~*Third Annual Cinco de Mayo Turkey Hatch-Athon*~ all poultry welcome!

[HEChicken]

this is my breeder's palm tom turkey.

I know NADA about turkeys and was just wanting to ask you all....does he seem to be a nice turkey, or from stock? also can you eat palms? how many days does it take for turkey poults? can they hatch early too?

He looks nice to me but I couldn't tell you anything about his breeding. I've had RP's for a couple of years but am not as familiar with SOP on them as with chickens.

When you ask "how many days" are you talking about incubation? They take 28 days to hatch. They can hatch early if the heat is too high but I wouldn't recommend that.

And yes, you most certainly can eat them. Last year I hatched and raised 20+ RP's for the CDM hatch, so they hatched the first week of May. In October I butchered a tom and he was absolutely enormous. It didn't even cost me that much to raise him to that size either. I kept them in a confined space for the first 10-12 weeks to get a good start on game bird feed, and then I turned them out to free-range. We had grasshoppers thick on the ground at the beginning of their free-range time but they cleared them out and ate a lot of greens as well. They spent all day out foraging and only returned to the coop to top up on commercial feed at the end of the day. The diet agreed with them - they were all healthy and good-sized by fall.

 

[HEChicken]

Last year I hatched and raised 20+ RP's for the CDM hatch, so they hatched the first week of May. In October I butchered a tom and he was absolutely enormous.

Here he is after butcher and skinning. After this I put him in an oven roasting bag, set the oven to 250 and slow cooked him for 8-10 hours. The meat was literally falling off the bones tender at that point. I divided it up into ziploc bags - ½-lb per bag and put away 5-lb of cooked meat (raw weighs more so that is a LOT of meat), and that didn't include the legs and wings which we kept out and ate immediately. In addition I ended up with a bunch of the liquid that had cooked out of him, which I keep and use in soups and casseroles. And the fat I save for cooking. The bones were thrown away at that point because they had already given up all their nutrition to the liquid.

 

[chicken pickin]

Here he is after butcher and skinning. After this I put him in an oven roasting bag, set the oven to 250 and slow cooked him for 8-10 hours. The meat was literally falling off the bones tender at that point. I divided it up into ziploc bags - ½-lb per bag and put away 5-lb of cooked meat (raw weighs more so that is a LOT of meat), and that didn't include the legs and wings which we kept out and ate immediately. In addition I ended up with a bunch of the liquid that had cooked out of him, which I keep and use in soups and casseroles. And the fat I save for cooking. The bones were thrown away at that point because they had already given up all their nutrition to the liquid.

WOW That looks big for a 5 month old heritage turkey. What do you feed them from start to finish? Do you know his exact weight after process before being separated?

 

[HEChicken]

WOW That looks big for a 5 month old heritage turkey. What do you feed them from start to finish? Do you know his exact weight after process before being separated?

The diet is in the post above…..gamebird feed for the first 10-12 weeks, then free-range until finish. Last year we had grasshoppers thick on the ground. 20+ juvenile turkeys cleared 3 acres of grasshoppers and ate a good amount of greens along with them (various grasses, dandelions, plantain, lambs quarters, clover etc - whatever is "out there" in what passes here for a "lawn" LOL). At the end of a day of foraging, they'd go into the coop and top up on pellet feed from the chicken feeder, which is pelleted FlockRaiser (18% protein).

ETA: No, I had no way to weigh him before or after butchering as I don't own a bathroom scale and my kitchen scale only goes up to 2-lb. After cooking I was able to divide him up into ziploc bags containing ½-lb meat each, using said kitchen scale, but didn't have any way to weigh the whole bird.

 

[bantambury]

Here he is after butcher and skinning. After this I put him in an oven roasting bag, set the oven to 250 and slow cooked him for 8-10 hours. The meat was literally falling off the bones tender at that point. I divided it up into ziploc bags - ½-lb per bag and put away 5-lb of cooked meat (raw weighs more so that is a LOT of meat), and that didn't include the legs and wings which we kept out and ate immediately. In addition I ended up with a bunch of the liquid that had cooked out of him, which I keep and use in soups and casseroles. And the fat I save for cooking. The bones were thrown away at that point because they had already given up all their nutrition to the liquid.

hes huge! thanks for all the info! I may get turkeys this year after all!

 

[mlm Mike]

Quote: Alright, I might have to give RP's a chance here. There is plenty of meat there. Thanks for posting this info.

 

[Arielle]

Quote: You are giving them a fighting chance!!!! My hatcher is functioning as in incubator too-- I have 3 EE pipped and upped the humidity-- what else can I do . . . .

this is my breeder's palm tom turkey.

I know NADA about turkeys and was just wanting to ask you all....does he seem to be a nice turkey, or from stock? also can you eat palms? how many days does it take for turkey poults? can they hatch early too?

NOthing like the formal look of black and white!!!

I don't know the standard on the palms-- you can look it up.

Palms don't have the meat of other birds, so I hear; I have avoided the palms for that reason.

28 days plus or minus. Early hatches usually mean the heat was a tad high.

 

[Arielle]

Quote: GOod reminder that we can benefit fromt he bones too! I toss my bones in the compost now to compost as their last contribution.

 

[Arielle]

Quote: Game bird come in a variety of protein levels 20-27% depending on the mill. Recently Ihave switched to 27% for my buckeye at the breeders recommendation-- i might start the poults that way this year.

Which percent is your start for poults??

 

[yinepu]

the 16 french white muscovy that hatched the other day...