It is raining as I type this. Is it only because I live in Western Kansas that the sound of rain never ceases to amaze me? Rain now means green grass for our livestock later, more wildflowers for our bees this spring, and a better start for our garden. In short, pretty much everything depends on spring rain so we are thankful for the blessing at the moment (even though six kiddos cooped in the house all day starts to get a little crazy;).
The big event this week is that our turkey hens started laying eggs. Turkeys don’t lay year round like a chicken but are very seasonal. They lay in the spring and early summer to set chicks and will stop when the weather gets really hot. This allows them to raise a clutch of chicks before the weather starts getting cold again. Of course, it’s not always as simple as this… even though they are laying, they haven’t started setting yet. Which is perfectly normal since they like to have a big clutch of eggs before they begin, and would be fine in warmer weather, but since the temperatures were threatening to dip below freezing for a few days this last week we decided to rescue the turkey eggs. We have robbed the turkey nest and are now attempting to incubate them. (don’t worry the turkeys are continuing to lay and will hopefully still hatch out a clutch of chicks!) It’s always exciting to incubate eggs and watch the whole process of hatching. Last year was our first attempt and the kids are so excited to do it again!
Our Barred Rock laying chicks have gone from looking like this:
To this in the last 3 weeks:
We have turned off the heat lamps and are getting them ready for life outside of the brooder. They will be moving out early next week so we can prepare to welcome a new batch of chicks. Things are starting to ramp up quickly in the chicken department and we plan to bring you along for the ride!
~Brandi
P.S. Don’t forget to pre-order chickens for your freezer this summer HERE!