Turkey Talk for 2014

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kuntrygirl

kuntrygirl

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle
11 Years
Feb 20, 2008
22,031
828
461
Opelousas, Louisiana
It's that time again for us to talk about our Turkey plans for 2014. Laying season has come upon some of us already and for others, laying season will be here in a few months to many months down the line. Let's talk about our turkey plans for 2014.

A few things we can discuss could be.

1. Are you prepared for Turkey season for 2014?
2. When do your hens start laying eggs?
3. What breeds do you plan on raising for 2014?
4. What is your current Tom/Hen Ratio?
5. How many poults do you plan on hatching?
6. Did you order any poults from other hatcheries? If so, what hatchery, what breed and how many are you expecting?
7. Are you ordering turkey eggs from someone? If so, how many?
8. Will you be using an incubator to hatch your turkey eggs?
9. Do you want your hens to go broody so that they can hatch eggs?
10. Will you be selling eggs and/or poults?
11. What are your feed plans for 2014? Anyone trying fermented feed for their flock?
12. Do you have your housing ready for your poults and turkeys?
13. How many turkeys will you be processing for your freezer for 2014?
14. What did you do this year that you want to do different next year (2014)?

PLEASE feel free to post ANYTHING you want about your turkeys, to include posting pics of those cute poults and those handsome and beautiful turkeys. Our discussion is not limited to the above topics. Especially for those who need help with hatching, poult problems, etc. No question is a dumb question, so don't be afraid to ask anything. We are all here to learn and we can learn from each other. Regardless if you keep your turkeys for pets or for food. It doesn't matter. Your problem and experience with your eggs, incubating, hatching, brooding, raising poults/adults can help the next person.

We are all turkey lovers and there are A LOT of experienced turkey people on this thread who are more than willing to help. So let's talk turkey!

1000
 
We are brand new not just to turkeys, but to country living entirely. We retired and bought our dream place in a beautiful setting. We have 14 chickens and a roo and 5 new chicks, that were hatched by a hen that went broody. We have 2 dairy goats that we plan to breed the 1st of Dec.
This summer we bought 5 Narragansett poults from a local guy. The poults turned out to be 1 tom and 4 hens, we lost the tom to ???
idunno.gif
some strange malady and replaced him with a new one from the same guy, but a different strain. We want to try to do everything as naturally as possible with organic food and herbs etc; including allowing the turkeys to raise their own broods. We built a special place for them to brood...ha...we'll see how THAT works out
idunno.gif
I understand that turkeys aren't very compliant with their choice of nesting places, but ours don't have too many options.
We would like to sell some of the poults, and process some if we don't get too attached ...which has already happened with our present batch. We plan to let them raise as many as possible, but I hear that turkey eggs are good eating, so we will probably be cutting into the numbers of hatchable eggs...hmmm...omelets, casseroles, I wonder how they would taste deviled? Egg salads mmm.
 
Wow is it that time again already to start a thread for 2014!? Will we continue to talk on 2013 thread or is everyone going to jump over to this 2014 thread to make things easier for any new comers that are just joining us in the turkey world? I found the turkeys for 2013 thread to be by far my favorite thread last year to participate on this last year. I cant wait to see what happens for us in 2014.
 
I am prepared for 2014. Cant wait for the eggs to start coming again and start those incubators back up. Im going into 2014 with my one and only variety of heritage turkeys, Bourbon Reds. For the upcoming season I have a 2Toms and 6Hens in the breeding pen. I have plans of hatching way more poults than I did this past year just not sure on numbers yet but I plan to keep a good record book this year. My record book will keep track of amount of eggs laid, eggs incubated, poults hatched, number of poults raised in my grow out pen for holiday sales and consumption, number of poults sold, also I plan to keep track of the amount of feed.

