Farming and Homesteading Heritage Poultry

[Arielle]

I hatched my first turkeys out two years old. Right now, I have two lilacs and one white holland. My son has been showing all of them for the last two years. My goal is to raise atleast 4 to 6 to put in the freeze this year.

Very pretty!!! Is it your six year old that shows the turkeys??? They can be a handful at times, but generally pretty easy for such a large bird. My ten year old can carry one, but hates when a wing is not sufficiently contained and the tom starts flapping and hits him with the wing. It can hurt. Teaches persistence and technique!!. lol

 

[stonykill]

I hatched my first turkeys out two years old. Right now, I have two lilacs and one white holland. My son has been showing all of them for the last two years. My goal is to raise atleast 4 to 6 to put in the freeze this year.

somehow I missed this post. Fantastic looking birds. Do they brood?

 

[Arielle]

Are there any special requirements for turkeys? Does anyone clip wings to keep them around? I know that wild turkeys roost in trees, how about captive turkeys? How do you catch them when you're ready to eat them? Shotgun?

I haven't talked my wife into turkeys yet, but one day...

MIne roost on top of coops and top of the wood rack supports. DH has a technique of holding up a 1 x 3 and the young 5 month turkeys step onto it so he can put them in a safer coop. The older ones( 1 1/2 yr old bourbon red toms) go to the lowest point like the wood rack. Generaly we know their schedule and round them up before they go to roost to put them in a safe coop. THe heavy older birds do not fly a lot, so I do not clip their wings. THey stay fairily close to the house, mostly where ever I am ( I hatched them and I think they imprinted on me) THey travel around in a little group. Get harrassed by the muscovy drake who chases them and pulls out their tail feathers. Mingles among the chickens. Mine come running, if you could call it that, lol, more of a race walk, when I throw out corn.

Wild turkeys come to visit and leave when it suits them. Mine stay home. Wild turkeys are GREAT fliers, and thier walk is agile; my birds walk like an old man compared to the wild birds who can run swiftly. ( We have lots of wild turkey for hunting in this area.)

I like the turkeys as they are like a big ole dog.

I do keep a quad of Bourbon Red in a separate coop to prevent fighting among all the males. One tom, THomas Edison, and four hens.

We are building a new set up further off into the woods to give them more room and move them away from the main house. THis will house the Porters stock and divide them into breeding pens. I do like the AUburns. Much larger than all my others. THe Sweetgrass are rather pretty. As is the Bourbon REds.

 

[stonykill]

MIne roost on top of coops and top of the wood rack supports. DH has a technique of holding up a 1 x 3 and the young 5 month turkeys step onto it so he can put them in a safer coop. The older ones( 1 1/2 yr old bourbon red toms) go to the lowest point like the wood rack. Generaly we know their schedule and round them up before they go to roost to put them in a safe coop. THe heavy older birds do not fly a lot, so I do not clip their wings. THey stay fairily close to the house, mostly where ever I am ( I hatched them and I think they imprinted on me) THey travel around in a little group. Get harrassed by the muscovy drake who chases them and pulls out their tail feathers. Mingles among the chickens. Mine come running, if you could call it that, lol, more of a race walk, when I throw out corn.

Wild turkeys come to visit and leave when it suits them. Mine stay home. Wild turkeys are GREAT fliers, and thier walk is agile; my birds walk like an old man compared to the wild birds who can run swiftly. ( We have lots of wild turkey for hunting in this area.)

I like the turkeys as they are like a big ole dog.

I do keep a quad of Bourbon Red in a separate coop to prevent fighting among all the males. One tom, THomas Edison, and four hens.

We are building a new set up further off into the woods to give them more room and move them away from the main house. THis will house the Porters stock and divide them into breeding pens. I do like the AUburns. Much larger than all my others. THe Sweetgrass are rather pretty. As is the Bourbon REds.

do your Bourbon Reds brood? Or do you incubate the eggs?

 

[gjensen]

THe chickens have certainly eaten up the grass on our "lawn". THey seem to prefer a certain height to the grass as well, WHen it was 6-8 inches high, they didn't enter . When I finally mowed it down to 4 inches, then I saw them in all the time. ANd of course the horses and sheep like that grass too. I can't remember the mix now, just a commercial lawn mix.

I think the chickens like low vegetation to travel over and they also like the wooded area where there is no under story, just old leaves, clumps of ferns, that sort of thing.

THis has become quite the challenge.

If I could grow fescue or something similar, I would. It does not do well on my place. That is a good grass. Just doesn't handle our summers and soil well. You can get it going, but you lose a lot of ground in the summer. It is not worth the trouble.

Here Bahia is dominant and is not bad when it is first coming up. In a couple weeks the grass itself is not worth much. It does put out a lot of seed from it's annoying seed heads, and the birds eat their share of the seed.

Even with the Bahia, Bermuda etc., if that is all they had, they would eat their share. They sample it here and there, but search out the misc. that is here and there. They are good weeders, because with our grass, they eat the weeds first.

I enjoy playing with this stuff. The birds are certainly healthier by being allowed to range.

 

[Arielle]

@stonykill-- I take all the eggs for incubating.

 

[Arielle]

At this point much of my grasses has come from first cut hay grown in NY and Canada. I though the bales to the sheep and the seed falls to the ground. Buying grass seed would be cheaper.

 

[fowlsessed]

just following the thread.

 

[stonykill]

@stonykill-- I take all the eggs for incubating.

I didn't see this. If you still want eggs pm me

 

[Arielle]

Quote: llol, I think I was commenting that I don't leave eggs with the hens, rather I use an incubator. BUt you never know I may take you up on your offer.

I've been processing today. I do it alone, and can take the time to look the carcasses over. For the effort just to process I sure would like to get more meat. And the cost of feed, too, of course. I also think I need to have only a few breeder birds thru the winter a ka pare down my numbers of breeds. Hatchery egg layers don't make a nice roast but they do make a good stew. Would rather have more muscle.

I'm learning!!