Ordered my first ever turkeys yesterday! Chicken pro...turkey novice

Thanks r4eboxer. I was hoping with 6 of each and the tom/hen odds with loses to have a trio of each or at least a pair of each in the end. Thanks for the advice. We'll see what's left at the end of the adventure. Just curious what, what was the breakdown of your varieties?

I was extremely Lucky last year when I mail ordered my red Bourbon Poults I got 17 and 17 all made it.
It seems that there is a Happy medium or the perfect number you have in mind that in some cases is Imposable to reach for one reason or another.
The perfect count of turkeys what ever that may be has alluded me I have had a surplus to this day and am trying to sell and eat my way to my perfect number of birds.
But it might be prudent to have more than your perfect number by even 1 or 2 Toms or Hens.
Other than to be with out and then cant find mates for what you already have and then it takes you yet another year to raise more.
Always rember Murphys Law.

Turkeys are like LAYs Potato Chips once you get started its hard to stop.

Trying to remember my breakdowns, I ordered more Narragansett because that is the breed I settled on as far as meat. I had 8 of those to start, 4 Royal Palms (my eye candy), 2 Bourbon Red (my second choice for meat) and 2 Black Spanish and 2 Blue Slate. I'm pretty sure that is how it went.
I ended up losing 4 of my Narragansett. That was the biggest disappointment, I really wanted at least one pair of them. The two I ended up with are hens. I have one Bourbon Red Left, no spanish, one Blue Slate and all four of my Royal Palms made it. I have two pair of them which is sort of nice because even though they are a smaller bird they will make a nice small turkey for the oven. The only time I really want a really large Turkey is for the Holidays and the rest of the year my family of 6 can eat off of a Royal Palm for a couple of meals. Not too much left over and not so much waste.

I'm thinking maybe the Royal Palm is a better choice for my freezer year round. They don't take as much feed to bring up to 12 lbs, it is smaller and I don't have to worry about wasting any when I just want a turkey dinner and not a huge feast. They have white feathers so no ugly pin feathers left and are B-E-A-U-TI-FUL in my yard and pasture. I'm really looking forward to my breeding season so I can get some eggs in the bator.

I am still on the hunt for a Narragansett Tom, until then I'm pairing my hens with the Blue Slate Tom, it should make a pretty bird and should have the size of the Narragansett.
I've found a Bourbon Red Tom locally and will be going to take a look at him after this snow storm passes by. As far as black Spanish go I'm not unhappy I lost all of them. They are a nice addition to a flock and add a certain charm, but they are not really what I'd want in a meat bird. Black pin feathers will not be pretty on a table.

=eta: I just remembered it was 8 Narragansett and just 2 Bourbons. I want to also add that I got mine in April, it was a very mild winter and spring but the week mine shipped we ended up getting a cold spell. That had a lot to do with my large number of losses.

Thanks all for the inputs...

GotCoop said:

I am also getting my first turkeys in May. I planned on 6 midget whites, 6 slates and 3 BBW (for fall eating). Will this mix of sizes be a problem? I plan to keep all the turkeys in their own fenced pasture with a large movable pen until breeding season. Then I would select a breediing trio each of MW and slate (accounting for attrition and butchering those not selected.) At that point the MWs and slates would be seperated through breeding season. Thanks.

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Midgets are only supposed to reach 12# for a full grown tom, Slates reach 33 #'s and in 6 monthd BBW can easily be 50# ! Just wanted to let you know what extreme weight ranges, you will be dealing with. It's gonna be like raising tiny bantams with Jersey Giants, so to speak!

Celie, thanks for the input. I'm still thinking it through, If I stick with the plan, the BBWs would be processed by early fall (don't need anything bigger than a 20 pounder). Then it would be the MWs and slates I'd have to deal with. Plan B might be just the MWs (10) and a few BBWs for an early taste of turkey. I have a couple more agonizing months to obsess over what to do.

cool2Bweird said:

I'm getting the 15 rare turkey special from Cackle and splitting it with a friend. We're also splitting an order of 15 BBW's. So I'll end up with about 15 turkeys total. The thing about the rare turkey special...its a surprise. Could be a bust, you never know.

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IT will be a surprise no matter what!! Post pics please.

of course!