A century of Turkey talk 2000-2100.

[memphis]

Anne, your making me miss my girls talking about turkey supervised breakfast. I'm in Ste. Genevieve again, attending the annual History Conference. Ok, may be a bit of a nerd...but one of the papers being presented is the results of an archeological dig on one of our historic houses. Exciting, huh?? Needless to say I'm missing my morning cup of coffee enjoyed in the company of my turkeys.
Rjohns....why are you mixing feed vs buying a bag? I may have missed your reason. I commend you. I'm too lazy to try & mix my own.

 

[memphis]

Ok Flashpoint....here is my "house turkey" story.....
Last summer I had a broken arm. Was unloading groceries, with the one working arm. Had the backdoor propped open. All birds were in their yard. Wrapped up, headed back to my bedroom but kept hearing something. Upon investigation, found this sneak!!

 

[rjohns39]

Anne, your making me miss my girls talking about turkey supervised breakfast. I'm in Ste. Genevieve again, attending the annual History Conference. Ok, may be a bit of a nerd...but one of the papers being presented is the results of an archeological dig on one of our historic houses. Exciting, huh?? Needless to say I'm missing my morning cup of coffee enjoyed in the company of my turkeys.
Rjohns....why are you mixing feed vs buying a bag? I may have missed your reason. I commend you. I'm too lazy to try & mix my own.

Minimum order for custom blend is a Ton. With the exception of layer, I can't use a ton in a reasonable amount of time. So I make the specialty stuff in 50 pound batches.

 

[Mama Runner]

Ok, so here they are drum roll pleaseMy Dinner and Yumyum

 

[Mama Runner]

Dinner is a mess! But after all he does beat up snakes, dogs hyper active children and Hawks. So he gets to slide on his looks. Most everyone that visit more than once has asked us to put him away. He doesn't like anyone but his family and I fear he will protect us all to the death. And when Rob my brother comes we have to have him sit outside and bring his prosthetic legs in. Dinner thinks that they are attacking my brother so he attacks them. He is just so cool. We got him to have for Thanksgiving but that is just never going to happen. He has become a permanent part of the family and everyones favorite.
Even the people who attend Church next door on Sunday love Dinner. He will sit on the fence post on Sunday morning and Wensday Evening. Though youd better not come on my side of the fence

 

[Flashpoint]

Back in my feeds and feeding class we got to play with some cool programs for formulating feed. We all had to make a chick starter and every group was assigned 12 chicks that were laboratory housed and we were to meet all their feed requirements cheaply and effectively. We had to do it by hand though. All of our chicks died from a virus so we never got to see whose group did best production-wise.

Also wish I still had my textbooks from that class now that I'm looking at making my own feeds one day. Oh well, there's always the internet now

Btw I studied Animal Sciences. Have had my hand up a cow or two...

Sorry you were not able to finish the experiment on requirements. That would have been interesting to see the different results.

I always thought I would grow up to be a veterinarian and did work for three. Ended up in Justice Studies and did a good amount of "legal work" instead.

But, yes, I have been up to my shoulders turning calves, foals, and goat kids. Even had to go inside a bantam silkie to retrieve large bits of a broken egg. She lived on for several more years, but never laid again. She did raise a bunch of chicks for me over the years.

 

[Flashpoint]

Ok Flashpoint....here is my "house turkey" story.....
Last summer I had a broken arm. Was unloading groceries, with the one working arm. Had the backdoor propped open. All birds were in their yard. Wrapped up, headed back to my bedroom but kept hearing something. Upon investigation, found this sneak!! View attachment 1143329

I haven't had a house turkey since I raised my four in the brooder in the living room. They do follow me to the door, but so far haven't ventured inside. Probably because I have managed to shut the door on them before they can. lol

Which one is this sitting on the table?

 

[Flashpoint]

I just feed an 18% chicken grower to everyone year round. Works fine.

And that may be what I end up doing this winter. The chicken grower I can get is 19%. Just not sure 19% is a good protein amount for Tommie since he is apparently half BB and I don't want him to gain a bunch of weight.

 

[Flashpoint]

Scratch was never meant to be a feed. It is meant as a treat thrown on the ground to get the poultry scratching around on the ground and in the process picking up grit. My opinion is that using scratch to cut the protein percentage is not ideal. You are mixing in a low protein, high fat item that probably exceeds the recommended no more than 10% of the total diet for treats.

I just did a quick search for homemade feed recipes and found lots and lots of recommendations that I would not feed to my poultry. Good luck.

I do put out scratch in pans for all the birds (or did before I downsized chicken numbers). The turkeys have little to no interest in it.

The scratch I get is not whole grain, but is a coarse grind of corn, wheat, and barley at 10.5% protein - which is 2% over any of the commercial brands sold in this area. Most of the commercial scratch around here is either a 2 grain mix - or a 4 grain mix including milo as one of the grains. Both of those mixes state 8.5% protein.

The big difference in the grower mix I get is it includes soybeans but no barley and, of course, has the added minerals and vitamin supplement which includes everything needed for the turkeys.

What kind of blend/feed mix do you recommend or use?

 

[R2elk]

And that may be what I end up doing this winter. The chicken grower I can get is 19%. Just not sure 19% is a good protein amount for Tommie since he is apparently half BB and I don't want him to gain a bunch of weight.

I would not worry about the % protein for a mature bird. I would want to make sure that BB types get lots of exercise. When I did raise BB turkeys I started them the same as I do the heritage turkeys which is on a 28% protein turkey/gamebird starter and then switched them to a 24% protein turkey/gamebird grower. Once they are mature they get the same feed as the chickens which is a 16% protein layer pellets. Mine did free range and I did not have the issues that many people write about concerning BB turkeys. My turkeys got lots of exercise and currently mine also get all the Russian Olives they can forage for.