We're not raising meat chickens...

... We're growing VELOCIRAPTORS! ;-)

Synchronized sleeping

I am just going to DIE of Teh Cuuuuute®!!!!

No, she wasn't actually broody

But for one afternoon, it sure seemed like she WANTED to be!

Meet Blondie

Blondie is our first hatchling this year, and as you can see, s/he doesn't look like a Narragansett - unless s/he's an albino! We think that the two hens we purchased earlier this year may have been bred by a Royal Palm tom, so Blondie might be (probably is) a "Palmagansett" *grinz*

S/he (oh, heck, I'll just use "he") is about three weeks old now, and had been out in the brooder with our other poults. We brought him into the house yesterday, because I pretty much want to make him a pet, so we needed to get him socialized.

From our limited experience, turkeys seem to be pretty mellow, but I am surprised at how quickly Blondie has taken to being gently snuggled (and he seems to like it, because he's out in the living room peeping for company as I type!). Last night, the Beloved Husband had taken him downstairs for a cuddle puddle, and when I came down about an hour later, Beloved was asleep in the La-Z-Boy recliner, and Blondie was snuggled up to his left ear, quite content to snooze with DaddyBird!

Today, Blondie has had two snuggles with his MommyBird, and seems to be well on his way to being a spoiled and coddled pet ;-)

Fester and his (her?) chair

Fester is the first baby of our original flock. We found one clutch of eggs last fall, and Fester was the only one to hatch. He (well, maybe "she") doesn't hang out with the main group, preferring to stay close to the house...  And his chair! (edited 09May2016 because video didn't embed)

Emus enjoying sunshine

Dinnertime for emus

Polka,  Tango, and Salsa gathered around their dinner bowl, sitting up straight like Miss Manners prefers. What good emus! And notice the elegant drape of a claw over the food bowl - our emus are stylin'! LOLOLOLOL

Kat the Chicken (and guinea) Lady

My Beloved used his quadcopter to film this, and then edited it. At the beginning, you can seen the Crazy Guinea Chase®, with Blackie, our alpha male, chasing after one of (I think) the ladies. Brownian Motion, as we say, LOLOL.

I am so blessed!

Eggs! We haz dem!

Wow, everyone is laying well: the chick-chicks are giving at least 10 eggs a day, and our three turkey hens are averaging 2 a day! We just recently found one of the Guinea nests, and collected 11 eggs. Soon, we're going to be awash with baby birds (assuming high fertility and hatch rates).

We're also getting 25 Red Ranger chicks this week to raise for meat, and then 15 turkey poults the week of 11April.

We seem to be turning in to farmers! ;-)

Here's a picture comparing the three different types of eggs:

Silly chickens...

I cleaned the coop and nest boxes on Sunday. Yesterday, our 15 ladies celebrated by giving us a dozen eggs, but today they're far more interested in seeing how many eggs they can lay in ONE (of six available) nestbox! Silly birds...