Dalarna Farm

Dalarna Farm Hogs, horses and hilarity reside here.
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Well judging by all that I learned about turkey color genetics in the last 24 hours, we won’t really know if these babie...
05/30/2026

Well judging by all that I learned about turkey color genetics in the last 24 hours, we won’t really know if these babies are Lloyd’s or not for a few weeks or more. 🤦‍♀️

Shockingly the bright white of the Royal Palm turkey doesn’t have have much genetic effect on the deep red of the Bourbon Red, especially at hatch. As their real feathers come in, their true colors will show themselves as it were, but until then they remain a mystery.

Lloyd’s sister wives only managed to have 3 eggs hatch out of the 30+ they were setting on. I was expecting worse, honestly. Their penchant for long afternoon strolls and several hour dust baths had me believing there was no way there could be any viable eggs…so to have 3 actually hatch is a big wow! It should be noted all 3 came from only Libby’s nest. Lulu managed to go 0 for 16.

Currently all three babies are staying in the incubator in the dark on my counter…because this little dude hatched with a case of wry neck.

Wry neck, which is a neurological symptom that has a bird stare up, lack coordination and balance and just be generally off, is most often caused by a vitamin deficiency with babies this young and so that is what I am treating him for. I think I diagnosed the cause correctly because he has been responding well throughout the day. Fingers crossed he makes the night.

Because he can’t balance well he’s living in a similar little overnight pocket hammock as my splay leg baby did a couple weeks ago. It keeps them safe from being stepped on, upright and cozy…as well as absolutely adorable.

The other two are lively and honestly a bit rowdy in there…much more full of themselves than any of the first hatch were. 😳 I will attempt to get them back with their mom tomorrow, but I have a feeling that her sense of parental responsibility is not perhaps as strong as a teeny baby needs. I have this feeling she’s going to believe a day old baby can go on 3 mile walks and that’s not gonna work. Sigh.

Even in the wild, first year turkey moms are notoriously careless and very few, if any, have offspring that make it to adulthood from that first hatch…like with many first born children, they are their parents’ experiment and the learning curve can be steep. Should she decide to leave her kids in my care, it looks like my baby turkey daycare center will be growing.

A hint of how my day has been going: I spent the evening on a website called TurkeyColorCalculator dot com because Libby...
05/29/2026

A hint of how my day has been going: I spent the evening on a website called TurkeyColorCalculator dot com because Libby’s eggs began hatching today… eggs that ostensibly could be from her trysts with Lloyd. 😮😮😮😮😮😮😮😮😮😮🦃

Libby is sitting on so many eggs that she can’t keep the new babies and the eggs underneath her very well, so I pulled the first hatchlings out along with some of the eggs and put them in the incubator for the night. I don’t know how many will actually hatch because as I’ve said before she’s not been very vigilant about staying on her nest. But we have 2 so far!

And yeah, I thought it would be really easy to tell the difference until I looked up Turkey color genetics and found that when you cross a Royal Palm and a Bourbon Red, those babies look really close to purebred Bourbon red at hatch. 🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️ very very slight variation.

And so now we have to live in mystery until they start getting their real feathers…

After the rain a few days ago, our wood chip pile had a whole display of one of my absolute favorite organisms: Slime mo...
05/27/2026

After the rain a few days ago, our wood chip pile had a whole display of one of my absolute favorite organisms: Slime mold!

Fun fact: Slime mold is not a fungus, plant, or animal. It is a whole collection of many different but related organisms that share the central fact they can exist as both single cells and as an aggregate group working together to move towards food sources. Officially they are linked by being in the kingdom Protista.

They all start life as single cells just doing their thing but they come together and create aggregate bodies that then behave cooperatively, becoming nature’s weirdest group project. Without a single neuron amongst them, millions of slime mold cells can still sense light, moisture and the chemical v***r of their favorite foods (aka smell) and they can move together to find it. In times of food scarcity, individual slime mold cells can communicate with others, even at a distance, to swarm and “meet up” to make a more efficient single blob.

