A century of Turkey talk 2000-2100.

[sfgwife]

R2elk....now I'm curious to taste a guinea.

That is what i thought too when i first saw him talkin bout it. And we have a friend with two.... that he hates. He has tried and tried talk us out of gettin guineas but the tick control might win them out here. We have heard them screechin at his house and yes while loud it isnt often. Or at least his arent.

 

[OneMountainAcres]

If you are just wanting the birds to eat, the mutt choice will be fine. It is my experience that the crosses often grow faster and get bigger than the pure breeds.

If you end up with pair that you want to breed (not likely that any in the Mutt package will breed true) as long as the tom that you want to breed her to is the only tom that you keep, it does not matter how many other hens there are as to whether she will breed true. But if you are keeping other toms and you want to make sure that she is not being bred to other toms, I would separate them from the rest around the start of February. Here, heavy pre-breeding strutting starts in January with breeding starting in mid February and egg laying beginning in mid March.

Guineas are absolutely delicious. I just cook them the same way I would any other similar sized fowl. An adult standard guinea will dress out at about 2 1/2 lbs. The last one I ate, I stuffed and roasted it. Any time after they are nearly adult sized (about 6 months) is when I process them. Unfortunately I haven't had any spares to eat in a very long time since people just keep buying them. A neighbor made noodle soup with one I gave her and said that her family raved about how flavorful the soup was.

The guinea eggs like turkey eggs are excellent for baking or custards. Two guinea eggs typically equal one chicken egg. One person said he liked the guinea eggs better because the yolk to albumen ratio in a guinea egg is much higher than in a chicken egg. With a guinea egg half the size of a chicken egg, the yolk is still nearly the same size as the chicken egg yolk is. I like them hard boiled and pickled with beets since the hard boiled egg is a nice size to just pop in your mouth.

I got an order from Porter's this year and went with the experimental colors option. Basically a mutt pen. They throw some colors together just to see what the end up with. I had a very unlucky group and lost all but 2 BUT there were a few things that had happened so I'm not blaming Porter's. If you've seen the pictures, my Misty and Pirate were from that order. Misty doesn't really count though since I had said I was hoping for something penciled and they threw her in from the blue penciled palm pen. You could always just breed your favorite birds and hatch out rainbow poults or surprise poults lol

 

[duluthralphie]

I had colors.

I have started mixing them some. My first two turkeys were Rusty Slates, sold to me as blue slates and beings I was dumb and the birds were in such rough condition the feathers were barely there, dirty and bleached from manure I had no idea what they were.

It was after they molted a couple times and I started following turkeys online I realized I did not have blue slates like I thought I had...

BUT I had bought a bunch of blue slates from a breeder. I did breed the slates separately and have pure lines of Slates, and my rusty's kids.

I Bought an order from Porters. He is true to his word on colors. I bought eggs and hatched them. I was not impressed with the confirmation on the birds. The breeder birds were better for that. The mixes are even better faster growing as all hybrids are. May hatches will be small for thanksgiving. I get eggs in mid to late February here. So I have March-April hatches. They are still small. I will tell you the size of my birds Sunday when I weigh their carcasses.

I have a ton of breeding pens. They are not easy to maintain. When trying to keep the breeds true. I have went back to mutts. I am not sure if I will breed any true birds or not next year. I like the looks of the slates, RP and my bronzes, but I like the mixes too.

There are only so many I can keep. Around here mixed birds will sell as well as the breeds. Must people just want a turkey or two for the holidays....And they will buy a 3 dollar TSC bird that gains weight faster and more efficiently than the heritage birds.

For people that want a heritage bird, to me a mutt is still a heritage bird and not a BB... and as R2elk says they grow faster because of hybrid vigor than a pure line. I showed some turkeys last year and really did not enjoy it, like I do chickens so pure lines may just disappear here.


Guinea tastes great. kind of like pheasant but not exactly.


PS... On the turkeys, just remember Porters is the GFF of turkeys he is an excellent marketer. Quality wise it will not matter much where you get them. Colors will be true from Porters.

 

[memphis]

Turkeys are eye candy...I love the intricacy of their feather colors & markings. I have a blue slate & a bourbon red. Compared to some of the birds around here (Pebbles, Mr. T come to mind) mine are a bit boring. Sfgwife, I'd go for a Porters surprise pack in a second! I'd love to add more birds...but I keep talking myself out of it. My two girls are sweet & personable pets and easy for me to manage. Maybe one day I'll take the plunge and add more turkeys. I'd love to have a Tom....I wish Holm would just relent & let me kidnap Mr. T !

 

[memphis]

It's barely after 5 this morning and already 70 degrees. Cold front & storms heading our way. Wind is crazy. Gosh I hate freaky weather like this. Especially the wind.

 

[rjohns39]

Was 70 when I first went out, down to 62 now.

SG, my 10 Red Bronze at 22 weeks yielded 91lbs 12oz, my year old toms came in at 30+ pounds.

 

[R2elk]

It's barely after 5 this morning and already 70 degrees. Cold front & storms heading our way. Wind is crazy. Gosh I hate freaky weather like this. Especially the wind.

Not here, there is an inch of snow on the ground and the temp is 17°F. At least the water in my buried buckets do not have any ice in them.

 

[OneMountainAcres]

It's barely after 5 this morning and already 70 degrees. Cold front & storms heading our way. Wind is crazy. Gosh I hate freaky weather like this. Especially the wind.

Was 70 when I first went out, down to 62 now.

SG, my 10 Red Bronze at 22 weeks yielded 91lbs 12oz, my year old toms came in at 30+ pounds.

60s and 70s! Oh how I wish! I just got up and can hear the rain pounding on the roof. My thermometer days 31° and is usually off by a few degrees (it's probably 28°). I'm NOT looking forward to going out in it to feed the birds OR to drive :/

 

[memphis]

Oh man...nothing worse than cold rain! R2elk...that bucket trick is amazing! It's one of the coolest things I've learned on BYC

By the way....off the turkey subject... this is for R2elk....he's a climber!

 

[duluthralphie]

My Boys might get a day delay before "the day"..Looking at the weather forecast and Monday is better than Sunday by 8 degrees and the sun is shining (for now in the forecast).

Lucky Guys...