Farm Fresh: Poultry Update

The turkey-lurkeys grew so much while we were away at the family reunion. Unfortunately, they are less and less cute. I am just glad they are still alive. They are supposed to be so much more fragile than chickens.

Buying poultry for egg production creates major inequalities between males and females and also some funny stories.
This is Annie. The chick that was supposed to be a hen who turned out to be a rooster. We still need to fix his name, but have not settled on a new one yet. He is very handsome and has finally worked out his crowing into something that actually sounds like "cock a doodle do".  The hens are happy.

This is Louis (aka crooked beak) who was the chick that we expected to grow into our rooster. He was dropped by a visiting child and his growth is stunted as a result of his injury. He will go into the freezer this fall with the older hens. His beak problems have made which rooster to keep alive an easier choice, though not one I planned on having to deal with.

 Our straight run (random selection) of ducklings have grown up to reveal 5 drakes and 1 female duck. Luckily, our farmer buddies who sold us the rabbits advised us to bring home 4 more duckings that they were pretty sure were female. With the four young females, we have an even 5 drakes and 5 ducks all together. The drakes are starting to get aggressive with each other though. Usually, they advise only one drake per every 10 ducks. At least 3 of these drakes will find their way into our freezer before winter.
My farm advisor was also right about ducks being better than chickens. They cause fewer problems (don't scratch up young plants or roost and poop on the deck overhang).  They are diligent foragers and don't eat any of their feed during the day, preferring bugs and grass instead. They stay together and are easy to herd into their coop at night. And by the time I let them out in the morning all the eggs have been laid inside the coop.