new to turkeys, have some Questions!!!

[chickensducks&agoose]

I'm ordering 2 bourbon red chicks, being delivered next friday. I have lots of experience with ducks, geese and chickens, but haven't ever had turkeys, or any animal we planned on eating! Which is better, boy turkeys or girl turkeys? (for eating)... can I tell which is which? do I pretty much just raise them like chicken babies? Is there any crazy things i need to know?

 

[Country Gal]

Personally, I think they both taste great!!! I prefer to cook a Tom for Thanksgiving dinner because they are much bigger than the hens and I know there will be plenty to go around plus left overs (2 years ago I served a 32 pound turkey).

You'll be able to tell the difference between the sexes as they get older. The Toms will be much larger, and they make different noises than the hens.

Pretty similar to raising chickens, except that they don't need any roosts... mine have always gone through food and water like CRAZY... I enjoy raising them, but once they start getting really big, I find them pretty intimidating when I go in to feed them (they all rush up to me, which was a little crazy when I had 15 of them). I will warn you - turkey poop has got to be one of the worst smelling animal poops out there! I've never let my turkeys free range, so I can't offer any details along those lines - I've always kept mine penned up.

Good luck!!!

 

[chickensducks&agoose]

I get to pick them out of a box.. larger legs mean boys? do turkeys even have combs? is there any way to guarantee boys, if they both taste the same, getting boys makes better sense pound for pound?

 

[Country Gal]

For the most part I cannot tell the difference when they are small. How old are the ones you will be selecting from? Watch them for a little bit before you pick them out... some of the toms will start puffing their feathers and doing a little "strut" and they start doing that pretty young, I wanna say around a week or two in age.

I always keep the largest tom from my flock for Thanksgiving, and then I keep some of the smaller hens in the freezer for meals when it is just me and my husband. I would guess that even though the toms are larger, they probably eat more as well.

Ooops, and I misspoke about the roosts. They do like to roost, I just don't have one set up for them, and they seem to be okay with it. Last year, after I slaughtered the pigs, I moved the turkeys into the pig pen/barn so they would have more room, and I did notice that several of them would roost on the fence at night.

 

[farmerlor]

If you have several to compare you MIGHT possibly see some turkeys who have ever so slightly bigger legs. As they mature the difference becomes more pronounced but if your poults are only a few days old it's basically a coin toss. Honestly, the feed conversion rate is going to be about the same for a male or female. If it takes 50 pounds of feed to get your heritage Tom up to 22 pounds, it's going to take a little less food to get your hen up to 18 pounds.

 

[chickensducks&agoose]

So early April is the perfect time to buy T-day turkeys! That is so exciting! I am so excited! Even if they're stinky!

 

[chickensducks&agoose]

So... if I end up with one of each, can I just eat the dude turkey, and keep the lady turkey and get her together with someone else's man turkey, and then get chicks next spring? do turkeys lay eggs often? can you eat them?

 

[farmerlor]

chickensducks&agoose :

So... if I end up with one of each, can I just eat the dude turkey, and keep the lady turkey and get her together with someone else's man turkey, and then get chicks next spring? do turkeys lay eggs often? can you eat them?

Turkeys aren't stinky! You would need to either have a Tom turkey or be able to borrow one for several weeks. The Toms aren't always fertile the very first or second time they attempt to breed. And I don't know if the hens need to be constantly re-inseminated like chickens do every few weeks or not since I keep my breeding stock all together all the time.​

 

[chickensducks&agoose]

I saw that a turkey takes about 50lbs of food to get to maturity... is that with free-ranging too? or just on feed? How much to overwinter a turkey? I'd assume more, just for necessary heat...?