How can I fix my baby turkey's leg?

My baby turkey has a twisted leg. What do I do?

We've had turkeys for 43 years and this has worked for me: Put a piece of tape on the good leg (you may have to experiment to find the right kind of tape), turn the bad leg until it's straight, leaving natural space between them. Attach the tape to the bad leg. Both legs should be facing forward. Keep an eye on it to make sure the turkey can walk or hop to get food and water. Take the tape off in a few days to check the progress. You may need to retape it. From my experience, the turkey should be able to use its leg.

-Dale, aka Turkeyman

How do I trim my chicken's beak?

A family who raises backyard chickens in the city had a problem: one of their hens was having trouble eating because her beak was overgrown.

The fix is simple once you know how to do it: trim the beak to help her eat.

When I went over to help, I could tell the family spent a lot of time working with their chickens. Ms. Ash was very docile and easy to hold. 

We wrapped her in an old t-shirt to keep her calm and tuck her wings against her body. A towel works well, too.

Then we used a very technical tool: nail clippers.

Sitting at the table, I situated Ash on her back on my lap. Then I could hold her head steady with one hand while clipping her beak with the other. This can also be a two-person job.

Here she is before trimming:

Notice how the top part of her beak hangs over the bottom. I took a little at a time and clipped. Ash helped by twitching--that trimmed it back pretty easily! If she was being aggressive and pecking at her flock mates, I might have trimmed it back further to blunt her beak. That was not necessary here.

Here she is after trimming:

 

The top and bottom of the beak are now the same length. We checked to make sure there were no jagged edges. Special thanks to Brianne for allowing these photos and serving as hand model!

Since Ash was so calm, we looked at her toenails while she was inside. We trimmed them back a little bit, but they weren't in bad shape at all. We just trimmed a little at a time to make sure we didn't get too close to the quick. If you cut the quick, they will start to bleed. 

As a reminder, if you are giving a chicken or turkey a pedicure do not paint their nails. They will pick at it because it's shiny and/or red and nail polish is not an ideal poultry food.

There you have it: a simple spa day for the pullet. She was back in her coop in less than 30 minutes.

--Beth, aka Turkeyman's daughter

How do I heat my coop?

With cold weather starting in Wisconsin, we are get many questions about heating the chicken coop. 

Chickens can do very well in cold weather. The only problem is with the roosters. Some breeds 
have large combs that can freeze. Most times they come though it fine but there is a small chance they won’t.

Since we mainly raise and hatch purebred chickens we do heat the pens where they are kept. If these eggs get the least bit chilled they may not hatch. For these pens we use oil filled heaters. With these the heating element is in the oil so there is no chance of a fire. 

Never use heat lamps since a chicken can fly into the bulb. If it breaks, the hot glass can set the bedding on fire. 

You must stop drafts but make sure there is fresh air in the coop. With most older coops that is not a problem. We do keep a few chickens just for eating eggs. Unlike the purebred chickens, there’s no heat in these pens. We water them using plastic ice cream buckets and only give them what they will drink right away. Eventually the bucket will be frozen on the top. We then exchange it with a clean bucket and take the frozen one to the house to thaw out. 

Some people clean their pens every week or worse yet every day. When you do this the poor chickens end up with their feet on the cold wood or concrete. Leaving the litter build up is called the deep litter method. Years ago we would clean the chicken pens out once a year (whether they need it or not) just adding straw to keep it clean.

As always, ask questions in the comment section.

Dale, AKA Turkeyman

How do I raise meat chickens?

Raising chickens for meat is a little different than raising them for eggs or show.

The first thing you should consider is whether you are going to butcher them yourself or take them to someone. Ask around to find a local processor. They should be ready to butcher when they are six to eight weeks old, so it’s wise to make your appointment when you get your chicks. The breed we like best is the Cornish Cross for meat chickens because they grow quickly. They are ready to butcher when they are the size you want (broilers, roasters, etc.)

The Cornish Cross use a different feed than the regular chickens. Most hatcheries recommend a 23% starter feed. I have found that a 26% to 28% medicated turkey starter works very well. At four to five weeks you should switch to a 20% to 21% grower pellet. Use up all the starter, just make sure you check the withdrawal time. Since some starter is medicated, you may have to stop feeding starter for a certain window of time before butchering. Check the tag on your starter feed for details. 

