Agreed that's pretty steep. Shop around and find a breeder within 30-50 miles, or order from one of the hatcheries if you can find stock.
All heritage turkeys taste similar, but there are differences in build. Since you are buying for meat and not for breeding, conformation and color are not as critical so hatchery stock is acceptable. Unless you accept a "hatchery mix" you are unlikely to be able to find any right away. The hatchery mixes are a nice intro to turkeys, the Bourbon Red, "Blue" Slate, Narragansett, Black "Spanish" and Standard Bronze are all beautiful table turkeys that grow out to 10-12 lbs dressed for young hens, 14-18 for young toms. You'll find some grow a little bigger (faster) and some a little smaller. The Royal Palms are also tasty, but are small turkeys. Young hens can be as little as 7 lbs and young toms 12 lbs dressed.
Best bet is to buy hatchery stock for your market birds, and shop locally and pick up a few poults to raise either for yourself or for Christmas/Easter. Get yourself on the list for early eggs or poults next year.
I do a lot of my shopping on Craigslist using Searchtempest.
All heritage turkeys taste similar, but there are differences in build. Since you are buying for meat and not for breeding, conformation and color are not as critical so hatchery stock is acceptable. Unless you accept a "hatchery mix" you are unlikely to be able to find any right away. The hatchery mixes are a nice intro to turkeys, the Bourbon Red, "Blue" Slate, Narragansett, Black "Spanish" and Standard Bronze are all beautiful table turkeys that grow out to 10-12 lbs dressed for young hens, 14-18 for young toms. You'll find some grow a little bigger (faster) and some a little smaller. The Royal Palms are also tasty, but are small turkeys. Young hens can be as little as 7 lbs and young toms 12 lbs dressed.
Best bet is to buy hatchery stock for your market birds, and shop locally and pick up a few poults to raise either for yourself or for Christmas/Easter. Get yourself on the list for early eggs or poults next year.
I do a lot of my shopping on Craigslist using Searchtempest.
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