royal palms

[birdbrain5]

i actually just stumbled apon narragansett and blue slates too, not quite in my area but should i consider these breeds too? i just dont know they are all so pretty! lol but i do think id like a dual purpose bird.

 

[KatyTheChickenLady]

If you have back yard farmers/gardeners in your area You should be able to sell them, espsecially if the feed stores aren't. what they will bring is up to you to find out. I think all of the breeds you have mentioned will sell very well but the Royal Palms probably best, for the same reason you mentioned they are really pretty. and a lot of people do eat them and think they are just the right size, just not as big as some of the others. My area is a bit satuarated with them but if your area isn't I would say start with them.

 

[farmerlor]

Oh people do absolutely eat Palms every day so they are most assuredly a dual purpose bird it's just that I personally don't like them as well because they aren't as chesty looking and the whole organic, free range, heritage thing is just starting to get popular here so my buyers are people who grew up on Butterball so I personally was worried that I couldn't market the Palms as well. You may do just fine with them in your area. As for the Narris and Slates those are wonderful choices too. The Narris in particular are very beautiful, a mid-sized bird with nice breast development and they do well in shows because they're very nice looking so they too could be sold for breeding, showing and eating. The Slates tend to be a little larger (remember that you have to winter your breeding stock so feed may be an issue with those larger birds) but oh, aren't they some nice looking birds? I love them and had planned to go with Slates or Spanish Blacks as my larger birds until I saw how beautiful the Bronzes were. And I'll throw one more thing out there at you at the risk of confusing you even more. One of the things I hear most when I show pics of my turkeys is that people want to buy my Bourbons because they think they look like the Thanksgiving turkeys that they saw in their history books when they studied the first Thanksgiving. Ummmm yeah, the first turkeys didn't really bear any resemblance to Bourbons at all but hey, it's a selling point. If you bought Narris you'd have the same comment at least once. For some reason people don't think of turkeys as being white or black they think of them as being brown with pretty tail feathers.

 

[farmerlor]

Quote:
Oh, and my guess on those 100 dollar Bronzes is that that's just a little too pricey for your area. I wouldn't pay that much for a pair of Bronzes unless they were show stopping, ribbon winners less than a year old so they had lots of breeding left in them... and even then my husband would shoot me dead. LOL!

 

[Sir Birdaholic]

Not quite as much meat on a Royal Palm as some other breeds, but meaty just the same.

 

[birdbrain5]

very pretty birds!

all good advice thank you so much farmerlor. so how much should i expect to pay for a pair of any of these breeds that are either mature or close to it? just a general idea would be good so i dont get ripped off

i wont be buying anything thats ribbon winning or of that caliber, just looking for a nice pair from a backyard if i could find them close enough.

 

[farmerlor]

Quote:
Oh, that's going to be entirely according to your area. I charge 50 dollars for an adolescent breeding pair and I wouldn't expect to pay much more than that.

 

[lilchick]

Here in Indiana I sell the royal palms for 70.00 a pr. Toms 40.00, hens 30.00 ea. I sell poults once they are up and feathered out for 10.00 ea. and fertile hatching eggs 3.00 ea.

I still have an extra tom for sale. Here they are showing off for me..... There is a sweetgrass in the photo.. I sell those out very quickly and usually get 80.00 a pr. for them....

 

[Randy]

I have RPs and Calicos and do okay with them but I swear I get more calls for the bronze. People around here all want one that "looks like a wild one".

 

[kangababy]

We started trying to raise turleys 2 years ago and have little to no success in it.
I think there is alot of research that needs to be done when it comes to it. We have Blue slates and probably had close to 100 or more eggs last year and only had about a 20% hatch rate and even after ordering 40 blue slate poults from a htachery I have ended up with 15 breeders this year and I had 8 of them last year.. I have no idea what we might be doing wrong but Turkeys seem hard to raise and keep alive...

I have seen the Royal Palms here for anywhere from $50-75 a pair for breeders. I am actually thinking about getting some poults this year, but that will be after we build them a larger very open pen that is covered. Right now our breeders our in two small pens 15x15 at least if not bigger 4 hens to one toms are in a seperate pen just in case the other toms die.