Some people say to take the grower feed away at night so they don’t overeat, but as long as you don’t have a light on them the dark will prevent overeating. You may lose some meat chickens. If you find them dead on their back that’s a heart attack. Larger birds are sometimes more likely to have heart attacks. If you find them dead on their breast it could be many other things. 

Meat chickens do not need a different sized pen than other chickens. Meat chickens might roost when they are two or three weeks old, but otherwise they are too heavy to fly.    

As always, ask further questions in the comments,
Dale, aka Turkeyman

How do I incubate or set eggs?

There comes a time when chicken owners want to incubate eggs from their chickens. Your new incubator should come with detailed instructions. It’s best to closely follow these instructions for the first few hatches. After that you can try new things that you have thought about or heard about. 

The incubator's directions might not tell you how to check your thermometer for accuracy. The best kind of thermometer I've found is a digital meat thermometer. Fill a glass with ice water, let it set until the ice is melting. The thermometer should read 32 degrees Fahrenheit. If it doesn’t, just consider the difference when adjusting your incubator. A still-air incubator should be kept at 101.5 degrees Fahrenheit and a forced-air incubator at 99.5 degrees Fahrenheit.


Turn the eggs at least twice a day. For incubators that require hand-turning, the eggs will be on their side. Mark the side with a pencil so you know how far to turn them. The directions may say that if you have an automatic turner, on the 18th day take the turner out, lay the eggs flat and don’t open the incubator until the 22nd day. The reason is the chicks can get caught in the turner plus you will have to clean the turner. We have a 1940s Humidaire Incubator where the eggs are set upright and the whole incubator rotates. The chicks hatch fine standing up while the incubator turns.

While you are waiting to set your eggs, store them in a carton pointed end down (also how they are placed in the turner). Place a piece of wood under one end (a 2x4) and switch the end twice a day. You can keep fertile eggs in a cooler room for up to two weeks. Do not wash them or put in the fridge. Before setting we spray them with a 50/50 mixture of Original Listerine and water. This works to disinfect them before you put them in a hot, wet environment.

You can help the slow-hatching chicks. We keep a eye dropper filled with mineral oil in the incubator. If they don’t get out right away the membrane on the inside the shell dries on the chick and they can’t move. The oil will loosen the membrane. You might see chicks with  “splay legs”  or bad wings. 

Remember there’s no big hurry to get the chicks out of the incubator. They will be fine without feed or water for up to 72 hours.   

If you don't have an incubator, you can set eggs under a broody hen. Depending on the size of the hen, you can put up to a dozen eggs underneath her. A few days before setting move the hen to a place of her own. Any kind of box or basket works well. Make sure that it won’t tip over when the hen gets off to eat and drink. Mark a couple of eggs for her to start with. Change these every day (they are fine to eat or set) until she is ready. Just put a dozen or so fertile eggs under her. All this is best done when it’s dark. Then just wait 21 days. If you find an egg rolled out of her nest just pitch it. Somehow a hen knows if an egg is bad.

As always, ask questions in the comment section.

--Dale, AKA Turkeyman

Why is my chicken losing its feathers?

Your chicken is molting.

Molt is nature’s why of “rebooting” poultry. 

When the days got shorter and cooler chickens will slow down, stop laying and lose their feathers. They don’t have to be laying when they molt. They will take six weeks or more to grow feathers back and resume egg production. 

Photo via Flickr

Birds can go through either a hard molt or a soft molt. A hard molt means all the feathers are lost almost at once so molting is over relatively quickly. A soft molt means the feathers are lost and regrown gradually. Sometimes you may hardly notice a soft molt, except as a reduction in laying. 

There are actually two juvenile molts before a chicken's first annual molt. The first mini molt begins at 6-8 days old and is complete by approximately 4 weeks when the chick's down is replaced by its first feathers. The second mini molt occurs between 7-12 weeks old and the chicken's first feathers are replaced by its second feathers. It is at this time that a rooster's distinguishing, ornamental feathers will appear 

Waterfowl molt a little differently. The first molt occurs shortly after nesting. Drakes trade their gaudy breeding plumage for drab brown feathers known as "basic" plumage. The second molt occurs from fall to early winter. Only the birds' body feathers are replaced during this molt, in which drakes develop their brightly colored "alternate" or "nuptial" plumage. 

