Turkenstein25's Turkey Talk for 2015

[Faraday40]

Wish I could join in with all the turkey fun this spring.... DH was pretty nervous with the idea of a big turkey that can fly up to our roof & dig giant holes in our flower beds. For his sake, I'm going to wait at least another year before. I'll just have to enjoy them via this thread.

We enjoy having the chickens free range in the backyard, but they really like to dust bath in my herb garden & flower beds. Many can be deterred with a scarecrow (motion activated water sprinkler) but the smart one figured out the delay & leads the flock to my flower beds & to poop by our back door. Yes, they have finally learned where we live & now want to be house chickens.

 

[allergymama]

Noob here with lots of first-timer/wanting-to-get-turkeys questions. These will be meat turkeys. We already have ducks, but they will be in a separate pen (I mean, really! Who would want to share a pen with a duck, I mean pig, I mean duck!

)

1. I have read that turkey poults have high mortality rates and that I should start with more than I need. Is that accurate? What's an average percentage mortality rate?

2. We have 10 acres, but are near a pretty main road (not a ton of cars, but they drive fast). The ducks free range during the day (and stayed out of the road, except the one sad day when the goose didn't). What are realistic expectations for free ranging turkeys? I am a little worried about them deciding to take off onto the neighbors 200 acres and never coming back. The ducks are good at coming back near the pen at dusk and I open it up and they go right in (occasionally with a little encouragement from the children). I'm guessing that this won't be the same with turkeys. Is it better just to keep them penned?

3. What's a good starter heritage breed? I've been looking at Bourbon Reds, but see lots of people with Slates and Narragansets. I know none of them are idiot proof, but want the best chance at our first try.

4. We have an incubator so will be getting eggs. What are your favorite sources for eggs? Anyone heard of AV Bird Hatchery?

5. If this goes well, we would like to get our own eggs, i.e., keep a male/female or male/female/female. With ducks, I know that you can inbreed that first generation without too much problem, is the same true of turkeys?

6. We use DE in the duck feed. Is this safe for turkeys? poults?

7. Is 6 months really a realistic growth period for the average heritage bird to butcher? And, no, I'm not interested in a 50 pound bird like I've read about. We are wanting average 12-20 pound birds.

Thank you so much to anyone who takes the time to answer my questions!!

 

[Hummingbird Hollow]

Noob here with lots of first-timer/wanting-to-get-turkeys questions. These will be meat turkeys. We already have ducks, but they will be in a separate pen (I mean, really! Who would want to share a pen with a duck, I mean pig, I mean duck!

)

1. I have read that turkey poults have high mortality rates and that I should start with more than I need. Is that accurate? What's an average percentage mortality rate? I have raised turkeys for the past two summers. I purchased 4 Royal Palm poults my first summer and 8 Bourbon Red poults the second summer. I didn't loose any, which is not the my experience with meat chickens, which I always seem to loose a few of the first weeks. That said, it is my understanding that poults need more guidance than chicks do. You really need to show them where the food and water are because they can't figure it out by themselves.

2. We have 10 acres, but are near a pretty main road (not a ton of cars, but they drive fast). The ducks free range during the day (and stayed out of the road, except the one sad day when the goose didn't). What are realistic expectations for free ranging turkeys? I am a little worried about them deciding to take off onto the neighbors 200 acres and never coming back. The ducks are good at coming back near the pen at dusk and I open it up and they go right in (occasionally with a little encouragement from the children). I'm guessing that this won't be the same with turkeys. Is it better just to keep them penned? I let my turkeys out to free range for a few hours every day, usually during the two hours before dusk. Most days they just wandered down to the house and spent their time watching me through the sliding glass doors and pooping on the patio. However, on several occasions they did wander off a lot farther than my hens normaly do. Usually I could just go outside and call for them or gobble and they'd gobble and call back. On the two occasions that I had to go quite a ways looking for them they seemed happy to see me and came running and followed me back to the pen. I'd be sure to start looking for them long before dusk, because when it starts getting dark they will probably look for a place to roost, and it may not be where you want them to roost. Heritage turkeys are good flyers and mine seemed to feel safer roosting on the top of their 6 foot fence than they did in the secure night-time shelter I built for them, so I often had to shoo them off the fence with a broom and herd them inside in the evenings. God forbid I waited till dark because finding them could be a real challenge.

3. What's a good starter heritage breed? I've been looking at Bourbon Reds, but see lots of people with Slates and Narragansets. I know none of them are idiot proof, but want the best chance at our first try. I was pleased with both the Royal Palm and the Bourbon Red as far as temperment, health and meat quality. However, the Royal Palm don't put on much meat for the amount of food they consume. I'm trying Narraganset this year.

4. We have an incubator so will be getting eggs. What are your favorite sources for eggs? Anyone heard of AV Bird Hatchery? I have no experience with hatching my own.

5. If this goes well, we would like to get our own eggs, i.e., keep a male/female or male/female/female. With ducks, I know that you can inbreed that first generation without too much problem, is the same true of turkeys? I'm not an expert but I'd imagine so. Depending on where you get them, the poults in your first batch may not be closely related at all.