Scientists have shown that some slime molds have the ability to “learn” and can solve and remember mazes in pursuit of food. It also has shown it has preferences with one scientist finding out that her slime mold specimen originating in Japan and raised on Japanese oatmeal had a strong preference for oatmeal of its own country and would always select for its favorite when given both…all done without anything resembling a nervous system, much less a brain. Slime mold research challenges all those official definitions we’ve developed of what is a “thinking organism”.

This particular slime mold is, I believe, fuligo septica—more commonly known as “dog vomit slime mold”. 😬 It occurs all over the world where rotting wood and humidity come together. This mold appeared shortly after a rain and disappeared just as quickly. Technically, it’s still there but now in a form that is not so visible against the wood chips. It is mostly harmless, though some people have allergies, and does the important job of being a part of nature’s cleanup crew by decomposing organic matter.

Dog vomit slime mold’s seemingly “out of nowhere” appearance has inspired a lot of crazy folk tales as well. Icelandic folklore said it was the vomit of the Yule Cat (which is its own terrifying thing, look it up). The Dutch called it “witch’s butter” and the Latvians call it “witch”s spit”. In China they called it “demons droppings”.

Whatever it’s called, I think it’s pretty cool to find and I’m happy to welcome it to the farm!

Believe it or not, I read every single comment left on this page...I run out of time to reply, but please know if you co...
05/27/2026

Believe it or not, I read every single comment left on this page...I run out of time to reply, but please know if you comment, I have read it and truly enjoy hearing from folks!

And sometimes I read a comment that I just think needs to go "on blast"--but in the very best of ways!!

A few days ago, I wrote about Gabe's crazy color change as a foal---from this to pure white with spots in a little over 4 months. Horse color genetics (and color genetics in general) are an ever-evolving science and we learn more every single day. And today, courtesy of the below comment from Lauren Capeheart, I learned more too! I thought I would share so everyone else can benefit from her additions to the conversation.

From Lauren:

"There's testing relatively new at UC Davis for the duplication error that created the "grey gene" ..not is grey present, but how many duplications are in it, in reference to how fast the horse greys AND linked to how much risk, how fast the horse develops melanomas.

Grey is not a color gene, but a negative gene error (imagine grey is a book and there's 2 or 14 different chapter 5's mixed throughout a 40 chapter novel) that causes the color production to overwork until it burns out. Which causes the loss of foal camouflage, the born dark with adult coloring or even darker than adult coloring should have been.

Then there's interaction from LP, Roan, even dun potentially that can alter the birth color, alter the progression of the gene... but it's why a dapple grey may eventually get brown / dirty flea bit spots instead of solid white, as some random hair follicles regain pigment production for a time before burning out again. The hyper pigmentation aspect also accentuates the (not dun 1) ND1 primitive markings, and as color loss happens on the body, it can give false identification as a dun color, when no actual Dun gene is present. Dun gene causes primitives AND body color dilution....

While roan and LP and grey can all mimic the effect to some degree and cause confusion. AND with LP, and no PATN gene.. horses often end up "varnish roan" ... there's no blanket or extra spots, but a not quite right for Roan body color dilution, that can still color shift with the seasons wildly from the wildcard aspect of LP expression --- at least until we understand and have testing for all modifier genes.

As horse girl/giant nerd the amount we know from affordable testing now is amazing compared to the contradictions and hogwash found in phenotype genetic information in books 30-40 years ago."

05/26/2026

And to think—I was so so worried these two would run away when they were freed from quarantine. 😳😂

Instead I have two turkeys who run to me like puppies every time they see me and are absolute pests about trying to run into the house with the dogs. They know EXACTLY where the blueberries are kept.

They are still setting on their nests most of the day though I’m going to pull eggs and candle them tonight as Lulu’s should have hatched this weekend if any were viable and Libby’s would be next weekend. I’m pretty sure their penchant for long afternoon walks (even on 50-degree rainy days) likely rendered those eggs of no use. That’s ok though, even wild turkeys who are first year moms face a tough learning curve. 🤷‍♀️

And Lloyd?

