Turkey 4-H project.. (Need major help)

My son is 10 and decided he wants to do turkey's for his project. I have been researching everywhere. My questions are does anyone know of websites we can use for research or books to purchase. Also which breed is best. And also what class should he enter in. He don't believe in slaughtering animals. Thanks in advance

Hi and Never done 4-H but I can give you some tips about turkeys in general.
I keep turkeys as pets and in my experience any heritage variety is good, they grow kinda slow but that helps them to get a strong bone structure and they can live 5-7 years (sometimes more or less). The Broad Breasted Bronze and Broad Breasted White turkeys would not be the best for this because they are bred for rapid growth and meat production and their lifespans are usually only a year, sometimes two but they suffer from heart problems due to their gigantic size.
There are different breeds of heritage turkeys, my favorites based on color are the Bourbon Red and Royal Palm, but in personality they are all pretty similar. Be careful because some toms (males) can be aggressive, especially if there are no females around.
For feeding young turkeys (known as "poults") they need high protein turkey starter, about 28% protein for the first 12 weeks. Here is a good site that has a good page on starting young turkeys http://www.porterturkeys.com/poultstartingtips.htm it also has lots of pictures of different breeds. Adult turkeys can be fed an all-flock, turkey or game-bird maintenance diet.
Storey's Guide To Raising Turkeys is a good book.

Hope this helps! Feel free to ask any questions

Oh and it might be good to also post in the turkey section of the forum https://www.backyardchickens.com/f/20/turkeys lots of experienced turkey people there!

Check out Porters turkeys, lots of nice varieties, and a nice website, I got all mine from him.

I've heard Porters has a good reputation.

naresa said:

My son is 10 and decided he wants to do turkey's for his project. I have been researching everywhere. My questions are does anyone know of websites we can use for research or books to purchase. Also which breed is best. And also what class should he enter in. He don't believe in slaughtering animals. Thanks in advance

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Try getting the book, "Storey's Guide To Raising Poultry." It has a section all about raising turkeys. I would recommend getting a smaller heritage breed, such as Royal Palm or Beltsville Small White.

"Storey's Guide to Raising Turkeys" because it is specific for turkeys. It gives a good amount of information on the various Heritage Breeds ( I agree with Lozuufy - no Broad Breasted Bronze nor Broad Breasted Whites). It contains information on Housing, feed, predator protection, breeding (only heritage turkeys can breed safely the Broad Breasted "commercial breeds" have to be artificially inseminated the book explains why), health, etc.

I picked up my copy from Tractor Supply but you can order it on-line.

Free Spirit said:

"Storey's Guide to Raising Turkeys" because it is specific for turkeys. It gives a good amount of information on the various Heritage Breeds ( I agree with Lozuufy - no Broad Breasted Bronze nor Broad Breasted Whites). It contains information on Housing, feed, predator protection, breeding (only heritage turkeys can breed safely the Broad Breasted "commercial breeds" have to be artificially inseminated the book explains why), health, etc.

I picked up my copy from Tractor Supply but you can order it on-line.

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There's a Storey's Guide to Raising Turkeys"? I didn't know that.

BantamFan4Life said:

There's a Storey's Guide to Raising Turkeys"? I didn't know that.

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Yep. Written by Don Schrider

Free Spirit said:

Yep. Written by Don Schrider

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I'll have to take a look at it.