The manner in which waterfowl molt their flight feathers, or primaries, is unique among birds. Most birds undergo a "sequential molt," in which their flight feathers are lost one at a time from the innermost primary feather to the tip of the wing. This allows many birds to retain their flight capabilities while molting. However some waterfowl undergo a "simultaneous wing molt," losing all of their primary feathers at once, which renders them flightless for 20 to 40 days.

Ask further questions in the comment section.

--Dale, aka Turkeyman

Home remedies for chickens

Sometimes a home remedy can help your chickens and prevent a visit to the vet. As with all our advice, there are many different ways to raise chickens. Our suggestions are based on what's worked well for us in the past.

Vinegar

It's hard to give a conclusive amount to put in the chickens' waterers. 

Vinegar keeps water fresh and from turning green. It's also supposedly good for respiratory issues. If you have a chicken with respiratory problems, you need to get on it right away. If you wait a week trying vinegar before a small amount of the antibiotic L-S 50 from a vet, you'll lose the chicken. When you treat one sick chicken, you have to treat all of them.

Lice

Dust the chickens with wood ashes, an old-time remedy. It's one of several that work.

Tricks for baby chicks 

If you have them shipped in from a hatchery, put brown sugar in the water if they're stressed. Use about a tablespoon of brown sugar in a quart of water. This isn't a strict measurement.

If you hatch baby chicks and aren't prepared with feed for them, hard boil eggs and mash up the yolks. You can also used uncooked oatmeal. 

Leave questions and suggest your own remedies in the comment section.

--Dale, aka Turkeyman

From Hen to Table: How an Egg is Laid

It's been a busy summer, but we're pausing to share this video from Nutrena's Scoop from the Coop. It's an excellent way to see how a chicken's egg production works. Thanks to Nutrena Feeds for allowing us to share it.

As always, ask further questions in the comment section.

--Dale, aka Turkeyman

How do I raise baby turkeys?

Raising turkeys is similar to raising chickens, but there are some differences you should know.

Royal Palm tom

There are two types of turkeys: heritage breeds and broad breasted breeds. The heritage breeds are also called "ornamental" breeds. They include Royal Palm, Bourbon Red, Narragansett, Slate and Black among others.


Broad Breasted White and Broad Breasted Bronze are larger and typically raised for meat. We'll refer to them as whites and bronze.

Here's a handy reference from Oklahoma State's Animal Science Department.

Once you understand the breeds, you can decide which one you'd like to raise.

You raise the heritage breeds the same as you would raise chickens, including the feed. They are usually no more trouble than chickens. The whites and bronze, however, are a different story. You must use a 26% to 28% starter feed. I recommend a medicated feed to prevent coccidiosis. Click here for our entry on Feeding 101. When they are ready for grower, I recommend a 20% grower in pellets if you can get them. This eliminates wasted feed around the feeder. 

All poults (babies) need a starting temperature of 95 degrees F. Be careful not to get over 95 degrees, and you must lower it by five degrees per week.  Stress can be a real problem for the poults. It's caused by overcrowding or being too hot. They must have plenty of room to move around. You can tell they're too hot two ways:
1. At 2-5 days they get weak, have trouble standing and die.  
2. At 10-14 days they start picking at each other. Birds almost always pick at the rear end, and once in a while at the wings.  Left alone, they will pick each other to death in a matter of hours.  If you notice picking, lower the temperature, make it dark in the brooder and put a piece of tape over the picked part. Put white tape on the lighter turkeys and dark tape on the bronze. Masking tape and electrical tape work well. This helps camouflage the wounds.

Some times in your turkey raising you find one of your bigger turkeys died. If you find the bird on its back that's a heart attack. This is not unusual in larger birds. However, if you find them on their breast it is a concern. Try to figure out what may be wrong. Make sure they have clean feed and water at all times.

As always, ask further questions in the comment section.

--Dale AKA Turkeyman

How do I get the most out of a swap?

