thinking about turkeys

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tamelroy

tamelroy

Songster
11 Years
Jan 19, 2009
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I never did this before, and I am thinking of getting a couple of them. These are the only questions so far that I can think of:
1: Are they mean? I have two small children
2: What do they need for space for a coop
3: What do you feed from start to finish
4: At which age do you cull
5: which kind of turkey is the best for a Thanksgiving meal for 8 people

Thanks for the help and if you can add anything I didn't think of that would be great!
 
I don't know a whole lot about turkeys yet, since I just started out with my own first ones. They are due to hatch in a week. Mine are Royal Palm.

I got mine from a friend who raises them, and hers are very friendly. She has five children, and they all go in the pen and feed the birds with no problems, even with the tom around. Her four year old picks up the hens and holds them. She says they are so tame because they handle them a lot as babies, so that is what I would recommend for you--get chicks and have the whole family play with them a lot. My friend usually processes her birds at 8 months old, and the hens are 10 pounds after butchering...but Royal Palms are pretty small and not the meatiest breed. I would not recommend them for feeding a big family. She feeds hers on scratch grain, table scraps, and free-range, she does not buy a turkey food but most feed stores will carry a feed specially formulated for turkeys if you feel more comfortable going that route. On a side note, they do fly really well, even though they don't look like they should! So if you want to confine them, they will need a roof on their pen or clipped wings. We use chainlink dog kennels for raising our poultry in. I don't know how many square feet per turkey you need though. Ours will be loose in the day and penned at night.
 
You should go to the turkey section here and read some of the threads that are there.
These questions get asked alot and there is alot of good info in those threads.
You can still ask them your questions and the people that hang out there are always good about giving advice.
I was new to them this year too and I learned alot on that forum.
One of the best threads and the longest one too is here

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=92240
 
I don't trust my small children with my chickens. I'm diffinetely not going to let them go near a turkey; esp a tom. They are mean. I know there are exceptions in every case, but expect trouble. I don't think they can be trusted. I watched my tom guard my hen for a month and then 2 days after she hatched only 2 chicks, he jumped on one of them. I lost it on him. I threw a brick at him and he did a flip in the yard and ran in the kennel, chased out the laying hen, to eat her egg. So I locked him in and told my dad to come here and kill him NOW!!! It was almost a pleasure to pluck him.
I may consider using turkeys again for a meat bird, but I will do it in extra large tractors if I do and only with a trio of breeders and raise the meat birds in another pen until slaughter. I am a fairly large woman, but I have had my mom's tom come to me in a threatning way. I can see why some raise only the females and have to order turkey sperm every year.
 
The only time my toms were ever "mean" to me was when I grabbed one tom and gave him a hearty bear hug. The other toms, thinking now he was an easy target, ran over to us and started flogging him with their wings, meanwhile hitting me in the face. I was not injured, but it might be good to know that one shouldn't get in between mad toms if one is a small child. They will always strut around us but never have they run up to us and just start attacking us.
My Bourbon Red girls, on the other hand, mean no harm, but they are extremely inquisitive and like to peck things that stick out- zippers, buttons, gloves, sometimes even fingers. So I wouldn't trust them to be really close to a little child's face- but then, I don't really trust any animals around my face.

So no, mine are not intentionally mean to people, but just be careful. I have not had any broody turkeys so I can't vouch for daddy turkeys' behaviour.
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I love turkeys. I think they are the sweetest birds on the place. I have three toms, for insurance, and they do a lot of posturing and such. A little fighting, but never much damage. Mostly when one is trying to mate, one of the others will puff and slowly walk into him and knock him off. I can see why someone might feel threatened by them, as they puff up pretty big, but usually they are actually just trying to impress you. And chicks are just bite size. Chicken nuggets, and excellent protein. I wouldn't let my chicks anywhere near my turks.

My great nieces and nephews range in age from 2 to 12, and mix with the turks every time they visit, as both types of critter pretty much have the run of the place. The turkeys have never so much as bothered them.

I would need more info to answer the OP, but in general, Bourbon Reds are a nice balance between taste and size. Best tasting turkeys we have had. They don't get as big as the broad breasted breeds, but then nothing does. Besides, those things get too dang big, anyway.

A full grown BR tom gets around 35 pounds, but will be a nice 15 to 20 pounds at their youngest butchering age.

I love turkeys, both for their taste, physical toughness, and their personality. If it ever comes to owning just one kind of animal, it will be turkeys.

ETA
Forgot the other questions...


3: What do you feed from start to finish

22 to 28% Game Bird for growing birds or those raised for the table.

4: At which age do you cull


I assume you mean butcher... 24 to 28 weeks for heritage breeds.
 
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Quote:
Thank you for answering me.
I don't even know if I can do it, I was reading other post, and I don't have a farm, I just want a better way of life for my kids to eat more healthy. We butcher our chickens, well some of them. So I wanted to try turkeys, no one here likes ducks but me.

This might sound stupid, but wouldn't the turkey be tough the more activity it had? I was reading some have a lot of land and let them run all day. Not that I want to put them in a box! lol I just thought the more they would run, the tougher they would be. I know some of our chickens the legs are pretty tough.

I am pretty new to all this so bare with me!

Thanks
 
I free range all of my turkeys, and have never eaten one I would even consider to be "chewy", and we eat at least one turkey a month. One thing you will find is their taste is so different from store bought turkey that it is very difficult to get tired of it. If you butcher them young (and 6 to 7 months is young for a turkey) they will be plenty soft. Mine walk a lot, but they rarely run unless I am bringing them treats or one has snagged a fish from the pond and the others are trying to steal it. Maybe that is why. They are very different from chickens.

I have read that you are supposed to cook a heritage turkey differently from store bought, because they have less fat. I dunno. We cook ours the same and they are fantastic.

I think they will be fine in your yard, but one thing that can be a problem is the heritage breeds can fly pretty well by the time they are ready to be butchered. You might need to keep an eye on that and have a solution ready when the time comes.
 
I raised a bronze turkey (tom) last summer along with 3 new hens and a rooster. He became the leader of the group and paraded them everywhere around the property. It was great fun watching him grow; we butchered him at 42 pounds (!!) and he fed 2 families at 2 Christmas dinners. Fully free range, he never ate bagged feed from the time he left the confinement pen around 4 weeks old.

Only one time, he flapped his wings at my then 6 year old son and jumped at him. As with any rooster or tom, your family has to be aware that they are territorial birds and should not be antagonized unless you're ready for a scuffle.

Plan to raise several more turkeys this year, but likely to butcher them much earlier than the 42 pounder.

If you enjoy this stuff, just keep trying new things!
 
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