North Carolina

[Hollowoakfarm]

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[Hollowoakfarm]

Speaking of Turkeys.....does anyone raise them? My wife saw some turkey chicks at the feed store where we got our chickens and she LOVED them.

Talk to Beth...BHep

 

[ramirezframing]

Quote: I'd prefer to use a gun too, but it seems the wildlife around me thinks my mini van works better.

 

[tjbuckshotbarn]

Fireantz are you going to the flock swap Saturday? Will you have any fruit trees?

 

[dutchbunny83]

Speaking of Turkeys.....does anyone raise them? My wife saw some turkey chicks at the feed store where we got our chickens and she LOVED them.

I only have one now, a Royal Palm, she's a pet. Eggs are delicious, my husband's favorite so he usually gets all of them.
She had a mate who was my husband's pet, but he got way too obnoxious this Spring during mating season, probably because he only had one girl. He started being mean to the kids & gobbling all day long at the neighbor's dog so we finally sent him to freezer camp.
I will say from my experience, get a heritage breed turkey!!!

The ones in the feed store were likely the broad breasted whites (at least that's all I've seen). We did them once & I HATED them. They're like the Cornish cross chicken of the turkey world. All they did was poop. They would knock you down as you tried to feed them. I got bitten quite a few times trying to fill their dish. By the end we were going through $50 a WEEK in feed for 6 of them (my husband left with the Army so we had to keep them longer than planned as I wasn't processing them alone).
We didn't even bother plucking them, all 6 were skinned & ground. But we got a good amount of meat. Just in no way economical it was probably 10 times more expensive than if I had bought it from the store & way more work. (I remember over Thanksgiving when they should have already been processed going through almost 25lbs of feed a day & Food Lion had their huge Thanksgiving turkeys on sale for 49cents a pound! I was kicking myself for having them!)

Also there can be health risks of keeping chickens and turkeys together. Black head or something is it? I don't know I kept my meat turkeys with meat chickens and my pet turkeys with pet chickens and I've never had an issue. I believe others on here keep theirs together too. Just thought it was worth mentioning.

 

[dutchbunny83]

Does anyone have experience with Jumbo Pekins???

I love my White Pekins, and wanted to get some more. Looking online and keep going back and forth between the standard and the Jumbo. Jumbo's the females are still supposed to be smaller & lay like crazy, the drakes are supposed to reach market weight in 3 months. They don't seem to be a hybrid though like the Cornish cross.

I'm wondering if they will still have the demeanor of the White Pekins or be gross & obnoxious like the broad breasted white turkeys I was just talking about?

 

[tjbuckshotbarn]

I will be at the flock swap Saturday off highway 53. I have silkies, barred rock, and a few mix$5-7 each

 

[tjbuckshotbarn]

 

[BHep]

Speaking of Turkeys.....does anyone raise them? My wife saw some turkey chicks at the feed store where we got our chickens and she LOVED them.

I raise Bourbon Reds. I have a small waiting list for poults, but I am hatching every eggs we get.

 

[RuanMac]

I'm not sure we are ready to raise them yet. Still learning about chickens!!
I was just curious about them.