Best turkey to get?

[antlers]

Quote:
thanks

guess it to late to clip the wings now there 8 months old
HAVE TO DO IT TO THE NEXT PATCH OF BABYS

at what age do you clip within the first few days old , will they bleed , and if so how to stop it


thanks
AL

Try here. Way down on the page. \\

http://www.ducksworld.com/resources.htm

Never had bleeding but you ahve to watch for a few days that others dont peck everyone . I use a toe nail clipper. Personally I think it is easier on the bird to do this once that haveing to catch em 3-4 times a year to cut feathers.

 

[DaKid]

antlers
thanks again for the infor and link

fun how just the tip of the wing is cut off and they can fly

again Thanks

AL.

 

[sandspoultry]

Quote:
The weights are for mature tom's a year old. We have used two feeding methods depending on what we wanted the birds for. When we were doing Thanksgiving birds we did

12 weeks 28% game bird starter
8 to 12 weeks 20% chick starter (the longer time for the heavy breeds)
18% grow and finish to proccessing time
All the greens we could give them and whole corn lightly broadcast in the afternoon (about what they could eat in 5 or 10 minutes- not enough to fill the crop)

For our own use and breeders
12 weeks 28%
6 -10 weeks 20%
then out with the flock to forage and 16% layer free choice. They have large areas to forage so they get plenty of bugs etc.
once again plently of greens and corn in the afternoon.

Our last years Thanksgiving bird was a 18 month old Midget White and our guests are still raving about the taste and tenderness of the bird.

Steve in NC

 

[chickenannie]

Steve,
Thanks so much for the info! Very helpful. This is my first year raising turkeys and I'm on a learning curve for sure!

Do you have any recipes or cooking times for doing the older birds to make them tender? I'd like to let my customers know how to prepare them to be nice and tender...

 

[Cason]

Do you normally process turkeys at a year and a half old? (18 months) ????

 

[chickenannie]

Cason,
Most all commercial turkeys (Broad-Breasted White Turkeys) are processed at about 4 months.

Heritage birds tend to be processed around 6-9 months, but I'm learning that they can also be delicious at older ages. They have to be slow-cooked because they are an entirely different bird than the typical BBWT that you buy at the store.

 

[chickenannie]

Quote:
I clip the wing FEATHERS, not the actual bone joint!
It has to be redone every 6 weeks, but it prevents them from flying. By the way, I only clip feathers on one side because that is all that is necessary.

 

[sandspoultry]

Quote:
We just cook them like any other turkey, in a big roaster pan in the oven. make sure you have ample water in the pan, basting often and do a shorter browning time at the end. Also, if you cook by the temp of the bird, we take ours out of the oven about 165-ish. When you take it out the bird is still cooking and the temp will continue to rise to the "magic" 185 temp. If you take it out at 185 the temp will go higher and that makes for a dry bird. That is the biggest thing is don't over cook.

We like the turkey flavor so we brush with melted "real" butter, lightly salt, pepper, paprika, sage. Chop fresh garlic and onions in the pan to mix with the juice, and a bay leaf or two. and 2 apples- granny smith's work well for the tart apple taste. Peel and cut into pieces put one inside the bird the other in the basting water.

We normally don't stuff the bird as it adds extra cooking time.

Steve in NC

 

[sandspoultry]

Quote:
And older. We raise quite a few turkeys and we rotate breeders every 2 years. Turkey fertility drops about 50% by the 3rd year so it's out with the old and in with the new. For example this year we are growing out White Hollands so right now we have the older breeders which are about 2 years old plus about 12 to 15 young toms and about the same number of hens all in the 6 to 8 month old range. We will grow them out thru the rest of the fall and winter and keep the best of the best for new breeders. In the spring we usually sell some of the culls but the market for white feathered turkeys isn't that great in our area so they will go into the freezer. In the spring people are looking more for poults than adults.

Since we don't have that much freezer space those birds are usually cut up. We just skin them, take the breast and leg 1/4's and freeze and take the wing meat, debone and save for turkey sausage.

We do the breasts on the grill or oven and cook the leg 1/4s in a dutch oven.

Steve in NC

 

[wendy]

I have a subscription to Hobby Farms magazine and they did a blind taste test on Turkeys with 70 food professionals and chefs. They included all kind of turkeys - even a butterball from the grocery store ! They were not named only numbered on the taste test and the overall winner was : Midget White and second was Bourbon Red. These two recieved twice as many votes as everyone else. (this is from the Nov/Dec 2008 issue, that I got this week in the mail) They also have another great article on Turkeys in there, Poultry Pilgrimage. This is the best magazine I have found by the way and I have had alot, won't name the others but they were all about animals and farms and gardening, etc.

Wendy