Well he still mostly has no idea what’s going on but their presence keeps him home, which was their main purpose. 😂

For those of you who found the story of Gabe’s Appaloosa color genetics journey interesting, here is another take:Our Ru...
05/24/2026

For those of you who found the story of Gabe’s Appaloosa color genetics journey interesting, here is another take:

Our Russell (last pic) is a solid bay—not a soul could look at him and say he was a POA. No white blanket, no sclera around his eyes and no striped hooves. Just a pretty, if plain, bay boy…but 100% POA.

While both parents are very colorful, they are both only heterozygous for the color meaning they only carry one gene each— and Russell managed to not catch the color gene from either (which was how I could afford him, LOL)

But a few days ago, Russell’s half brother (same mom, different dad) was born at his breeder’s farm (first pic)…look at those markings! All the razzle and dazzle one could ever want in a spotty pony…and unlike Gabe, he will keep it! ❤️❤️ Just a twist of the color genetics k**b and you get a whole new palette.

His mom, Dirty Derecho, is in first and second pics. As you can see, she is in a state of constant color change herself from her LP gene. Many horses who have LP literally never stay the same color from year to year or even season to season…every time you look in the pasture, you have a whole new horse!

PS: First two pics are from Russell’s breeder John Anderson. I suspect that beautiful spotty baby might be looking for a new home by fall if anyone needs that sort of dazzle in their barn. If his brain is anything like Russel’s, you won’t find a sweeter or quieter pony!

And now for a mea culpa.A week ago, I saw this wee little face pop out from behind mom and was sure that I had failed to...
05/24/2026

And now for a mea culpa.

A week ago, I saw this wee little face pop out from behind mom and was sure that I had failed to clear all the duck eggs from the goose nest…he was so very tiny and the total days on the nest didn’t quite seem long enough for a goose. Additionally, he was indeed the coloration I would expect for a duckling from our current ducks. 🧐

But as it turns out, he was a goose all along! 🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️

Sadly, it was the only viable egg from the hatch, but he is indeed a goose. I had forgotten how absolutely tiny his dad was at that age. But once he started getting out and about, his stance and his shorter bill gave him away. His mother is very happy with him…and as of today, his dad is too!

I had kept Oliver away when the baby was really tiny because I was worried Ollie would step on him or accidentally run him over while engaged in Ollie mania. Ollie can be a LOT and doesn’t always pay attention to what’s going on when he is hyper focused on something…be it chasing everyone away from his baby or running down poor Bo Duke.

But today I judged baby big enough and fully mobile should his dad act dumber than usual…and oh my, what a happy family they are. They spent their whole day grazing, taking a dip in the baby-safe puddle I filled for them and hissing at me to make sure that I knew in no uncertain terms I was not allowed to play with their baby. 😂

It’s amazing how Ollie—who, remember, has spent the last month his mate was on the eggs haplessly pursuing a new love in the form of Bo Duke the dog— immediately knew what to do and how to act as a goose dad. He was attentive and protective and always making sure junior was keeping up. I wasn’t really sure he had it in him given his behavior over the last month. 🤔

I will keep everyone together in our fenced backyard for another week or two until junior is big enough to keep up on the long days of walking his parents like to put in. I really want to put a pedometer on the geese just to know much distance they cover in a day but I can’t think of a way to attach one without being entirely goose mauled in the process. 😬

After posting Gabe's baby photos last week, I had more than a few folks wonder "How can that be?" How can he have change...
05/23/2026

After posting Gabe's baby photos last week, I had more than a few folks wonder "How can that be?" How can he have changed color that much???"

Welcome to LP and wacky horse color genetics my friends.

Gabe is the product of crossing a homozygous LP/LP and PATN1/PATN1 Pony of Americas (POA) mare (his mom, Angel) and a grey Welsh Mountain Pony (his dad, Elation).

