Brian, you are making me cry....(kidding). I thought my bronze was a purebred turkey, now I can really see that he must be a cross with something. I looked as hard as I could at every image I could find of the bronze turkey. It appears that what I see mostly is that the extra stripe that you see on my bird's tail (I think you mean the one light stripe at the base of the fan) is not present or is only slightly present in pictures of the bronze that I see. I rest my case, smiling. I wish he was a purebred, I would get bigger food for the table. I may invest in a purebred bronze hen and sell my hen crosses. Our family is so big that a 14 pound bird just really doesn't cut it. Besides, 7 months to grow a 14 pound bird, think we were throwing money out the window.
Oh what a lot of work you have performed with your poults to try to get them to eat, that breaks my heart; and I am sorry to hear of this. I know what work goes into readying for the babies, the time, the love, effort, and then to try to make them eat, drink, and they just look at you like you are that alien from outer space, them thinking, why should I have sustanance. Oh dear, dear, dear....
What the dickens is with your hatchery that you are getting your birds from. Aren't they located in Washington state, pretty close to you? I would think that it would be an overnight service, not a couple of days. You have had terrible happenings with your young birds coming to you in bad shape and I am not impressed.
I was going to be putting an order in to that hatchery (and about 12 other people I have enlisted to help to cover costs). I have quite a substantial order going on. I had intended the hatchery to ship the days olds to the Sumas border crossing, along with the certificate of health and paperwork to come over the border. But if you have had such terrible issues with their birds, I am thinking differently. I am pretty sure that this hatchery is the same one that you used.
There is a Canadian hatchery that will have day olds (sexed, if you chose) available in mid June, the same time as the American hatchery. I may decide to go with them instead.
Brian, racking my brains to remember who your two-man crew was. I re-read your posts here and still can't figure it out. I know it isn't your Son that lives in the little cabin, smiling (I know that can be a sore point, we had someone like that around here once, couldn't do a single ding dang thing, smiling). I think it may be someone that you have employed, but I just can't remember, elaborate please.
Putting up walls, sounds like such a simple thing, it is not. I watched my Husband build that horse barn. He built the walls on the ground laying down and then pushed them up, well, shiver me timbers, that scared the crap right out of me. He wanted me to hold the wall up with a 2X4, was he out of his mind? Freak!!!! Well, the walls went up....
I can't wait to hear of what your chicken barn looks like. I picture that it will be a beautiful piece of work. I am jsut hoping that one day you will be able to figure out how to use your camera, smiling and hint, hint.....
I am so proud of that light brahma rooster by the way, he is gonna be one magnificent bird. Even Ken told me he is beginning to like him (thought he looked like a bleep before), so that makes me feel good. Now I just need a couple of brahma hens to go with him. Think I will put an ad on Craig's list for a couple of gals for him, smiling. I know that in a little while he will need some friendship, he is far too big for my little hens here, think he would crush them. Anyways, today our sun is shinin' again, as I know is yours there. Off to the fun in the sun. Have that wonderfully great and beautiful day, health wishes, Cindi