Thinking of raising turkeys this spring...

[sydney13]

Hi, I've been thinking of raising a few heritage turkeys this spring probably two or three. I would probably order poults through cackle as their the only place I've seen that let's you combine species to meet the minimum. I'm not sure which breed to choose, they offer Black Spanish, Narraganset, blue slate, bourbon red, and royal palm. I've heard the royal palm isn't as good of a table bird so I probably don't want that one... But other than that I'm not sure which breed. I'd like somthing that's good for meat, is a good mother and isnt overly flighty, can anyone recommend one of those breeds?
And how would they do being raised under a broody chicken? I usually raise my meat chicks under broody hens so I was thinking of just including the turkeys with the chicks under the broody hen. But since the poults are more susceptible to disease would they be to exposed if raised outdoor instead of inside a brooder?
One of my concerns is how turkeys would get along with my other birds. They could be by themselves during the day but at night they would need to be in the coop with my other birds. It's pretty roomy and I assume if they were exposed to the chickens at a young age that would be fine but I'm not so sure about my geese... As long as the geese have their dominance they are fine but if anything stands up to them they basically go into attack mode. So I'm wondering how a Tom turkey would be with them. Because as long as he stays in his place they would all get along but I've seen some aggressive toms so I'm not so sure... So do you think if the turkeys were around the geese at a young age they would fit into their place in the peaking order?
Thanks for any replies, I rlly appreciate an advise

 

[Arielle]

We were just talking about this on another thread and sandspoultry listed out his numerous breeds and characteristics. Very helpful.

 

[Arielle]

THis was posted by sandspoultry this week on another thread. Maybe it will help you. THis is their experience with their birds.


We have raised 6 varieties over the years so i'll try to list our experiences.

Royal Palm - very nice eye candy, people always noticed them first when they came to the farm. Good taste but less breast meat than other varieties. They have a shallow breast bone so the breast doesn't get as large. Good layers but older birds became very broody which would be good if you want sitters. As poults and younger birds they were the most fragile - losses were higher

Beltsville Small White - best egg layers of any we ever raised, good meat birds, not very broody. They are alot like a smaller version of the broad breasted white, very stocky and solid. Of all the ones we raised the Beltsville's had the least taste.

White Holland - They are the biggest of the white feathered varieties. Of the heritage they are 2nd in size to the standard Bronze. Middle of the road egg layers and they turned out to be very good at raising poults. They are also very calm natured which why they did good with the poults. Good meat birds with lots of breast meat. It's getting hard to find the large sized Hollands any more

Bourbon Red - The thing I always noticed about them is they are so curious, anything we do in their area they are all around us looking and watching what is going on. Some of our will sit and raise poults others have never gone broody. Taste wise they are our 2nd favorite.

Midget White - They lay the largest egg of any we have raised, some of the hens are so small you wonder how she got the egg out. They are the best tasting variety we raise. When they are younger thay can be fence jumpers as they are smaller and light weight and can get over most fences easy.

Standard Bronze - Size wise they are unreal, our toms are waist high and probably 40 pounds +. For all that size they are very calm and good natured. They have a good taste and plenty of meat. They will go broody but we have never had much luck with them hatching eggs. The hens break alot of eggs in the nest because of their size.

Hope that helps some

 

[Celie]

It seams we get a lot of duplicate questions on Turkeys, lately. I guess if the question can't be found in the first few threads, people think it ends there, so we better get used to it, We have so many different threads opened, on the same subject, it's hard to keep up! LOL

 

[Arielle]

Come on over and join us on one of the other threads , we are having a lively discussion on a couple.