Before he was even born, I knew two things because of the information in that paragraph:

1. He would be born with a copy of LP and a copy of PATN1--the two genes that create and control the color and spotted pattern in "appaloosa" colored horses.

2. He had a 50% chance of carrying the grey gene from his dad.

And so when he hit the ground, I could see all those genes at work immediately.

The LP (Leopard Complex) gene is the primary gene responsible for appaloosa spotting patterns in horses...you can't have a spotted horse with out it! Traits like mottled skin, scelera (visibility of white around the eye) and striped hooves are all part of the LP gene. A horse carrying LP be born with small snowflake spots or even a white blanket (but no spots in it!) but it can also be born looking 100% solid colored and "varnish" out to a completely differently color each year of its life.

The LP is a wacky gene that expresses itself when and how it wants to and we don't fully understand it yet. One horse's LP color expression will come out wildly different from even its own sibling. And it interacts with other color genes in unexpected ways as well.

The term "leopard" in LP is a bit of a misdirect because a horse will not be born with the classic "leopard spots" without the addition of the PATN1 gene...that gene is responsible for modifying the LP gene into the classic spotted patterns most folks associate with appaloosa type horses. If a horse only has PATN1 but no LP, it will be solid.

And so because Gabe's mom is homozygous for both, I knew that he would come out with a big, splashy blanket!

But then we have the grey gene..

The moment Gabe dried a bit and I could see his eyes, I knew he carried the gene.

How?

His "spectacles"--those white rings around each eye...a tell tale sign that the grey gene was in play as well.

The grey gene is horses is a dominant trait that progressively removes pigment from a horse’s hair as it ages. All grey horses are born a darker solid color and progressively grow whiter with each passing year. If you know the Lippizaner horses of the Spanish Riding School--pure white in the ring, right? Well, each and every one of them was born a dark color!

But the question always is: How fast will a grey go grey? And also, what weird things might happen with LP at play? Add on top of that the fact that all foals are born with a "foal coat" that sheds out a different color at around 3 months and I knew something interesting would happen, I just did not know what.

With Gabe, we got our answer pretty quick---the LP interacting with the grey and the shedding of his foal coat saw ALL of the black hair he was born with on the front half of his body disappear before he turned 4 months old. It was wild!

It started on his face and as the foal coat was shed, it was replaced by mostly white hair. The spots on the OG white areas remained and a new pattern of smaller spots showed up where his black hair had been. His dark mane turned silver and then white by age one. A complete transformation!

Now age 3, Gabe's black spots are progressively lightening and someday he will be 100% white. Judging by the slowness with which his sire Elation is greying, I think the progress will be slower (some horses turn pure white by age 5!) but eventually he and his dad could be paired up as a matching team of snow white ponies and nobody would be the wiser!

"You had me at “seducing basketballs” and now I’m stoked about the “Love is Blind” angle. I’m so there! I would love to ...
05/22/2026

"You had me at “seducing basketballs” and now I’m stoked about the “Love is Blind” angle. I’m so there! I would love to observe the process of you finding Lloyd a soulmate."

How was it that two veteran journalists from our state’s largest newspaper were in attendance for the culmination of Lloyd's search for love?

Well that’s it’s own long story....

05/20/2026

Take a break and enjoy 30 seconds of baby turkeys being baby turkeys.

Happiest of birthdays to Gabe!He turned 3 years old at 1:27am this morning (there is no way I would’ve remembered that t...
05/17/2026

Happiest of birthdays to Gabe!

He turned 3 years old at 1:27am this morning (there is no way I would’ve remembered that time in my sleep deprived state when he was born, but thanks to phone camera time stamps, we know!)… here is a collection of photos from his first day of life as as well as as one from tonight when he got his birthday treats.

I think I’m gonna write a longer form story about him later, but for now happy birthday, Gabe!!

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Marietta, MN
56208

Telephone

+16056606599

Website

https://dalarnafarm.substack.com/

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