Swap meets are very popular with poultry breeders. Here are a few tips to help you have the best experience possible. Want to try them out? The Walworth County Fur & Feather Swap is Saturday, April 9 in Elkhorn, WI.

Who holds swaps?
Most swaps are fundraisers for either a poultry club, 4H club or other youth organization.

Do I buy baby chicks at a swap?
Yes, but you must realize they might not be purebred and they might be straight run (mix of male and female birds).

"Take us home with you!"

How do I choose healthy chickens?
-The sellers will have them in boxes, cages or crates. You don't want the box to seem so crowded they can't move. It might be a clue the sellers aren't taking care of them at home.
-The birds should look generally healthy, with no runny nose or runny eyes. They should not seem lethargic. The birds should not sit with feathers fluffed up (not to be confused with broody hen), and should jump if you touch the cage.
-More than 95% of the people selling are honest people, but there's always a small percentage trying to sell a five-year-old hen as a year-old pullet.
-Find someone who is hosting the swap, and ask if they know the seller.

How early should I get there?
The earlier the better, since that's when you'll have the best variety. Most swaps have a food stand so you can have breakfast there.

What do I need if I buy birds?
-If you think you're going to buy something, bring at least a carrier or a few cardboard boxes with covers. If you think you're in the market for baby chicks bring a small box. If you are in the market for the bigger animal, bring a carrier. If you think you are not going to buy anything, bring both. (rimshot)

-In Wisconsin, you should get pullorum and typhoid papers to sell birds at swaps or show the birds at fairs. 

Even if you have backyard chickens, you should have papers showing it's from a Wisconsin Tested Flock, Wisconsin Associate flock, Wisconsin 90 day test papers, NPIP (National Poultry Improvement Program). By state law if you bring birds together you have to have one of the four types of papers. They should be in the name of the seller, so you know who sold the birds.

What should I ask the seller before buying the birds?
Most people will talk to you about the birds if you have questions.
General questions--what do you feed your birds, how long before the birds start to lay. You'll get a different answer from everybody but you'll average it out. General rule: people selling at swaps are really friendly.

If you see something you like but aren't ready to buy it yet, get their name and number so you can call them when you are ready.

As always, ask further questions in the comment section.

--Dale, AKA Turkeyman

What is wrong with my turkey's wings?

If you notice the wings of your waterfowl and turkeys are dropping down or sticking out, they might have a condition called split wing or angel wing. It's a condition where the last joint in the wing goes in a different direction.

The most common cause in waterfowl is too high a percentage of protein in the starter feed. A 16% to 18% medicated feed seems to work well. If you are raising them for meat, after their skeleton has stopped growing you may feed a higher protein grower of around 20% to 22%.

In turkeys it just seems to be the nature of the beast. You start seeing it at about ten days in about a quarter of them.

It is rare to see angel wings in chickens.

To fix it hold the wing in one hand, grasp the very last part of the wing and tuck in under the rest of the wing so the feathers are parallel with the wing bone. 

Tape it this position for two days, three at most. 

Remove tape. If it’s still not correct re-tape it. We have found that small strip of duct tape (no pun intended) works best.

As always, ask further questions in the comment section.

--Dale, aka Turkeyman

Talk turkey with Dale in person!

Those of you in Southern Wisconsin will have a chance to chat with Dale about backyard chickens this Saturday, February 27 at the Sustainable Living Fair in Janesville.

His talk is scheduled for 11am.
He'll have plenty of advice and freebies.

General details here. Background info on Dale's experience here.

How do I keep my chickens warm in the winter?

I’ve put off writing this for awhile since the weather here in Southern Wisconsin has been mild.

For the most part chickens tolerate the cold very well. Some breeds do better than others. The comb is the part of the chicken most at risk in the winter.

Chickens with rose combs fare the best. The main problem is males with large combs. They can freeze, turn black and slough off. They usually live although they will go off their feed, will not breed and sometimes die. I have heard that putting Vaseline on large combs help keep them from freezing. I have not tried it, but it used to be popular years ago.

Coops don’t need to be heated. Try to block off any drafts while leaving plenty of ventilation.

