Anyone Else Raise Turkeys in Arizona

[turkeybreeder]

Quote:
what kind of porter turkeys did you get
can you post a picture of them thank you
my uncle lives sandiego how far is it from desert hills
he also wanted to raise turkeys but does not know any turkey breeders
near sandiego i think its call fall brook california

Fallbrook is about 80 miles away. Did you see the pictures of the blue pencled palm posted on Friday? Thats the turkey I bought. Along with a Red Palm, Blue Palm, Royal Palm and a Sweetgrass.

can you post a picture of the red palm and blue palm turkeys and the sweetgrass
and the pencil blue palm also thanks, if you have a chance i would like to see a picture of these turkeys
thanks

 

[OmaBird]

Thats a hard request. I have them banded but it is hard for me to tell what are the new ones other than the penciled blue palm. I have hundereds of turkeys that all run together.

 

[OmaBird]

This has a few pictures. https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=402392

 

[Frosty]

Quote:
Hundreds of turkeys???

That has got to be an impressive sight! I would love to have a colorful flock running loose, but if DH didn't strangle me, the neighbors probably would!

Was it you that said you have 7 months of winter? If it was (and I can identify with that, ours is about that long), do they still find food in the winter or do you have to supplement? And if you do, would your feed bill be something that I would need a second mortgage to afford?

I saw some pictures on Kevins site that showed a colorful flock (and I drool when I see it!), is yours like that? And if so, do you have any pictures from a distance that show them? It would be really awesome to see! I can only imagine what the trees look like when they go to roost...

 

[OmaBird]

Quote:
Hundreds of turkeys???

That has got to be an impressive sight! I would love to have a colorful flock running loose, but if DH didn't strangle me, the neighbors probably would!

Was it you that said you have 7 months of winter? If it was (and I can identify with that, ours is about that long), do they still find food in the winter or do you have to supplement? And if you do, would your feed bill be something that I would need a second mortgage to afford?

I saw some pictures on Kevins site that showed a colorful flock (and I drool when I see it!), is yours like that? And if so, do you have any pictures from a distance that show them? It would be really awesome to see! I can only imagine what the trees look like when they go to roost...

I have alot of land so the closest neighbor is pretty far away. Most of my land has no neighbors as far as you can see. Those that are around me are dog kennels. So they are not going to complain if I don't complain about them.

I don't know how everyone else is that lives in the desert but here is 100% dry lot feed of all animals. There is no pasture for them to eat. The ground is to alkaline for much to grow here. The high desert has joshua trees rather than cactus that you might find in lower altidude. http://www.google.com/images?hl=en&...esult_group&ct=title&resnum=4&ved=0CDEQsAQwAw I can't see any turkeys ever wanting to perch in a joshua tree. I am a horse breeder so we have big barns that the turkey, chickens, geese and ducks go in. We use two large barns for the poultry. We also have pigs, peacocks, and 24 milk goats. The horses alone cost me $60,000 a year to feed and I am simi retired from it. I run about 250 lbs of food a day for the poultry this time a year. It was alot less when they were smaller. I do feed 30% protein to the turkeys that cost $18.99 a 50 pound bag. The ducks and geese get a special food that is $32. a 50 lb bag.

I would love to get everyone in one picture. That would be great to see.

 

[Frosty]

Could you try to get a bunch in one picture? Especially at feeding time... That would be mind blowing! I am assuming that you don't hand carry feed? What kind of feeder set up do you have for that many? Sorry for all of the questions...

I live in ND, so during the summer (short as it is) I am lucky enough that if I turn them out there are plants and grasshoppers for them to eat. And apples, and... If I want any grapes they need to be locked up before the grapes ripen. Not a ton of trees, but shelter belts planted after the dust bowl. Wild turkeys survive year round, but I do put out feed for them and/or pheasants when the snow gets too deep.

I just wish I didn't have close neighbors... I have property but right on the edge of a very small town (like 10 houses in the town) and I had a call once to get my turkeys out of a neighbors garage.

 

[OmaBird]

I use to free range 5,000 chickens. Now that was a site but turkeys are so much cooler. The hardest thing about feeding is getting the geese and ducks to eat there own food and to keep them out of the turkeys food. I don't care if the chickens eat the turkey food. They do fine on it. I try to feed the ducks and geese first thing in the morning so they get filled up. They eat a floating food. You can see it here with my grandson. The little bit of grass is all we have, and I am lucky to have that. The geese now are feed two baby swimming pools. When they are busy then I feed everyone else. Most of my feeders are up high where the geese can't chow down, but I do have to put some down low for the young turkeys. Someday I will have apples, pears and plums for them to eat. I planted 100 apple trees that I had grafted. They are standard trees so I won't have fruit for about 5 more years. Right now they don't even know I have trees. They do like the shade from the native junipers. They would never eat it though. None of my turkeys or animals have ever visited the neighbors. But my neighbors dogs have visited us. I have never had any complaints. I think we all have enough land to have a nice distance from each other.

 

[OmaBird]

I am going to work on getting a picture of the whole gang. I tried today and it didn't work. Maybe with my husbands help we can round up most of them. They just go all over the place. The boys start fighting and the girls hide. I took one picture to show some of the colors. Thats as many as I could get in one area.

 

[Frosty]

Beautiful and very colorful mix! Do you have that many year round or does the population drop substantially around the holidays?

 

[OmaBird]

I raise them just for our enjoyment. I like to find new colors. I do not sell them or eat them. I am not against eating them, but my husband thinks of them as his pets and he gets sad. We have not butchered any in a few years.