first time with meat turkeys! just a few questions.

[ivan3]

Big Dan wrote: have been wanting to weigh them but i haven't seen a scale that seems like it would work that well so I don't know what to get and I don't want to pay top dollar to order onone online. I read a post awhile back and somebody said their 6 week turkeys weighed 2.5 lbs. Is that what they should weigh? I want to get these things big for the holidays. Thanks for the help!

Some info. from a small producer on wt., etc.: http://www.norbest.com/about-norbest/agricultural-facts/raising-turkeys/

An old, cheap, bathroom scale will do. Weigh yourself, pick up turk, weigh again, subtract, record. Accuracy of `wt.' isn't so important as the change (increase) in wt. per wk. This can be compared against other references (slower or faster?) and you can also make prediction on how much turks will probably weigh X weeks (holidays) from your first observations.

ed:sp

 

[Big Dan]

Holy cow! I didn't even think of that. I a,m going to be weighing all them tomorrow. Thanks for the link too! I hope these guys keep along schedule. These are my first meat turkeys.

 

[ivan3]

Chart the percentage increases...

Don't think you''ll have any problem meeting the `schedule'. So long as they aren't stressed by their own anatomical limitations, preds or lack of clean water/bedding (prone to breast blisters when they really start packing on the wt.), I'd guess your turks will have been in the fridge a while when the holidays roll around.

If they are only occasionally squirting semi-liquid droppings (interspersed with the usual `two-toned' well formed `golf balls'), I'd only worry about where I walked... when out taking care of them.

 

[Big Dan]

I am going to start tracking their percentages. For the most part the poop looks normal I just notice everyday that I can see a runny poop. They have clean water and food available all day. They have meat bird 22% because that's the highest protein I can find in my area. I also leave them out rolled oats and corn chop to try and boost their protein a little bit. We don't have any issue with predators here. They have met the .357 guard dog and pretty ,much leave our stuff alone. Should I butcher the turks when they hit a certain age or wait till they hit a huge weight. I have about 20 people we host on those holidays and that's why I want a bug birds