If you do feel you have to have heat do not use a heat bulb with adult chickens. They fly around and can hit the bulb causing hot broken glass to hit the bedding. Also be careful of the heaters that have coils that turn red when hot these also can cause a fire.

In the cold weather some people like to feed corn to boost energy. In a limited amount this is fine. The problem comes if you feed too much. Chickens need 15%-16% protein to lay. Corn is around 8% so you can see the more corn you feed the less protein the chickens receive. The chickens will stop laying.   

Water: We use ice cream buckets and try put in just what they will drink. Every few days we bring the buckets in the house to thaw out.

Frozen eggs: Sooner or later you will get eggs that have frozen. If the shell has not cracked it should be fine. However if they are cracked I would toss them. A crack could let bacteria in.

As always, ask further questions in the comment section.

--Dale, aka Turkeyman
photo credit: DSC_0164 via photopin (license)

Meet the man inside the chicken suit

If you have specific questions that haven't been addressed in this blog, or if you just want to meet Dale for yourself, here's your chance!

Dale will be at the Walworth County Fair giving a talk on backyard chickens on Sunday, September 6 at 10:00am in KiddieLand.

He will cover the basics of raising chickens:

• How to check zoning in your area
• Creating an exit strategy
• How to tell what the chicks will look like when they're adults
• What to feed them
• Building a coop
• How to tell if a chicken is laying
• How to defeat predators
• How to get rid of parasites

As always, you may ask questions in the comment section of this blog.

Hope to see you at the fair!

Radio talk about the backyard flock

I've been interviewed by reporters about chickens and turkeys in the past.  Recently, when a local radio talk show host voiced concerns about a new ordinance proposing backyard chickens in Janesville, Wisconsin, I had to call in. 

The host asks a lot of questions about topics we've covered here on the blog:

Chicken talk

-The importance of an exit strategy
-Preventing predators
-Avian flu in backyard flocks
-Cost of raising chickens for eggs
-Most importantly, the smell




The show's podcast is here. I call in at 40:15 to set the record straight. Hopefully we answered a lot of questions for the audience.

As always, ask further questions in the comment section.

--Dale, aka Turkeyman


photo credit: Saved Photos-27 via photopin (license)

When's the last time you made a chicken error?

Even the poultry guy can mess up.

A little background: We mainly raise chickens for show and not for eggs to sell. We typically incubate all the eggs from our purebred breeding stock. We then sell purebred chicks to 4-H members and others who enter them in fairs and shows around the region. 

Instead of letting the chickens keep laying past our six month breeding season, I decided to stop them from laying and extend their breeding life from two to four years. When it's not the breeding season they will still lay a few eggs a day. That's just enough for breakfast at our house.

To stop their laying, I started to feed only cracked corn instead of layer feed. That's an old trick. After about a week we started to get thin-shelled eggs. It took a couple days for me to realize that there is no calcium in corn and it was affecting the eggs. I was concerned the lack of calcium in their diet would lead to calcium deficiencies in the hens. Also, they need grit to grind the corn up in their gizzard.

So for the first time in many years we are supplying oyster shells along with the corn to improve digestion and the quality of the eggshells.

As always, post further questions in the comments.

--Dale, aka Turkeyman.

 photo credit: 168a via photopin (license)

My birds are eating. Why are they losing weight?

If your backyard poultry is eating but still looking "off", they likely have parasites.

Parasites are not fancy French umbrellas.**

Poultry mite. Source: Wikimedia Commons

There are two types of parasites: internal and external.

The main external parasites are mites and lice. The best way to check for these is to hold the bird upside down and move the feathers on its rear end. Look for tiny things scurrying away. If you see none look for small red dots around the vent. These are bite marks. The parasites go to the vent for moisture. 

To treat, use any garden dust with Sevin or you can get poultry dust at your local farm store. I’m not familiar with organic products, but those might be worth a shot. Make sure you treat the coop as well since they can live on wood for a long time. For some reason waterfowl don’t seem to have as large a problem with mites and lice.

Internal parasites include worms and coccidia.
Worms are pretty straight-forward; you look for "unthrifty" birds or ones that don’t seem to feel well. Then buy a poultry wormer and follow the manufacturer's directions.