6. We use DE in the duck feed. Is this safe for turkeys? poults? Don't know. Again, I don't see why not.

7. Is 6 months really a realistic growth period for the average heritage bird to butcher? And, no, I'm not interested in a 50 pound bird like I've read about. We are wanting average 12-20 pound birds. My 8 Bourbon Red poults were hatched on April 9th. I lost two to a predator one night and was left with 2 hens and 4 toms. The hens were butchered on October 24 and both weighed around 8 pounds fully plucked and butchered. The 4 toms were butchered on November 15. One was 12.5 pounds and the other three were between 16 and 16.5 pounds.

Thank you so much to anyone who takes the time to answer my questions!!

 

[Christin]

Wouldn't the temp change harm the babies? I plan on placing my order in February since that is when they will start hatching chickens.

 

[Nivek]

I found a tom and hen on craigslist last summer and picked them up. Guy told me they were Red Bourbon crosses, but after looking into it, I think Tom is (was) a Spanish Black and Eileen is a Slate. They got it on, and Eileen took off for about a month. Around Labor Day she came back with 7 poults. I just moved to a new farm and have them cooped up for winter. About a week before I moved, the stupid neighbors dog chased Tom off into the woods. So right now I've got Eileen and 5 young 'uns. I think there are 3 jakes and 2 hens. I'm hoping Tom comes back out of the woods and the old landlord gives me a call so I can go collect him. If he doesn't I'm gonna pick up a new tom, eat the 3 jakes and keep all the hens. In a few weeks, I'm going to cut a door for them to come and go as they please. Hopefully they'll roost in the coop and not in the rafters of the workshop and not get eaten by coyotes.
Is a 6-month old hen old enough to breed? How old should a jake/tom be to breed? When do you stop calling them jakes and start calling them toms?

 

[racinchickins]

I found a tom and hen on craigslist last summer and picked them up. Guy told me they were Red Bourbon crosses, but after looking into it, I think Tom is (was) a Spanish Black and Eileen is a Slate. They got it on, and Eileen took off for about a month. Around Labor Day she came back with 7 poults. I just moved to a new farm and have them cooped up for winter. About a week before I moved, the stupid neighbors dog chased Tom off into the woods. So right now I've got Eileen and 5 young 'uns. I think there are 3 jakes and 2 hens. I'm hoping Tom comes back out of the woods and the old landlord gives me a call so I can go collect him. If he doesn't I'm gonna pick up a new tom, eat the 3 jakes and keep all the hens. In a few weeks, I'm going to cut a door for them to come and go as they please. Hopefully they'll roost in the coop and not in the rafters of the workshop and not get eaten by coyotes.
Is a 6-month old hen old enough to breed? How old should a jake/tom be to breed? When do you stop calling them jakes and start calling them toms?

Hens don't lay eggs until they go through their first winter. Around here (Indiana) they don't start laying until March/April. By then all your birds should be old enough to breed. Jakes are males under a year old and Toms are over a year. Just like cockerels/cocks in chickens.

 

[Christin]

If you built your turkeys a run they would not wonder off and it would help protect them from predators.

 

[Book Em Danno25]

Who has gotten poults yet?

 

[taprock]

This past year was our first with turkeys. We want heritage but they will be living with chickens and free ranging so we were worried about investing in them only to have them die or get blackhead. My son still wanted them for 4-H so we decided to just pick up four at the local feed store. They were the basic bronze meat turkeys. I loved them! They ate out of your hand, followed me all over the yard, liked to held and were very friendly. People kept telling my son he should pen them up, they wouldn't gain well free ranging, however they were grand champions so I feel vindicated on the free ranging issue. Everyone was butchered last year so no turkeys now.

This year we do want heritage. I would like to hatch eggs but last year we tried to get eggs and it was one issue after another with ordering them. The breeds I was considering are mostly sold out so I was considering going with an assortment from Sand Hill Preservation. Maybe I would be able to decide what breed I like best for the future. Any input on the hatchery would be great. Last year the turkeys lived in the coop with the chickens. This year we will convert a shed so they have their own space. At the end of the summer sell or butcher the ones we decide not to keep. My goal is to have a trio to keep for eggs for the next year.

Turkenstien25 - I like your turkey house, how high is it and how many birds does it hold?

 

[chknoodles]

You might want to consider a breeder instead of a hatchery for eggs this year. We post our turkey eggs on e-bay and so do a number of other breeders. Have you decided which Heritage breed you want? We will have Bronze, Narragansett and a Rio mix (father is a Rio but I am thinking his girl is not full Rio)...but Rio Grande are not considered Heritage-they are considered wild breed. There is only a 3 lb difference in the average mature weight of the Toms (36 for Bronze and 33 for Narri). Royal Palms, which are beautiful, are the smaller weight birds at 22 lbs for a mature Tom and the smallest weights are the Beltsville Whites who still average 21 lbs for a mature Tom. This may be TMI, but I just happened to have the Standard of Perfection book sitting here and looked them up. LOL