Yellowbird wanted to try turkeys again, and they came in Friday so Chekhov brought them over. Unfortunately, by the next day one of them wasn’t doing too well; she seemed uninterested in the food or water even though the other one went right for them. By Saturday evening she was obviously dying, and before 10 PM she was gone; given that like chickens she was living on her yolk until Thursday, my guess is that she had some disorder that kept her from eating as normal. The other one has joined the other chicks, and though she’s smaller right now last year’s experience demonstrated that won’t be for very long. On Sunday I expanded the enclosure, which will give them more room to run around and should help to keep their water from constantly getting fouled; I was lucky enough to catch them in the act in this video, so you can see how the water needs to be cleaned so often at this stage of development. This coming Sunday they’ll be going out into their nursery in the henhouse; this past Sunday I finished mucking out the floor, bringing in fresh hay, rebuilding the nursery (the old chicken wire had corroded badly in our damp climate), and spreading fresh shavings in there so it will be ready for them this weekend. So tune in next week at this same time for a look at the new nursery and its quickly-growing occupants!
Diary #821
March 24, 2026 by Maggie McNeill
Posted in Diary | Tagged animals, Sunset, video | Leave a Comment
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