Hi from New Hampshire

[NHMounttainman]

Welcome! You sound like an interesting person-- 67 countries? wow!

If you are a skeptic about herbal concoctions, try simple things that will give you quick feedback, like a salve for insect bites or stings. You'll quickly decide whether you like it better or if store bought is fine for you. No sense wasting time and energy on something that doesn't really work for you. For me, herbs seem to work as well or better in a lot of instances, by YMMV.

Are you thinking of heritage turkeys that can hopefully breed and multiply successfully, or just the occasional broad breasted monstrosity that gives you tons of food one time? I've done the latter, and 50#s of meat from one bird is not something to scoff at. We're thinking of going with heritage birds now, or maybe Jersey Giant chickens.

I'm planning on a few heritage turkey's and 1 or 2 broad breasted for the first year. I started with only heritage chickens this year (10 for eggs, 12 in the freezer) , but next year will try some cornishX and dixie rangers. I'm hoping to breed/ incubate in year two, but also want birds that can range for some of their food. In general - I want to go with non-modified frankenstein turkeys and chickens.

My skepticism on homeopathic is based on 3 experiences: sitting in a cancer ward, watching people that tried weed, cbd oil, and homeopathic diets to cure their stage 1 cancer, that were now in stage 3 or 4. The internet is a really crappy place to research homeopathic cures. The second is from my travels - particularly in Asia. Eastern medicine is often based on homeopathic / natural cures (particularly somehow with endangered species). Lastly - I have tried every "anti-inflammatory" diet and supplement - turmeric, non -nightshade foods, gluten free, etc - with no benefit. I'm a sceptic...but I'll try anything. I've had both knees and both hips replaced...

Traveling all over the world sounds exciting, but after a while, it becomes a blur of airports, hotels and jet lag. I'd be happy if I never had to leave my property now!

 

[baymule]

Welcome from Texas. We have chickens for meat and eggs. We raise Cornish cross in the spring. We have a customer that buys 20, cut up and vacuum sealed. Then we have plenty for us and our daughters family too. We have 4 horses, 4 dogs and hair sheep. We garden, I can veggies and chicken.

I get where you are coming from. I never had cancer or any other illness. I don’t want any, either. Congratulations on being a survivor, sounds like you’ve been to hell and back. A healthy lifestyle is the way to go! What kinds of fish do you like? What kind are you looking to raise?

Welcome, glad to have you here. Sounds to me that you have a great start on becoming more SS!

 

[Lazy Gardener]

Welcome. We'll enjoy your input here. As for incubating, I find that even with a good broody hen sitting on eggs, it's comforting to have an incubator at the ready for any unforeseen calamity. That way, you could:

* Finish off a clutch of eggs if Broody decides she's not really interested in being a Mama.

* Incubate a few extras so that if her clutch fails, you can slip the incubated chicks under her. Or, if she does hatch her eggs, you can add a few extras to her brood.

If you can re-wire a lamp with decent instructions, you can build a forced air incubator that will perform just as well as any expensive bator your would buy. Mostly salvaged materials, with the exception being: a digital thermostat. Those are CHEAP!

Dixie Rangers: I grew out a batch of them a few years ago. Nice birds. I saved one pullet from processing. She was the first pullet from that year's brood to start laying. She laid a HUGE egg, was a prolific layer, and her genetics are still in my flock. The only drawback: her feather quality wasn't as good as the other birds. Most likely b/c she put so much effort into her eggs. I found that the barred feathers/yellow legs of the males carried through into the next generation (EE roo over the DR hen) to make the second generation auto sexing.

 

[flowerbug]

congrats on being a survivor and welcome to SS!

 

[NHMounttainman]

Welcome from Texas. We have chickens for meat and eggs. We raise Cornish cross in the spring. We have a customer that buys 20, cut up and vacuum sealed. Then we have plenty for us and our daughters family too. We have 4 horses, 4 dogs and hair sheep. We garden, I can veggies and chicken.

I get where you are coming from. I never had cancer or any other illness. I don’t want any, either. Congratulations on being a survivor, sounds like you’ve been to hell and back. A healthy lifestyle is the way to go! What kinds of fish do you like? What kind are you looking to raise?

