backyard turkeys??

[KMoran]

From what I read they take between 24- 30 weeks for a good butcher weight you can grow them longer but I dunno what I would do with a 40 lb bird lol

 

[MamaRoo]

D'ya suppose I could put a turkey chick under my broody silkie and let her take care of the child rearing stuff?

 

[Marengoite]

I can't believe I didn't post this resource earlier. I've printed out a lot of these. If you don't want to burn the printer paper and ink, you can order it from ALBC as well:

http://albc-usa.org/EducationalResources/turkeys.html#manual

This is by far the single best site for finding turkey resources and I apologize for not posting this first. You all will likely spend several hours going through these documents.

 

[ButchGood]

I can't believe I didn't post this resource earlier. I've printed out a lot of these. If you don't want to burn the printer paper and ink, you can order it from ALBC as well:

http://albc-usa.org/EducationalResources/turkeys.html#manual

This is by far the single best site for finding turkey resources and I apologize for not posting this first. You all will likely spend several hours going through these documents.

Thanks, Bookmarked

 

[judsenn]

I can't believe I didn't post this resource earlier. I've printed out a lot of these. If you don't want to burn the printer paper and ink, you can order it from ALBC as well:

http://albc-usa.org/EducationalResources/turkeys.html#manual

This is by far the single best site for finding turkey resources and I apologize for not posting this first. You all will likely spend several hours going through these documents.

Very resourceful site. Thanks for sharing! I have 13 BS turkey eggs in the bator now...hope this hatch goes better than the last.

 

[youngwagon]

Thanks for posting the site, excellent information! Raising 4 BB's now with my 24 chickens.

 

[Marengoite]

Started with 6 BB whites and 6 BRs from Eagle Nest in Oceola. Down to 4 BB whites and 3 BRs, but they are looking good. Here's one of the BB whites trying to strut.

 

[FarmTillURdead]

Adorable!
I lose a few every year. I hatched my own heritage turkeys this year. Around 100 of them. We sustain on poultry and I hatch some extras to sell.… apparently humidity changes can give you an "upside down" chick. I have had a few that can't upright themselves and the only thing it could have been is low 40% - then highish 70% humidity in the incubator. We are going to build a better incubator next year to prevent this. I did best at 55% to 65% humidity and 70-80% for the hatch.
I'm no pro. But I had 100% hatch rates until the humidity got crazy with the changing spring weather - and less focus on the incubator.
I still don't use medicated feeds. Just diatomaceous earth, apple cider vinegar, green tea, and goat milk/keifer. Sure, a few don't make it… but our food is clean. …and addictive. I have become a poultry slave.

 

[Marengoite]

I hear you on the poultry slave business. I'm sorely tempted to bump up production on heritage turkeys. Now that they are all scratching their heads trying to get the fluff off, they seem to be doing fine. This is the first year I started them in an outdoor brooder and I'm thinking that next year, I may just let my BRs hatch naturally. Probably have a higher early mortality, but after the first week or two, they should be ahead of the hatchery birds for vigor.

I'm looking at saving up my pennies (OK, nickles, dimes and quarters too) to get some Regal reds from Kevin Porter. I really like red turkeys and the Regal reds look impressive. I may order some Jersey buffs to fill out the 15 minimum. The heritage birds are a lot more fun to watch than the BB birds that look like fat old men with gout when they walk around.

 

[ButchGood]

My BBB at 3weeks old, well almost, will be on Wen.
These guys have been a breeze to raise so far. At 2 weeks old I took them out of the brooder into a nursery pen in the chicken run. They are pigs. I almost went through a 50 lb sack of turkey feed for 4 turkeys and 11 RIR roo's that came with the turkeys as packing peanuts. My chickens are between 8 and 9 weeks old and the turkeys are almost as big as them. I think I'm going to let them out of the nursery pen this weekend and see how they do in general population. I might even let the 3 week old RIR's out too.