Cold Front Moved Through

NOT!  Unless you consider high temperatures of 89 degrees a cold front.  But for us at The Compound, although hot, not anywhere near the heat we've seen this past summer.  And of course, it had to rain, and rain and rain some more..

We didn't let it get in the way of accomplishing a much needed project;

Scraping out the bottom 24 inches of composted material from inside the chicken coop/run.  Actually, we only got to a 8' x 20' section.  Heavy, stinky and wet, but this will become awesome dirt for the garden.  It just takes so much time to dig it all up and haul it away.  It actually took four of us, nearly all day (minus our lunch break).

Then we put down a layer of sand about 6" deep.  This will become the base for next years black gold.  My friends that's a lot of sand to be hauled, dumped and raked into place. It's not light stuff, and add in the rain, it was no small task.  But this section of the run is completed and the new turkeys have been moved in.  We placed a thin layer of straw on top of the sand, and will add more as it gets wet and needs additional coverage.

We found it so interesting that the turkeys were so easy to herd from one area over to the next.  Unlike chickens that will run willy nilly and act like they are being attacked, turkeys will calmly walk where you need them to go if you move them slowly.

They were very happy with their new digs.  Each of them taking the time to walk around and check everything out.  Best part, they were really talking to each other and stretching and flapping their wings.  Originally we didn't have them in a large enough area (I was only supposed to get 4 poults and ended up getting 8 nearly full grown turkeys), and they could barely turn around.  This new area, now dedicated to them gives them more than enough space.

These turkeys love bananas!   I mean love bananas!  Who would have thought?  I'm working to get them to trust me, and at this point they are no longer really skittish, but they'd rather be on the other side of their enclosure than near me.  I did get a couple of the girls to come over about 2' away to partake of some cracked corn.  I'll win them over..

**FYI, when bringing in new turkeys, they need to be confined for at least a month. Unlike chickens which is a week, they need at least a month.   It's how they learn where home is.

So far thumbs up on turkeys!

The little piglets (aka the Village People) are growing well.  Looks like the mosquitos took their toll on the poor little buggers.  They have some bites around their eyes, backs of their ears and backs.  But they all seem to be doing well.  I had some left over eggs and scrambled them up.  We wanted to feed them to the runts of the group, figuring the protein will help.  I was only able to keep the others out for a short period of time until they broke through.    Needless to say, they were all laying around with fat bellies sticking out, totally content.

Along the way a friend caught two wild piglets, and they've now found a home at The Compound.  They are fitting in really well with the other piglets.  The final pregnant female delivered 3 more piglets last week.  So now we have 17 piglets, and 13 mature pigs.  2 will be making a one way trip to town as soon as we can find a local butcher.

I think that's it for now.  Have a great week!


 "the only honest way, wherein man receives a real increase of the seed thrown into the ground in the kind of continual miracle, wrought by the hand of God in his favor, as a reward for his innocent life and his virtuous industry." - Ben Franklin