Welcome, glad to have you here. Sounds to me that you have a great start on becoming more SS!

When you say you raise CornishX - do you buy chicks or are you getting fertile eggs to raise? I've heard that the genetics that have developed to make them grow so meaty shortens their life and makes mating near impossible. I'm hoping to find a way to never have to buy a chick ever again. That's why I'll be testing rangers, cornishX and American bresse flocks to see if I can get them to self sustaining to feed us.

Thanks for the welcome. LOVE Texas. Headed to Austin in Feb!

 

[NH Homesteader]

Hi, NH here also! Short answer, yes the wild turkeys are absolutely an issue with domestic turkeys. We had wild toms attack our tom and try to steal the ladies. when our friend took one of our last turkeys to his house to join his flock, she escaped and joined the wild flock. We've seen her on occasion. Thought she'd come back but she never did!

 

[CrealCritter]

Thank you for the welcome. Happy to discuss geothermal with you at any time.
Question on turkeys - we have have a ton of wild turkey in the area (and a very short and restricted hunting period) - will I have issues with wild turkey interfering with my turkey flock?

Yes... I can not free range my turkeys because of the population of wild turkeys. I have them behind a fence covered with bird netting.

 

[NHMounttainman]

Look like I'll have to do some additional prep work to keep the wild ones away from my turkey poults in the Spring - thanks @NH Homesteader and @CrealCritter

 

[Lazy Gardener]

You should be able to breed Bresse or Dixie Rangers as a sustainable flock. However, in order to keep the carcass size up, you will need to keep them from crossing with other breeds. I do believe that DR are a hybrid. But, my experience said that the size remained good for the first generation, even when putting a EE roo over a DR hen. So, it's my opinion that you would do ok for several generations if you kept a DR cockerel and a couple DR pullets. Those DR roos grow massive, so I would not want to keep one as a breeder in a standard layer flock.

@Beekissed really likes White Rocks. She says the carcass size is good, the egg production is good, and the breed is very hardy. A lot depends on how many people you are feeding, how much meat you tend to eat. And, whether you can free range without feeding the local predators. Could be that you will produce enough meat with a modest sized DP flock. Most flock keepers hatch a few chicks every year to replace the older hens. This provides a lot of cockerels, plus older hens to cull every year.

My suggestions: Try a number of different breeds. Keep a closed flock. I either: hatch my own chicks from my own flock, or buy day old chicks. I will sell some of my birds, but will never allow anything other than egg or day old chick to enter my property. The risk of bringing a "forever" disease onto my property/into my flock is too great to allow older birds to come here from someone else's property.

 

[NHMounttainman]

if you are "in the wild" and plan on doing any serious gardening i recommend a good 7-8ft fence. you will not keep raccoons out with this, but you will cut down on their traffic. the main thing it discourages are deer, groundhogs and rabbits. we don't grow corn so i don't mind the raccoons in the gardens they don't seem to damage much at all (i don't use commercial fertilizers or fish emulsions i only use worms and worm compost). the main pests here are the (DGR) and chipmunks (so i should just say CDGR?) but you need a much finer mesh up a ways to help deal with chipmunks as compared to the others. the mesh fence i use for just DGR is 2x4 inch welded wire fence that comes in 7ft rolls. i'd actually like a 10ft roll as then i could use it as one piece to lay it along the ground too to discourage anyone from trying to dig under it.

Thank you for the advice. We've been gardening here for a few years now and have been pretty successful. We've never seen a raccoon or skunk. The biggest issue we've had has been porcupine - the damn things will walk along taking 1 bite out of each squash, pumpkin, eggplant etc and they've killed multiple apple trees. I've turned into Elmer Fudd {be vewy vewy quiet, I'm hunting porkies, hahahaha" ). I use electric fence and bait the fence with apple caps to shock / train the deer and black bear. The biggest issue I've had is moose. Those dang things just walk through the fence and trample anything and strip the apple trees bare. My moose strategy has been to redirect them. I've dropped trees across the game trails to send them in a different direction.