Give me the dirt on turkeys

[Stonebriar Farm]

can Beltsville White reproduce naturally? Because there is only 2 of us at home now I would really like a few smaller turkeys.

Heritage turkeys around here are $11/per poult which I find expensive and it makes me feel a bit uneasy raising an endangered breed just to slaughter in the fall. I'm thinking it might be good to have a few to breed. What are the up and down sides of breeding turkeys? Does anyone else feel funny about having rare breeds just too eat? For some reason that I don't quite understand it makes me a bit uneasy.

 

[sandspoultry]

Quote:
Yes the Beltsville White can reproduce naturally, they are actually the best laying of all our breeds.

Steve in NC

 

[Stonebriar Farm]

Thanks Steve! Now I have a confession - My Mum is sending all of us "kids" a CD of family pictures for Christmas, when it comes I'm going to use one as an Avatar. It is a pic of me at about 3 years-old running away from my Gran's turkeys. I was terrified of them

Well I'm a lot older (and taller BTW) now but still a bit afraid of turkeys if you can believe it LOL. What are the personalities of the Beltsville Whites like? Are they nice or will they try to bully you? My Grandma's turkeys were kinda not nice. But then again many of the tom's weighted more than I did at the time.

Thanks so much.

 

[shelleyd2008]

That's one thing I worry about with getting turkeys. I am getting a pair of blue slates from a BYCer, and another slate hen from a different BYCer next month, and I kind of wonder about the 'fear factor!! I know my friend's dad had 3 toms that I'm not sure of the breeds, and they would try to get us all the time. It was a good thing they didn't move very fast!

 

[chickenannie]

Quote:
You can also sell live birds as pets. I get lots of inquiries about that.
Raise a bunch more than you want to eat.

 

[NightHeronFarm]

Compared to chickens, how quiet/noisy are the females?

 

[shelleyd2008]

Quote:
You can also sell live birds as pets. I get lots of inquiries about that.
Raise a bunch more than you want to eat.

Who would want a pet turkey??

 

[pdpatch]

Quote:
Depends on the turkey. We had one BB bronze female that was making noise all the time. The one Burboun Red female we kept is very quite.

Tom

 

[sandspoultry]

Quote:
Of the breeds that we have the Beltsville's are the most standoffish, The Bourbons and Standard Bronze are the most curious (to the point of being a pest) The Midgets are curious but not in your face like the BR's or Bronze. The Hollands are pretty friendly but will keep their distance the Royal Palms about like the hollands.

In all the years we have raised turkeys we have only ever had on agressive tom and he was a huge Royal Palm. He was mean as a snake, you didn't want to turn your back on him. The strange thing was he turned all the sudden, he would eat out your hand and strut all around you and then he turned aggressive. He was one we bought so we didn't hand raise him so maybe that was it?

If you hand raise them they can be just a people friendly as you want them to be. One thing to remember though is that cute little poult that sits in your lap will grow to be a 20, 30 40 pound tom that might like to do the same thing. When they are full grown they are large powerful birds, not trying to scare anybody thinking about getting turkeys but something to remember.

Steve in NC

 

[sandspoultry]

Quote:
The hens will yelp but it's not any more noisy than a rooster crowing.

Steve in NC