Give me the dirt on turkeys

[ScoobyRoo]

LovinMyHensInNC! :

Thanks for the info! I will make a point of waking up early one morning

. They are Royal Palm turkeys.

Did they ever come back home??

BTW​

 

[ivan3]

chicken women wrote: Wanting to get some turkeys for our ranch to help keep down rattlesnakes. Someone told us they will keep rattlesnake population down is that true ?

Well, the reason I got the shots of the Rat Snake below was owing to our Slate Hen circling and harrassing it for over five minutes. When both the Royal hen and Slate hen were working their `tag team' velociraptor schtick smaller snakes were killed before we could intervene (like the snakes being around).

Google: Rattlesnakes By Laurence Monroe Klauber, then go into the google book results: `Turn' to page 1089 in the Chapter `Enemies of Rattlesnakes'. Plenty of anecdotal info. on turkeys vs. rattlesnakes.​

 

[MichiganWoods]

Wow. What did my husband get me into with these?

Just a few quick questions to get me off in the right direction for my info hunt.

Since our main goal is going to be meat (Thanksgiving, Christmas etc.), and I don't think I can squeeze in a huge run for these guys (and also because we don't have a garage to hide our cars in!), I'll probably be wanting the ones that just sit around in their coop all day. DH and most of the family prefer light meat. I'm the only one that really stakes out my claim on the drumsticks around the holidays. Not that I ever have any competition, but I always give fair warning to everyone that they'd better steer clear of my nom noms!!

With that in mind, and also taking into consideration that we'll only want maybe 3 of these max, what breed should we be looking at?

 

[ivan3]

I think the pertinent question (other than taste) would be how big is the freezer/oven?

Broad Breasted Bronze and Whites can push 50Lb. (but they don't get far from the feed and, in general, are more passive than the Heritage breeds).

Bourbon Reds and Slates will be ready in ~7mo. (18-25lb. maybe a bit more), but the Broad Breasteds are the CornishX of the turkey world and can go into the 30Lb.+ in three to four months.

Get only jakes or jennys (much better behavior, overall, if only one sex) or sell one or the other.

 

[MichiganWoods]

Wow. Well, I have a chest freezer that will hold around 225lbs of food. My oven on the other hand... We've got our propane stove with a turkey roasting pan that would probably hold max a 25lb bird, unless I pulled out the aluminum foil to compensate for the extra height. I can always borrow my mom's actual turkey roaster. It's a counter top device that you just plug into a socket. Always cooks fantastic birds. That one could probably handle a 35lb'r.

As per taste, how do they vary? We've never had anything other than the boring old store bought turkeys.

From the looks of it, it's the Broad Breasted that we want.

 

[ivan3]

We think the heritage turks (at least the Slates - order from a friend who raises them for the table) have more flavor but, I'd guess that BBB's given some free range time would be far better than a frozen Butterball. BB's would require less time and effort overall.

 

[robot rooster]

What if you wanted to Organiclly feed them, could you?

 

[ivan3]

They really require 28-30% protein feed when they are little guys.

Here is a meat turkey thread with a feed `recipe'. You can use the search function to find more info. (we are more interested in turkey behavior, and not meals so much).

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=146096

 

[pdpatch]

Quote:
finding certified organic wild game chick starter is not easy if you go to a farm store. You have to look at a rgualr feed stock or a milling operation to find it. I recall seeing several adds for organic feed. they may alsohave some.

Tom

 

[pdpatch]

Quote:
It's difficult to discribe taste differences, but the heritage breads usually have a bit of wilder taste to them, a more richer taste then the BB bronze or Great White.

The turkeys that are most often purchased in the stores are Great White females. Mostly because there pin feathers are white an not as visable as a BB Bronze is, and the pigment in the feathers for a BB bronze can stain the skin a little bit. so for commercial poultry a white feathered bird is prefered.

Tom