Goat Update and the Breaking the Turkey Code....

Our next goat kids are due on the 11th, so Tina and Angel have been moved to the goatie day spa.  Tina loves any special attention (because she's a supermodel)....so she is eating up every minute of it....

Angel, on the other hand....has had her share of problems this pregnancy and nothing will make her happy.  I think she's carrying trips or quads and for 3 weeks she's been putting everything into her kids.  We have really had to step up her feedings and give extra calcium, vitamin E, kelp, etc...just to maintain her health.  I've been very worried about her and will be glad once this kidding is over.  We are watching closely because she could kid at any time...

Speaking of kids.....we used an old shipping crate to make a warm bed for the little barn princesses this weekend.  Filled with hay, and it has a slatted floor off the ground so they stay warm and dry.  During the afternoon the sun beats down on it and they were spralled out soaking every bit of it up...

This is really nice for them because their pen is so wet it's squishy.  Lexi's boys are growing and we plan to keep one as a herdsire...Queenacres Fine Future...."Future"

Isn't he a handsome boy?

Yesterday was the first day out for the boys...they really enjoyed the sunshine.

Tracy has been helping me figure out how we got this oddball baby turkey...and I hope this will shed some more light on the genetics...our tom is a Bourbon red, that's him on the right.  I have a Bourbon Red hen, a Royal Palm hen, and then these 2 hens pictured with the tom....

I am thinking that our little auburn colored poult may have come from that hen on the left.  She doesn't have the usual Narragansett ticking on her feathers, she's a deep chocolate color.  Here's another picture of the little poult....along with one of the BR poults.  Please excuse the dirty brooder it has been a long weekend.

In the other brooder we have the other oddball...but I think he's gonna look like a Narragansett...

We have many more eggs incubating.  My Red hen is sitting on a nest of 7....she's stayed on that nest even through all the bad weather....

And there are still over a dozen eggs in the incubator.  Now I'm anxious to see what we get!  Any ideas?