Yes, I'm up at five am cooking turkey.....!
Mine were allowed to free range from about ten weeks on. Before that they had a moveable pen that kept them on fresh grass every two days. They were locked in either their pen or as it got cold and windy and snowy up here in the past three-four weeks, locked in the barn in a 10 x 20 horse stall at night. They have HUGE legs and thighs as well as the huge breast they are bred for. They ate Purina Turkey starter for the first eight weeks and then Purina Flock Raiser until they were processed at 20 weeks. Tom's were all live weights over 50 lbs, hens ranged from 23-31 live weight. I sold five birds from this order of turkeys to a friend and she had smaller birds, tom's were in the mid 40 lb range live weight. She kept them penned and fed them turkey feed from a local mill which was not as high in protein as the Flockraiser. You could see the difference in size as they strutted around. She brought hers over to process here since we are set up for that job.
It sure is interesting stuff, trying to figure it all out!
Happy Thanksgiving!
Jane
