How much? $/lb

[AlbionWood]

My neighbors are very interested in getting one of our (heritage breed) turkeys for Thanksgiving. We have enough to spare, so it would be nice to recoup some of the feed cost... But I have no idea how much to charge! Obviously I'm not going to compete with the commercial growers, so the supermarket price is irrelevant. Any suggestions?

Also, I need to weigh these birds somehow and estimate the dressed weight for Thanksgiving. Any suggestions for how to weigh them, and what the conversion ratio might be?

 

[Tunastopper]

$4 a pound is what a heritage turkey goes for. I weigh my turkeys the same way as I weigh my dogs. I weigh myself on my bath room scale. Then I stand on the scale with the turkey and have someone see what the weight is. Is hard to see the scale with a turkey so I have a helper look. Then I subtract my weight from my weight with the turkey.

The easiest way to pick up the turkey is by both wings or by the feet upside down. It looks bad, but I have never hurt one this way.

 

[chickensducks&agoose]

they're going for about $4 in the north east where I live too. And I second the 'be careful how you hold' advice, I recently got my butt kicked by a 7 month old tom.

 

[AlbionWood]

Thanks - I presume that's $4/lb for the dressed carcass, including neck and giblets?

Picking them up is one thing - catching them is the hard part! Last time we clipped wings was quite the comical rodeo.

 

[Steve_of_sandspoultry]

You can weigh them by cutting the corner out of a feed bag and putting the turkey in the bag with it's head sticking out. Tie the legs together gently and they will be still enough to weight them. The bag method is how we hold them for processing as well. Also I have ever taken the bathroom scale outside and just held the bird and got on the scale.

Steve

 

[terri9630]

Quote:
I tried that with the last two hens we did and they both tore through the bags. I didn't have their legs tied together so maybe that had something to do with it.

 

[Steve_of_sandspoultry]

Quote:
I tried that with the last two hens we did and they both tore through the bags. I didn't have their legs tied together so maybe that had something to do with it.

Paper feed bags or woven? We had one that fell thru this morning when we were processing but I cut the corner to big. By the time we got to the fourth one the hole was pretty big.

Steve

 

[terri9630]

Quote:
I tried that with the last two hens we did and they both tore through the bags. I didn't have their legs tied together so maybe that had something to do with it.

Paper feed bags or woven? We had one that fell thru this morning when we were processing but I cut the corner to big. By the time we got to the fourth one the hole was pretty big.

Steve

Paper. No woven bags around here. I was thinking of using a pillow case next week for the last 2 but I don't know if I can find one big enough for the tom.

 

[pascopol]

chickensducks&agoose :

they're going for about $4 in the north east where I live too. And I second the 'be careful how you hold' advice, I recently got my butt kicked by a 7 month old tom.

$4.00 a lb is a fair price. If you do not want to pay it and still want to eat excellent gourmet , natural , heritage , organic, (what does it really mean?) turkey

raise your own

or put up with supermarket turkey for much cheaper loaded with antibiothics, salted brine, frozen (God knows how long) and downright disgusting, perhaps loaded with salmonella ( you never know, last news on CNN: Costco recalled cheese loaded with salmonella in 3 states).

Unfortunately they do not tell you which cheese and with states. LOL

I never suspected cheese can be contaminated with salmonella.

Time to make your own cheese, (raise own cows?)

Just kidding.

But you get my drift, ma friend don't you?

 

[AlbionWood]

I'm not sure $4/lb is that much higher than supermarket birds around here, actually... prices are really high here. Butterball etc are probably pretty cheap, but I think fresh Diestel Ranch turkeys are >$3/lb.