- Sep 21, 2022
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We have 8 Holland white turkeys (3 hens and 5 Toms), and 4 Bourbon Reds (1 hen and 3 Toms). They all came from Murray McMurray, hatched 8/1, so will be 33 weeks old tomorrow.
I have papers from the hatchery for both breeds, and want to separate some to breed / a few Toms to breed next year to this year’s chicks.
Currently they are all in the same coop.
I’m looking for suggestions about what else we need to build, as well as suggestions for future combinations/ sale vs processing.
Two of my three Holland White hens have blue eyes
. My plan is to put the three of them w a brown eyed white Tom for this spring, and hatch eggs in my incubator. My biggest and favorite Holland White is also blue eyed... I’m trying to decide if it is worth the extra generation (or two) to breed out the blue eyes.... or if it really matters all that much... although I’d like to be able to sell some show worthy birds to 4H / FFA kids if I have an opportunity, and I don’t want them to get knocked points or DQ’d for the non breed standard eye color.
For the Bourbon Reds, I have one Tom who is a main instigator of the boys’ brawls....and I plan to put him in the oven first.
I’d like to put the most docile BR Tom w the BR hen, and am thinking that I need to put the other BR, the huge blue eyed HW, and my other two brown eyed HW Toms into a “bachelor house” with a separate run.
I free range them whenever I’m home, which is frequently. I know that I won’t be able to free range them together once I separate the breeding groups... But I’m not in a position to fence in my entire property, so I need to be on site to keep an eye on them.
We have hawks, owls, bobcats, raccoon, coyote, as our main predation risks.
I also have a batch of Sweetgrass/ Fall Fire/ breeder’s choice to finish off the shipping requirements - poults coming in July. I’m very excited for the “calico” birds, and know they are not recognized for show purposes. But they are gorgeous, the same size as my big guys/ gals, and reportedly as docile (I handle mine often to clip wings ...and slather them w no peck after fights. They don’t love it but they are very easy to handle for ~30# birds!)
I hope to be able to raise the new poults that I hatch w the crew that are coming, and sell/ process those that I need to make decisions about to open up space.
For the homesteaders/ small time breeders,
- How much “value” have you found in “papered” turkeys?
- How much success have you found selling live birds (Toms, specifically). My state doesn’t allow me to even begin processing (dispatch) prior to them leaving my property, let alone cleaning/ plucking/ anything else.
Our last kiddo at home is allergic to beef; we eat a -lot- of Turkey. Ground, roasted, soup, lunch meat, etc.
It looks like I could -probably- sell the (live) adults for 80-100$ in my area. More if I was willing to part w a breeding pair. But my understanding is that first year hens are not as reliable at producing fertile eggs, so... maybe that could be something for next year? Once I (hopefully) have more hens?
It has cost us close to 100$ to raise them to this point, and ground Turkey here is 15$ for two pounds. Sliced Turkey/ lunch meat is about 15$ a pound.
It seems like processing our “excess” birds for our own use makes the most sense - but I would love to hear about the experiences of the rest of the community.
I am leaning toward trying to sell some of my Toms... but. I may be biased bc my husband would feel better if we had some $ to offset the costs to date. :/
I have papers from the hatchery for both breeds, and want to separate some to breed / a few Toms to breed next year to this year’s chicks.
Currently they are all in the same coop.
I’m looking for suggestions about what else we need to build, as well as suggestions for future combinations/ sale vs processing.
Two of my three Holland White hens have blue eyes
. My plan is to put the three of them w a brown eyed white Tom for this spring, and hatch eggs in my incubator. My biggest and favorite Holland White is also blue eyed... I’m trying to decide if it is worth the extra generation (or two) to breed out the blue eyes.... or if it really matters all that much... although I’d like to be able to sell some show worthy birds to 4H / FFA kids if I have an opportunity, and I don’t want them to get knocked points or DQ’d for the non breed standard eye color. For the Bourbon Reds, I have one Tom who is a main instigator of the boys’ brawls....and I plan to put him in the oven first.
I’d like to put the most docile BR Tom w the BR hen, and am thinking that I need to put the other BR, the huge blue eyed HW, and my other two brown eyed HW Toms into a “bachelor house” with a separate run.
I free range them whenever I’m home, which is frequently. I know that I won’t be able to free range them together once I separate the breeding groups... But I’m not in a position to fence in my entire property, so I need to be on site to keep an eye on them.
We have hawks, owls, bobcats, raccoon, coyote, as our main predation risks.
I also have a batch of Sweetgrass/ Fall Fire/ breeder’s choice to finish off the shipping requirements - poults coming in July. I’m very excited for the “calico” birds, and know they are not recognized for show purposes. But they are gorgeous, the same size as my big guys/ gals, and reportedly as docile (I handle mine often to clip wings ...and slather them w no peck after fights. They don’t love it but they are very easy to handle for ~30# birds!)
I hope to be able to raise the new poults that I hatch w the crew that are coming, and sell/ process those that I need to make decisions about to open up space.
For the homesteaders/ small time breeders,
- How much “value” have you found in “papered” turkeys?
- How much success have you found selling live birds (Toms, specifically). My state doesn’t allow me to even begin processing (dispatch) prior to them leaving my property, let alone cleaning/ plucking/ anything else.
Our last kiddo at home is allergic to beef; we eat a -lot- of Turkey. Ground, roasted, soup, lunch meat, etc.
It looks like I could -probably- sell the (live) adults for 80-100$ in my area. More if I was willing to part w a breeding pair. But my understanding is that first year hens are not as reliable at producing fertile eggs, so... maybe that could be something for next year? Once I (hopefully) have more hens?
It has cost us close to 100$ to raise them to this point, and ground Turkey here is 15$ for two pounds. Sliced Turkey/ lunch meat is about 15$ a pound.
It seems like processing our “excess” birds for our own use makes the most sense - but I would love to hear about the experiences of the rest of the community.
I am leaning toward trying to sell some of my Toms... but. I may be biased bc my husband would feel better if we had some $ to offset the costs to date. :/
