by Meredith Chilson I am adding to my vocabulary as I continue to learn more and more about turkeys. Wattle: No, it’s not a gait similar to a duck’s, and in this case, wattle does not mean the branches or twigs that are interwoven to make a fence. In the poultry world, a wattle is […]

by Jennifer Sartell of Iron Oak Farm At least once a week a car stops in front of our house to look at our flock of turkeys free ranging in the yard. They roll the windows down so the kids can see in the backseat or they pull out their phone to snap a few […]

by Jennifer Sartell of Iron Oak Farm We’ve already had several fires in the wood burning furnace this September and it’s not even officially Autumn. We live in Michigan and last year our area of the state received record snow falls and temperatures 30 below zero. According to the Farmers Almanac, we’re in for another […]

by Meredith Chilson Not so very long ago, I wrote about my first week experiences as a new “parent” to turkeys.   My, how they grow.   At almost six weeks, they are feathered, looking like turkeys, and ready to chase bugs in the yard. They are still eating starter feed, but they’ll begin eating […]

by Meredith Chilson   One week as a turkey rancher. Wrangler? Farmer? Mostly…watcher. Just as I do when there are new chicken peeps under the heat lamp in the garage, I’ve been spending an inordinate amount of time sitting in the lawn chair pulled up next to the little turkey pen.         […]

by Jennifer Sartell of Iron Oak Farm If you’ve been following me here on Community Chickens, the Iron Oak Farm Facebook Page or on our You Tube Channel, I’ve been documenting the progression of our Black Spanish turkey hatch. I’ve been sharing videos and photos covering each step of this exciting time. Some of the […]

by Jennifer Sartell of Iron Oak Farm I have a goal this year. And that goal it to increase our turkey flock. We chose a heritage breed of turkeys because I wanted a breed that could sustain itself year to year after we harvested the birds that we plan to eat. Turkey poults are expensive […]

by Jennifer Sartell of Iron Oak Farm “Variety is the spice of life.” This old saying also applies to the farmyard scene. I love the mix of animal species that graze, peck and pluck around our property. We have Angora goats that give us beautiful fiber, and Nubian and Alpine goats that give us milk […]

by Meredith Chilson Does it seem like this has been a really long winter? Are you wishing for a break in the weather, sunshine, anything that might indicate springtime? I’ve been leafing through seed and hatchery catalogues for months. Seeds are ordered, the garden is planned, and in about a month I’ll be starting the […]

by Jennifer Sartell of Iron Oak Farm I remember when I was a kid we had one of those electric carving knives that my dad ordered from an infomercial. It was a serrated knife blade attached to a handle with a motor that moved the blade back and forth in a kind of violent vibration. […]