Raising Turkeys!

[Stormer04]

Hey I am going to hatch (or buy as poults) turkeys. I will be raising them so I can have Turkish for thanksgiving dinner. I will be raising enough for family and some to sell to friends. Does anyone have any sort of advice or experience they would share with me before I strike out on this adventure.?

 

[freeheartfarms]

will be following this! we just picked up 4 poults from our local co-op yesterday. already have chickens and ducks- turkeys are extra exciting for some reason!

 

[Molpet]

https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/turkeys-sticky-topics-index.1174188/

 

[JacinLarkwell]

Are you getting heritage or meat turkeys?

 

[Stormer04]

Are you getting heritage or meat turkeys?

Probably both

 

[JacinLarkwell]

For meat breeds, make sure to watch how much they eat. You don't want to have them be over finished.

Heritage won't have the same problem, but they won't get as big over all, and take longer to get to a nice butchering size. Heritage may also decide they like to roost at night, so heads up

 

[aart]

I think most folks get the broad breasted meat poults in July or August....
...or you'll have 60lb birds by November.

 

[JacinLarkwell]

We had a broad breasted White we got in late march and by the time we Butchered him in September he dressed out at about 65+ pounds minus his wings. I wish I was joking. How that poor bird was still walking at all amazes me, but it was obvious it was painful for him. We didn't know that they would get huge if you kept full bowls of food in their home 24/7 though as it was our first meat turkey

 

[Ridgerunner]

Heritage may also decide they like to roost at night, so heads up

Added to that, they fly really really well. Where they roost at night might be a whole lot higher than you'd expect. And during the day fences don't mean much to the smaller heritage birds. I haven't raised broad-breasted but I understand the juveniles can fly really well too.

 

[JacinLarkwell]

I wouldn't know about juvenile flights, I always kept our meat ones penned with a roof so nothing could get in to snack. But our heritage would roost nine or more feet up at night depending on where they were when it got dark