Turkey Wash

 The broad breasted white turkeys are growing very quickly. We had them in one of our indoor/outdoor pens, but the rain coupled with the fact that for some reason the commercial breeds of poultry seem to lack the ability to groom themselves resulted in some very nasty and not too white turkeys. I couldn't stand seeing them looking so dirty and bedraggled so I decided to do some thing about it!

 I gathered them all into an x-pen and hosed down the whole lot. A couple hours in the warm summer sun and they were clean, dry, and mostly back to their proper color.

 While I had them penned like this, it seemed like a great time to go ahead and vaccinate these guys against fowl pox. A few weeks ago, we vaccinated our group of heritage turkeys, but at that time I had Big Onion to help. This time I tried to do it on my own.

  Trying to juggle a flapping, kicking, squawking turkey poult, a tiny glass bottle of liquid, and a very sharp lancet with only two hands was a more than a bit of a challenge. I was trying to balance the turkeys on my lap while avoid flying claws and holding out the wing with one hand while using the other to wield the vaccine. It was not going so well.

 Then I remember that poultry will extend their wings and become very calm if held upside down.

 This gave me easy access to the webbing at the top of the wing where the vaccine is given without upsetting the turkey or exposing my flesh to surprisingly sharp young turkey talons.

 Here is a turkey post vaccine. You can see the two little blue/green spots were the lancet loaded with vaccine was inserted.

After everyone was vaccinated, I decided to move the turkeys to one of the pasture pens. This way they have access to grass and bugs and can be easily moved to keep them from needing another hose down. Plus, Rialey thinks it's fun to hang out with her livestock in their new pad.