Coccidia are little “bugs” that eat on the inside of a bird's gut causing coccidiosis. The bites cause scarring. This makes the bird unable to get the nutrients out of their food. The first sign is blood in the manure, next the birds start losing weight and die. Make sure you always feed a medicated starter. If you believe you have an outbreak treat as quickly as possible and treat your whole flock. Medication called Corid seems to work best.

As always, ask questions in the comment section.

--Dale, aka Turkeyman


**Note from Dale's daughter: we let him keep that "dad joke" in the blog as a Father's Day gift. You're welcome.

Should I get my backyard chickens tested for avian flu?

Our chickens are not tested for the bird flu.

My reasons are:

-It takes at least 10 days to two weeks to get the results back. In this time the flock could become infected.
-If your birds become infected they will die in 3 to 5 days.
-Most outbreaks are in very large flocks.

Symptoms include a swollen comb and wattle, not eating or drinking, listlessness.

The experts say two things will stop avian flu:
Eighty degree air temperature will kill the virus.
The virus is spread by migrating waterfowl. The migration is almost over.

The best thing to do is practice basic biosecurity measures and don't go into anyone’s coop or let anyone into yours.


In Wisconsin, the Department of Ag, Trade and Consumer Protection issues regular bulletins about the bird flu. You can find them and frequently asked questions here.

If your flock is one of the 19,000 registered with the state of Wisconsin, you will get automatic updates from the state about the flu. Wisconsin requires livestock registration. More information can be found here.

Read an article in the Janesville Gazette about the local impact of avian flu here. We offer further common sense information in the Wisconsin State Journal and UW-Extension program here.

As always, post further questions in the comment section.

--Dale, aka Turkeyman

photo credit: Bird flu via photopin (license)

What's wrong with my chick's legs?

If your chick can't hold its legs underneath it, you may be seeing "spraddle" or "splay leg".

There are many different opinions on the cause of this condition but the end result is the same–death of the bird.
To me it seems to be something that happens in incubation.
There are several ways to fix it by loosely attaching the legs together. Whichever one you use you must keep the legs under the bird's center line. 

1. A rubber band. (again, loosely attach to legs so you don't affect their circulation)

2. A band-aid

3. Vet wrap with tape
4. Plain tape

Leave on for two to three days. If needed replace it. Make sure the birds have access to feed and water.

For small bantam chicks we have had success taping them sitting with their legs under them in a Styrofoam egg carton. Put water and feed in the carton for about two days. 

As always, ask questions in the comment section.

--Dale, aka Turkeyman 
  

I ordered chicks. Now what?

Your chicks are on their way! Are you ready?

First you need a brooder.

Next is bedding. As we've mentioned before, the best bedding is pine shavings. No matter if you are new or an old hand this is what you should use.

You can get by with shredded newspaper or paper towels but you will be changing it often.
Do not use cedar shavings. It’s bad for their respiratory system. Do not use newspaper. They slip on newspaper and can hurt their legs.

Next you will need a heat source. We start ours inside the house and use two sixty watt bulbs. Notice I said two? This is in case one burns out during the night. You can get an adapter to put the two bulbs on one cord. It needs to be about 90 degrees and lower it by 5 degrees per week. Once you put the new chicks in the brooder keep an eye on them for about an hour. They will tell you if the temperature is right. If they are huddling under the light they are cold.  If they are far away from the light they are too hot.

If the chicks are kept in a place that’s colder you are stuck with using a heat bulb. Be careful with them since they can cause a fire. I have heard of ceramic heat bulbs that should be safer to use.

Once you have your feeders and waterers, you need to prepare them for the chicks. The day before the chicks arrive, fill your waterers. Water from the tap is 50 degrees. You need to get the water to room temperature but never just use hot water from the tap. They think the warmth is their mother, try to get close and get wet (bad).

With chicks that are sent though the mail, some use electrolytes in the water. The older way is to put a teaspoon of brown sugar in a quart of water.

Make sure you have plenty of the right starter feed for your chicks. This will help them grow to be healthy birds.

Bronze and White turkeys need extra attention. 

As always, this is based on our experience. If you are doing something that works don’t change just because we suggested something different.

--Dale, aka Turkeyman


 photo credit: Mugging for the Camera via photopin (license)