heritage turkeys

[brahmabantam]

hi i'm wondering how much will a heritage turkey that placed in a fair, be sold for in a auction?
i need a way to make profit from turkeys and i don't really want to butcher them
any other ideas?
thanks

 

[brahmabantam]

oh and can a chicken incubate turkey eggs?
thanks again

 

[bayvistafarm]

Yes, a chicken can incubate turkey eggs, is shes die hard, lol. Turkeys take 28 days opposed to the chickens 21.
Just had a little brown mutt chicken hatch 5 turkey poults, she loves them as if they were chicks.

 

[brahmabantam]

okay thank you

any thing about the other question?

hi i'm wondering how much will a heritage turkey that placed in a fair, be sold for in a auction?
i need a way to make profit from turkeys and i don't really want to butcher them
any other ideas?
thanks

thanks again

 

[bustedchicks]

I can't really say. Depends on how crazy the turkey buyer is. A good prize winner maybe a couple Benjamin's?

Have you thoght about preordered thanksgiving turkeys? Set a flat rate then friends and neighbors buy the full grown turkey to do what they want with. You are actually buying chicks and raising them.

 

[brahmabantam]

we were thinking about the bourbon red heritage turkeys
what fairs in pa would give top dollar for a turkey prize winner?
are bourbon reds good turkey breeds ?
thanks

 

[brahmabantam]

which turkey breed is more likely t win bourbon red or narragasett?(these are heritage breeds)

 

[bayvistafarm]

I purchased 3 heritage turkeys last fall. They were hatched in June. I paid $180 for them. They are red pencilled palms, and relatively rare here... as they came from Porters... but they do NOT ship to Canada any longer. There are two Toms, and a hen.

This spring, I have the hen with the one Tom, and put the other Tom with my 3 Royal Palm girls. I have collected eggs, and have hatched 12 poults so far. Today a pair who are co-'parenting', are due to hatch about 14 eggs. I haven't disturbed them yet.

I sold a very nice Royal Palm Tom who was 10 months old for $50. I think this is a decent asking price for a bird this size/age.

Sweetgrass turkey poults 3 weeks old were selling on Kijiji for $15 ea.

Its all relative.

 

[brahmabantam]

okay thanks
are heritage breeds better?

 

[huntseat]

You might ask your local butcher shop to strike up a working relationship with you. You raise the poults and they butcher and sell to local customers.

The idea of selling a prize winning Tom, would in my best guess be a very, very long shot. People that raise winning show birds have lots of birds and the competition could be very hard.

I would go with the local butcher and see what they say.