Here are my Turkeys for 2014










 
I have a black winged Narragansett hen and a red palm tom, which means that next year I will get a brood that is 100% golden phoenix. I have been trying to breed for golden phoenix for about 4 years. I sure hope I like them. I actually have two hens that are black-winged golden narragansett which should look almost identical to golden phoenix, and I like them a lot. One will be bred to the red palm (half of those will be golden phoenix or black-winged golden narris), and the other will be bred to a red bronze with a couple of hidden recessive genes. Unfortunately, up here I don't get eggs until March 20th. Its a ways out. I'm thinking about artificial lights to get a bit of a head start.
 
grinningranny said:
Wow, Chicken pickin those are some gorgeous boys... It looks like they get along well. Do they fight during breeding season?
Click to expand...
They get along great! During breeding season their is a bit of sparring from time to time but they seem to know their place. One is more dominant than the other.
 
chicken pickin said:
I am prepared for 2014. Cant wait for the eggs to start coming again and start those incubators back up. Im going into 2014 with my one and only variety of heritage turkeys, Bourbon Reds. For the upcoming season I have a 2Toms and 6Hens in the breeding pen. I have plans of hatching way more poults than I did this past year just not sure on numbers yet but I plan to keep a good record book this year. My record book will keep track of amount of eggs laid, eggs incubated, poults hatched, number of poults raised in my grow out pen for holiday sales and consumption, number of poults sold, also I plan to keep track of the amount of feed.

Here are my Turkeys for 2014










Click to expand...
Gorgeous !
 
kuntrygirl said:
It's that time again for us to talk about our Turkey plans for 2014. Laying season has come upon some of us already and for others, laying season will be here in a few months to many months down the line. Let's talk about our turkey plans for 2014.

A few things we can discuss could be.

1. Are you prepared for Turkey season for 2014?
2. When do your hens start laying eggs?
3. What breeds do you plan on raising for 2014?
4. What is your current Tom/Hen Ratio?
5. How many poults do you plan on hatching?
6. Did you order any poults from other hatcheries? If so, what hatchery, what breed and how many are you expecting?
7. Are you ordering turkey eggs from someone? If so, how many?
8. Will you be using an incubator to hatch your turkey eggs?
9. Do you want your hens to go broody so that they can hatch eggs?
10. Will you be selling eggs and/or poults?
11. What are your feed plans for 2014? Anyone trying fermented feed for their flock?
12. Do you have your housing ready for your poults and turkeys?
13. How many turkeys will you be processing for your freezer for 2014?
14. What did you do this year that you want to do different next year (2014)?

PLEASE feel free to post ANYTHING you want about your turkeys, to include posting pics of those cute poults and those handsome and beautiful turkeys. Our discussion is not limited to the above topics. Especially for those who need help with hatching, poult problems, etc. No question is a dumb question, so don't be afraid to ask anything. We are all here to learn and we can learn from each other. Regardless if you keep your turkeys for pets or for food. It doesn't matter. Your problem and experience with your eggs, incubating, hatching, brooding, raising poults/adults can help the next person.

We are all turkey lovers and there are A LOT of experienced turkey people on this thread who are more than willing to help. So let's talk turkey!

Click to expand...
That's a lot of questions! Wow 14 questions to start 2014, so curious minds want to know! OK Maybe, December, Hollands, Midgets, Bourbons, Beltsville and Narragensetts, almost 1 to 1 till processing starts, then 1 to 5, As many as God let's me, no, yes, a few dozen, both, if they will, yes , both, lots of foraging, grow as much of my own and high feed bills, no, I don't like wet sloppy feed all over and you guys are not going to like my answer, but wet feed, IMHO, is wet feed. I plan on a 12x14 brooder building and a 12x10 AIRCONDITIONED processing room. and 10 breeding pens. At least 11 by the end of 2013 and a dozen wintered over for 2014 processing. I would have started my brooder and processing buildings sooner. Processing poultry in the summer is just too HOT! OK, Julie your turn's next ?

 

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