Bronze heritage turkey or BBB?

[10ducks]

Quote:
What do you mean about wanting them to eat feed and greens for flavor? As opposed to free-ranging? I sort of thought that the varied diet they get when free-ranging was supposed to make for better-flavored meat, but I don't know much about turkeys!

 

[goldenluver]

free ranging is good too. I've been feeding them alot of human foods lately so I want to make sure they don't taste like chilli or beans or some other greasy meat dish that they've been feasting on lately.

 

[moetrout]

I hear ya there! Mine is like a hungry dog. Always ready for table scraps. Does anyone ever use some type of sweet feed to finish them off? I know my dad use to do that for the beef cattle he raised and just wonder if it would work on turkeys too?

 

[longranger]

Sweet feed puts some extra fat on the turkey. Flavor however is maximized by a diverse diet including a variety of foods including greens, insects and yes table scraps. The flavor is acquired over the life of the bird so a week or two of any one particular diet does not do much to flavor. There may be some foods you want to avoid near maturity but I have not encountered them yet.

 

[moetrout]

I dug up this old post because I think I was originally right in my accessment that I have a broad breasted bronze and not a standard bronze. My turkey has not been able to get up and walk for the last 2 days. He's a big fat ba$tard! I need to send him off to camp, but with the darn cold snap we're supposed to be getting that will not be a pleasant or easy task. I've never butchered a turkey before. I did chickens as a kid with my dad, but it's not like I did the hard stuff. I hunt and have cleaned plenty of game, but never a turkey and never anything bigger than a pheasant. Any words of wisdom before I off this bird?

 

[turkaholic]

Butchering a big bird like that is not easy or fun, but if you have a .22, one shot to the back of the head will put him down quick. Just let him stop flopping before you proceed to hang and bleed him. Maybe others on here that are more familiar with the large breeds can help. Good Luck.

 

[moetrout]

I was planning on using the .22 pistol (pistol is just easier to handle with one hand). Do you bleed out turkeys? We never did with the chickens, but they are done so fast it wouldn't make sense to. I worked 2 summers in the family slaughter house doing cows, pigs, and sheep. We always bled those out.

I am not looking forward to it. This guy didn't get eaten for T-day because he became a pet, but now that he can't walk I say he is food. It would be a terrible waste to put him out of his misery and just bury him. I had also planned on keeping any feathers he dropped because I had the crazy idea to make my own turkey decoy for hunting. Now it looks like I get all the feathers I need at once.

I am thinking with the cold weather coming up that I will put him down and then do the rest of the work in the garage so I don't freeze my hands off.

 

[Dogfish]

Moe, take a look at this link. It shows how I used a ladder & pulley system to process a large BBB tom.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=423530

 

[moetrout]

Thanks for the idea! I've decided to off him with the .22 pistol, then take him into the garage where I already have a pulley setup. I forgot about this, I had it all setup from a deer I shot one year. I am really only dreading the one shot and then the feather plucking. Everything else is no big deal for me. I hope to brine and smoke some of the meat before roasting. We done some store bought whole chickens that way and they were great!

 

[jasonm11]

I have one I need to dispatch Saturday. No gun in the house, gonna have to do him in with a knife. I am not looking forward to this, he will be my first.