First Gobble / Show & Tell

[TurkeyOutlaw]

We love our turkeys! DBF told me yesterday that he thinks he is going to cry when he has to kill our turkeys. Oh boy. I may have to put on my "big-girl britches" and do it myself.

He did the deed at Gospel Flat Farm last thanksgiving, but that was different. It wasn't our turkey that we raised from a poult. Anyway, we will sort all those particulars out, as we have with the meat chickens. We feel like we can give them a happy life, and that motivates us to get through the difficult parts.

http://gospelflatfarm.com/

Thanks very much to the Murch Family at Gospel Flat Farm for teaching us how to process turkeys, and providing us with the best tasting turkey EVER. Thanks, also, to all you good turkey-folks on BYC, who have shared a ton of education and experience through the forum.

Here's Lemmy standing tall, shortly after his first Gobble:

Here are Lemmy and Lux:


Here's Peter Steele, my little chocolate guy:

Check out those soulful eyes:

I guess you could interepret this look as either "soulful" or completely silly.

Here's the turkey-shanty that DBF built out of pallets, doors, and recycled roofing material:


Here's my goofball turkey, Layne Staley:


We clipped wings last weekend. It was a non-event, thanks to this video from YouTube:

We raised Layne Staley and Peter Steele from day-old poults. Lemmy & Lux were raised by a real turkey mom, and they seem like better turkeys for it.

This is very premature, but I would love to know what kind of babies we might get if we held back the Lavender tom and the chocolate hen (if Peter Steele turns out to be a girl)....

 

[harriedhomemaker]

How old are your birds? They are lovely. Ours are destined to be Thanksgiving and at the moment I don't think I'll have a hard time with that. We shall see when the day comes!

 

[Scottingitup]

Just a suggestion - don't name them or name them "thanksgiving" and "christmas". It is harder to form an attachment without names or names related to what they are being raised for.

 

[TurkeyOutlaw]

They're about 8 weeks old. I wanted to name them sweet-potato, stuffing, pumpkin, and holiday! I will insist on food related names next time.

Lately I've been calling them all "turkey", and I think that helps.

 

[ButchGood]

I have 4 BBB. 2 toms and 2 hens. They were 9 weeks old Wednesday. No Gobbles yet. I was calling them Christmas, Thanksgiving, ect., But they are all Turkey now except the biggest tom I call LunchBox. I'm free ranging these guys trying to keep their weight down until Nov. They are pigs.I think they'll eat a 30 lb feeder empty in a day if you let them. Turkeys are cool. I really like raising them, so much so I'm going to get a breeding trio next spring of a heritage breed.

 

[frank53061]

I agree Turkeys are pigs with feathers my Red bourbon Turkeys are eating a lot there over 12 weeks old and growing like weeds and are so funny.
They will not gobble right now unless something gets them excited for insentience my Dachshund ran up to the fence and barked and the turkeys gobbled and went back and forth for about 5 minutes LOL.

 

[harriedhomemaker]

They're about 8 weeks old. I wanted to name them sweet-potato, stuffing, pumpkin, and holiday! I will insist on food related names next time.

Lately I've been calling them all "turkey", and I think that helps.

Mine are 5 1/2-6 weeks old. I named them Giblets, Gravy, Stuffing and Cranberry Sauce, but my oldest insisted on Flappers, Peckers, Dastardly, and Sheila!

 

[chicken pickin]

I also definitely would NOT give them names at all not even a nickname I wont even do thanksgiving or christmas becasue it still identifies them. My mom wanted me to name then something like cranberry and stuffing I said no way dont even get that into the kids heads then she wanted me to tag them like an orange band for the thanksgiving turkey and blue for the christmas turkey. NOPE not duing it. They are the turkeys either one will be fine for either dinner. I feed them give them water they have a shelter I built them and a fenced area. Though I do talk to them and handle them because I want them to have a decent life before they provide us with dinner. But I remember they are not pets. NO NAMES LOL.

 

[TurkeyOutlaw]

Okay, DBF and I had a talk over the weekend. Turkeys still have names, but we changed them around a bit:
Lemmy is now Lemon.
Lux is now Lettuce.
Peter Steele is now Sweet Potato.
And Layne Staley is now Brown Gravy. I like the way Layne Staley-Brown Gravy rolls off my tongue. HAHA. No disrespect to Layne Staley (the person), may he rest in peace.

We will still pet them and talk to them because it reduces stress on processing day, but this is really helping us remember their purpose. We will also be less tempted to hold any of them back for breeding. I don't think we are ready to have turks. year round.