providence, and for the huge flock He granted from you…
But back to current day, as far as I know, all the turkeys that we have moved out into the barn this year are still alive and doing well, and we are grateful!
And without further ado, here’s the update video. Be on the watch for the turklet cam! 😀 :
Again, we are thankful to the Lord for granting these provisions!
The Lord has graciously started to grant turkey chick hatchings for this 2024!
We only have one turkey run, which is in our brooder barn/summer kitchen, so like last year, the plan is to grab the first mommy and her turklets and put them in there. And then if any other turkey hens hatch any, grab them and put them in the brooder barn with mommy #1.
And so far, we’ve had about 4-ish hatch-outs! We feel badly taking the new turkey chicks from the new mommies, but it’s kind of the only way I see we can handle the situation at this time.
They have nested in the barn, and in areas outside the barn, in our inner area, and even in the orchard. We have lost quite a few…I wonder if they get stepped on at times. But God has kept around quite a few as well, and here’s their video:
As always, we thank Him for His graciousness in granting these provisions!
Continuing on from our last blog post, the Lord has continued to grant more turkey chicks this 2023, and we’re very thankful! He has, however, decided to reclaim quite a few of the young ones, which we document in the video. I don’t know what was going on…maybe being stepped on by bigger ones, which is maybe the most likely scenario…I don’t think it was sickness, but could have been.
Anyway, here’s the video of the next part of this 2023 turkey chick journey…
Again, we are indeed grateful to God for His continued provisions of the new turkey chicks!
Heb. 11:8-10 - "By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went. By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise: For he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God."
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