A century of Turkey talk 2000-2100.

[R2elk]

Yours is a smart one!

Not smart enough. She brought her young of the year back with her. I don't mind the wild hens but do not want the wild toms messing with my breeding stock. I bought a couple of turkey licenses and shot her young boys.

 

[Molpet]

Stupid owl took out the biggest tom, the breeder. She must be an extremely big owl to take him out. Just ate part of the neck.
There's 30 smaller turkeys out there that will not go in the coops. 2 hens go in most nights.
I have a feeling the feed bill is going to go way down before this owl leaves.

I'm able to salvage most of the meat. She must grab the neck because there's no talon's holes in the meat

 

[I Like Turkeys]

Today was chaotic. Started the morning cleaning the chicken coop to look out and see two of my turkeys mating. the female was one of my chocolates, so I got her penned up with the others to be safe, and slightly unrelated to turkeys, sold two chickens to a relative. Actually related to turkeys, I walked back into my farm to see two more turkeys mating. Royal palm or calico tom and black hen. My top tom “Jack” (black tom) chased off the other guy, but the female stood up when he tried to mount her. I penned them up in a temporary coop for now. Seems breeding season will be here quicker than I expected.

 

[I Like Turkeys]

Here’s my two chocolate toms in their new enclosure. On the left is the older tom “cocoa puff”, definitely has wing barring. On the right is my jake from Mcmurray, “Kitkat”. He’s much darker than the others, hens included, and doesn’t appear to have definitive barring on his wings. I still feel I see a stripe or two on his upper feathers though. He’s kind of a skinny guy too. If they end up fighting I assume Cocoa puff will win, due to age and size.

 

[R2elk]

 

[OneMountainAcres]

Didn't Memphis have family in New Orleans and go there fairly often? For some reason, I keep thinking that. The kids had their band/ chorus concert tonight and they played this, New Orleans Jazz Funeral. It was really neat. DD plays flute and is near impossible to see but DS is one of the soloists up front (clarinet).

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?st...zqauB52MDl&id=100000809582857&mibextid=Nif5oz

 

[Bantambird]

Didn't Memphis have family in New Orleans and go there fairly often? For some reason, I keep thinking that. The kids had their band/ chorus concert tonight and they played this, New Orleans Jazz Funeral. It was really neat. DD plays flute and is near impossible to see but DS is one of the soloists up front (clarinet).

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?st...zqauB52MDl&id=100000809582857&mibextid=Nif5oz

i still wonder what happened to her turkey girls.

 

[OneMountainAcres]

i still wonder what happened to her turkey girls.

So do I. I'm hoping that one of the neighbors with kids adopted them.

 

[debsfrontporch]

Turkey varieties have similar dispositions, really, but there is a big difference between heritage body types and broad breasted body types. If you want pet turkeys, this works best with turkey hens. Getting snuggly with the young jakes can backfire if he decides that humans are turkeys and starts treating you like a turkey! Hens and jennies are just fine to make pets, however. They are wonderful lap turkeys and can be snuggly hand warmers in the winter. Broad breasted turkeys, due to intensive breeding in the meat industry (to their detriment, I say) generally have tons of growth problems. They get big so fast that often their bones can't keep up. THey can snap an ankle pretty fast even jumping down a foot. Generally broad breasted turkeys go downhill once they have reached the target butchering age. Industry standard has them set for slaughter starting at 4 months of age, because consumer markets these days want trim, lower fat carcasses and turkeys start putting on their under skin fat layer around 5 to 6 months old. Many broad breasted turkeys do not make it to their first birthday.
On the other hand, heritage type turkeys share many characteristics with their wild brethren in shape and demeanor. They require lots of space to be happy, and hens can fly pretty well, considering they are, on average, between 10-15 lbs for the average heritage hen. Mine tap dance across my hay barn roof pretty often, and once i caught one on my house roof, which is an old split level house. Heritage turkeys kept too close together in confinement will pick and possibly kill each other and any birds with them, so be sure you have the space. 2 acres sounds quite reasonable for a small flock of heritage turkeys. Once you have them established and they know where to stay at night, they should always come back home. they tend to stay best as long as you keep food and water, but hens love leaving to go make their nests somewhere they feel safe. This can include just about anywhere a turkey hen can fit, as long as you can't see it.
There are plenty more things about turkeys to say, but this is my contrtibution!
good luck with the turkeys!

 

[debsfrontporch]

Thank you for this information! I've had the broad breasted turkeys before and they didn't live very long after they reached about 5 months because of the issues caused by their weight. It broke my heart because I am not interested in "meat" birds. I want them to be the family pets. So it's nice to have found your post with such good information.