Need help, wife wants Turkeys!

[bibliophile birds]

Quote:
i would say go with the heritage either way. from all the research i've done, heritage turkeys even taste better than the BBB and BBW (according to several blind taste tests). those two have been breed for decades for size almost to the exclusion of EVERYTHING else. they tend to have leg problems and, obviously, can't breed. also, how often do you actually need a 35 lb turkey? why not have a couple more manageable 20 lbers who are going to be healthier, tastier, breedable, AND make your wife happy?

if you are near Knoxville and want to split an order of heritage turkeys, i'll be ordering some in the next few weeks (for probably April delivery). if you just want a trio or so, you are more than welcome to put your order in with mine. just PM me if you are interested.

 

[tnchicken]

I appreciate the input. I guess my main question would be if......or when I give in for a heritage breed, will I be disappointed if expecting a good meaty bird? I am not sure what happened to the rest of my thread questions but also wondered:
- what % feed to give
- how long do they need to stay in the brooder before letting out to pasture.

I would also be concerned about how they interact with kids as I have some not so fond memories of mean turkeys when I was a kid.

Thanks

 

[BarbK]

I also have VERY fond memories of being attacked by a 35# tom as a kid. My Narragansetts are the sweetest most attention hungry creatures in the coop. The tom we ate for Christmas is one of the best tasting turkeys that I have ever had!!! I butchered him young so I don't know how big they can get. All of mine were hatched out in July. My hens will hop on the air conditioner or porch and peck on the windows and doors till I come out to visit. When I am in the coop they fly up to my shoulders and sit for attention. My DD can go out to the coop and pick any of them up and carry them around. I think she has only gotten flogged once because they were slipping and she didnt have the wings held right. they are 15-20# birds. They were all handled from day one.

ETA: They do breed naturally. (whenever DD goes in the coop to collect eggs

)

I am actually going to be selling them because I can't keep them in the pasture. They want to be with me ALL the time!!!!
I have 1 tom and 3 hens

 

[dani2]

Hi,

We raise royal palms they breed easily and are still just as great tasting as a regular turkey the only real difference is they are not as big. We butcher most of ours in the fall and they average around 10-15 pounds. One thing with heritage turkeys atleast what we have is they can fly and I mean FLY so we keep there wings clipped they do grow pretty quick and ours usually go out in the pasture around 6 weeks old or so for around there they just have to be big enough to not look like cat treats. In general they get very attached to humans and will follow you everywhere we did have one get mean this year so we are just going to get a new tom every year we have never had problems with the younger toms. We dont feed anything special to ours once they are out in the pasture they mainly graze on what ever they find. Oviously if we kept them penned up on a meat builder type feed they would probably be bigger but we prefer to just have a more natural pasture raised bird.

 

[Frosty]

If the children are small, keep them away from the turkeys. Turkeys are attracted to shiny things, and that can include childrens eyes. If you get any toms, keep in mind that they can be sensitive to colors, and have been known to attack anything that is blue. That being said, turkeys are a lot of fun!

Some varieties are bigger than others. Palms tend to be on the small side, some like White Hollands have bigger breasts but can still breed naturally. I am running an experiment this year... The reason that BB types don't breed naturally is that the tom is too big to get close enough to 'do the deed'. So I held over a few of my BB hens and am going to cross them with a White Hollnd tom and see how the offspring dress out.

You will need a higher percent protien feed when they are babies, use a good gamebird starter. As for clipping wings, I never do that if they are going to free range, that will put them at a disadvantage if they are attacked by a predator.

 

[Slywoody]

Been my experience to just let wife have what she wants.

 

[chickenannie]

This is wonderful info for you and your wife to read:

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=92240

 

[nivtup]

Heritage Breed, Black Spanish, and Bourbon Reds are both good sized.

The shape of the heritage birds is different than the butterball picture, but the taste is oh so much better.

They are fairly prolific, you can quickly end up with more than enough turkeys.

Ours are all no problem with people, chickens, ducks, geese etc. They can fly a decent distance, so good fencing is key.

We raise ours on turkey starter, and then an all purpose poultry after we put them out at about 8-10 weeks or so.

We did end up taking the poults from the hens, as we were experiencing a high loss rate. The Toms were stomping on them.

 

[greathorse]

Quote:
Slywoody is a very wise man. LOL