Turkey housing and breed question

[iajewel]

finely after a few years of working on where Turkeys will be, we are ready.. almost. I need some advice from you all to actually get started and bring home our first Turkeys. I have had them as pets, but.. this time we want larger scale.
Here is what I have for housing. Please feel free to give input. 30 acers pasture with a large pole barn. A septate acer area fenced off for poultry with a turkey house proper for nesting it is fenced around part orchard in hopes they will help keep that messy pear tree and peaches cleaned up. That part is right in the back yard so we can view them from any northern window. This will help with predators we hope.

We need a breed that can pretty much do things on their own. Im not interested in any breed that can fly. Im interested in heritage breeds and would like to know more about the Narragansett and Chocolate. My favorite is the bronze, however in no way do I want to "help" with breeding. This breed must be able to forage well and be pretty healthy as winters here are not fun. Spring is storms, and more storms, fall is the same, summer is hot and extreamly humid.
Any suggestions on breeds would be very helpful. We only want one breed and wish to considerate on that breed. It will be used for meat, there for a smaller breed is not what we are looking for.
Thank you for any advice you can offer.

 

[Steve_of_sandspoultry]

There are two types of Bronze turkeys, the broad breasted and the standard. The standards don't require AI. I like the Bronze we have. They are huge and very calm natured.

Steve

 

[iajewel]

I went to your website. You don't ship chicks, so that sort of lets me out. I have never heard anyone that had even 80% luck with shipped eggs. Im sure someone somewhere has, I just haven't heard about them yet. 32.00 a dozen when I may get a 50% hatch is just to expensive for me. When you ship chicks let me know. Untill then I need to find someone either close enough to drive to, or that will ship chicks.

 

[SED]

If you think about it though, $32 for 12 eggs, 50% hatch rate = 6 Poults. 6 poults would cost you $10.00 each which = $60.00 + shipping. I would take a 50% hatch rate if it only cost me around $5.00 per poult, which would = $32.00. Just my 2 cents.

 

[iajewel]

Something to think about, however I would rather find a local breeder where I can drive to pick up some poults. I would really like some Narragansett. Im not finding any however. Bronze would be my second choice.

 

[longranger]

Not to mention that the poults you hatch from a respected breeder will usually have superior genetics giving them better vigor, fertility size etc.. From a hatchery you get what they send you and thats that. Sometimes very good, sometimes not good at all and usually average. Then you need to selectively breed for many generations to get a bird as good as you could have hatched from the respected breeder in the first place.

Be carefull. A high % of people selling turkey eggs are well meaning but not terribly knowledgable. For foundation stock that will hopefully grow into a sucessfull business it is particularly important to start off with the best genetics you can afford to buy.

 

[houndit]

Every heritage breed I have had can fly. Most of them do not. I have had Bronze, Royal Palm, White Holland, and lots of crosses. All the heritage breeds can breed naturally.

 

[dragon86]

i got 3 bbs from rural king last year or so they said they look more like normal bronze and i got a tom bbb from my aunt this year. all my bbs are pretty big and i don't have to "help" them breed. so far in the past 2 weeks ive gotting 30 eggs from them. a tip to remeber is bbbs have a bad habit of stepping on there eggs ive last 4 eggs because of them stepping on the eggs so i gather them daily and incubate them myself when i get a good amount. an not for sure if all turkeys r this way but i no bigger breeds have a problem with the tom tearing the hen up when breeding this happen to one of my hens and shes still not healed completely up (3 week old wound still the size of a dollar was bigger) so invest in some saddles for when its breeding season or u might lose a hen i almost did.

 

[iajewel]

I totally agree with you on the "finding a reputable breeder" Money isn't an issue.. spending my money smartly is. Thus is I buy hatched eggs vs hatching eggs, in the long run and short run, I know exactly what I have. Im not planning on a business. We just enjoy turkeys and would love to have then around the farm house as well as out in the fields.
I would like to get my Turkeys from more then 3 sources due to the fact it would be years before I would have to sell any. We have enough room to house well over 200+ before we would have to sell eggs or turkeys. Between Bill and myself we have 6 families ( married kids) and we are the only farm. So we like to supply chicken, beef etc for our kids. That is about 42 Turkeys a year just to give away to our family. So, nope.. not a business, just want to breed quality birds for the grand kids to show and good table birds for the rest of us.

 

[longranger]

Thats a great plan and a wonderful thing to do for your family. You may be surprised though by how fast your flocks grow once you get started laying their own eggs as well as the aggregate cost of feed.