They've Arrived!!

They've Arrived!!
 

 I jumped out of bed early Wednesday morning and started the numerous chores that needed doing around the house. After all the animals were let out, fed, taken care of, the laundry started, dishes washed, kitchen cleaned and all that fun stuff, then I got two brooders ready for the turkey poults.

About 8:00 AM I gave the Post Office a call and they said they had them and they were fixing to call me. We gathered up and drove the 45 minute drive to town. When we got there we went to the P.O. first thing. As soon as we walked in the door we could hear the poults peeping from somewhere in the back of the building. After I signed for them, we ran a couple of errands around town, and headed home.

Turn up those speakers!!

On our way home:

I already had my brooders set up before I left to go pick them up, so I opened up their box to see all this cuteness!

My favorite place to shop...Tractors Supply Co. 

I *had* to stop by and get a couple of things. I needed more chick starter for the Meaties, some new quart waterers, shavings, and some probiotics for the new poults. I read that it takes poults awhile to build up their immune systems, so you don't want to expose them to a lot of stuff until they've had time to build it up. So the more good bacteria that you get in their gut, the better! ;) Yes? Of course yes!

I sprinkled some gamebird starter on some foil. It helps attract them and get them interested in their feed. They started gobbling down the feed like it was going out of style! I picked each of them up and dipped their beak in the water. They seemed to be doing just fine, when all of the sudden one of the poults starts doing back flips, running around, acting spazzy, and acting like it's fixing to have a heart attack! Then another, then another, until we had about 8 of them doing it at the same time. We grabbed them up and held them under the heat lamp and they seemed to calm down a bit, but as soon as you'd put them back in the brooder they would start going crazy again. I seriously thought we were going to loose ALL of them. I nearly had a heart attack myself! I had a number for the lady I bought them from, so I rang her up and asked her what on earth was going on? Had she ever seen/heard of anything like this before? What can I do to help the poor babies? She was as clueless as I was on what the matter was. After some thought, it struck us. They were motion-sick! I mean good grief, can you imagine riding in a box for three days straight without food or water? Getting picked up, banged around, flown on airplanes, and I not know what? I bet you'd be motion sick too! 

The poor babies had zero balance, and anytime they'd try to walk forwards they'd end up flopping over backwards. It was awful! I felt so bad for them. Thankfully, after several hours of being in a warm brooder, and me putting as much food inside their tiny bodies as possible, they calmed down and quit having spaz-attacks.

Below you can see them chowing down on some finely chopped boiled eggs. The lady told me that when she had them, they were extremely fond of boiled eggs. She wasn't kidding!!

The little Turks (yes, this is what I will be referring to them as... ;), are very curious and like nothing better than to try'n eat the jewels off my rings. I'm starting to see a pattern here...all baby poultry (and grown) like shiney objects!

Oh, and their also camera hogs..err..I mean Turks! 

They thought pecking the camera on my phone was really entertaining. *sigh*

 

Today they are doing much better. I'm keeping a stash of boiled eggs on the kitchen counter, just for them. They eat half, or a whole boiled egg about every hour or so. I have seen them nibble on the crumbles, so I'm pretty sure they are eating some of that too. 

Turks have BIG eyes. In case you didn't notice, I just thought I'd point that out for ya. ;)

Yep, they have big eyes, and scrawny wings. Although, they are supposed to be good fliers at the tender age of two weeks, so I'd better line me out some roosts for them! 

Check out the two Turks in the back making a heart shape..too two cute! 

They are very thin still from their long trip, but hopefully I can fix that before too long. Several of them have already gained a little bit of weight since I've had them, but some are still very fragile. So I keep an eye on them whenever I can, and two eyes when ever I can spare them. ;)

Three Royal Palm poults.

An adorable Slate poult.

The difference between Slates and Lavender is: Slates have yellow around their face with a blue spot on their heads that continues down onto their backs.

Note: See their little snoot? I think that's the right term for it..somebody inform if I'm wrong! 

More curious little poults.

The lady marked the Lavenders with a purple non-toxic marker so I could tell them apart from the Slates. Once they get older and their feathers start coming in, the purple stripe will disappear. I can know tell the difference between the two blue colors, so we're good there. 

Their wing feathers are already coming in and the Slates have very dark shades of grey, blue, and other dark colors coming in. Whereas the Lavenders have pale lavender feathers coming in. 

Expect a weekly update on the poults!

Blessings - 

~ Aspen