Tiny turkeys

I found a local source for turkeys last week. We want to only raise a few, and most mail-order poultry places have minimum orders of 15 birds (for the birds' sake in shipping). Heather picked up the first three last week. They're tiny! Much smaller than I expected, and smaller than even the chicken chicks we've gotten. It's still frosting at night occasionally here, so we're keeping them in large plastic tub in the living room.




Unfortunately, we've already lost one. I don't know if he fell in the water and drowned, was sick, too warm, or something else. The other poults seem to be doing just fine. Heather had fun holding one tonight, and discovered that if you peep at them, they'll peep back at you from across the room.




We should have another four poults next week, when our local contact can hatch us some more. These are Blue Slate turkeys, a "heritage breed." Most commercial turkeys come from one of the broad breasted varieties, and grow large and fast. I have no need for anything as big as a 35 lb turkey, so I figured I'd go with something a little more interesting, and hopefully more hardy.