To be honest, we have just one primary goal when the Thanksgiving turkeys arrive. And that’s to keep the birds alive.
They’re especially fragile, having been hatched in Ohio and overnight shipped to us at 1-day of life. That journey alone, can be dangerous for such a small creature.
But this year was more challenging than years past, since 3 weeks ago on the day the turkeys arrived, was especially hot. And as a result, they were more heat-stressed on arrival than we realized.
We had their living quarters (called a brooder) ready to go. The cool water was flowing and feeders were filled with NYS organic grain.
But in less than an hour, they went from looking hot, but generally well, to looking dead or almost dead.
We worked to revive as many as we possibly could, dunking their little beaks in cool water, adding extra sources of shade and using additional fans to cool them down.
We’ve saved piglets with these strategies before and hoped they would help lessen the blow with the turkeys. It did, but not as much as we’d hoped.
Farming goes this way sometimes – there are those great highs that come with welcoming new life on the farm, followed by the lowest of lows, that being death.
The upside, besides the fact that many of them did indeed survive, is that our hatchery was able to quickly replace the birds that we lost. Which means, we’re back on track with a full flock of turkeys that will be ready in time for your Thanksgiving.
They are growing like gangbusters now. And if you’d like to reserve one of our organic and pasture raised turkeys this year, head over and place a deposit HERE. We’re already 2/3 SOLD OUT, so don’t wait!
Your Farmers,
Jenney & Greg
PS – In addition to opening up orders for turkeys this week, it’s also a FRESH PORK week which means we just brought back lots of our beautiful organic pork from the butcher today. Place an order with us HERE.