As the piglets are now 7 weeks old it's almost time for them to be fully weaned and leave mum. As much as I love watching them and having them about we can't keep them all. They're very boisterous now and getting too big to stay in the current pig house with Charlotte, plus I think she'll appreciate some time away from them to be honest.
We are planning on keeping 2 of the piglets, one as a possible future breeding sow and another for the freezer when he's bigger. There's no point in keeping a boar for breeding as he'd be related to our "Girls" in some way and we don't want any interbreeding.
Since spring is trying to make a debut again I'm checking the turkey house for eggs. This time last year we had one female who had just started to lay. We now have 4 females so in theory should get 4 times the amount of eggs. I'll collect the eggs and store them until we have a clutch of around 20 then let our oldest female turkey hatch them out hopefully. She did a good job last year and hatched two separate clutches. Unfortunately she didn't do a great job of raising the chicks and most of the second clutch disappeared! So I've got a heat lamp ready and will find a box and raise the poults away from mum until they're old enough to join the flock.
Baby turkeys are quite fun but not very bright, they need regular care when small and will come to associate the person that feeds them as the "Parent". They're curious and friendly birds mainly, easy to keep, quick to grow and fantastic eating! Better than chickens in my mind although we'll still keep the chooks for egg laying.
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