turkey poults

[lorieMN]

our local farm supply store sells beautiful chicks,geese,ducks,bunnies and poults...well,its getting later in the season and they had 13 slate blue poults that werent selling,they have been there for 4 weeks,(they take excellent care of them,never even see poop in the pens),so every few days I have been asking when they were going on sale,today must have been the day they were tired of taking care of them,as they are starting to fly out of the pens,and the guy asked how many I wanted,I said all if they were cheap enough..he sold them to me for $4 each..I am thrilled..DH not so much,but then he thinks I have a poultry fedish...

 

[Struttn1]

excellent buy. Now who on this board would tend to have a poultry fetish?

 

[MissPrissy]

Poultry fetish? I have no clue what on earth you mean.

 

[muesky]

Poultry fetish, smoultry fetish. What would give anyone who visits this board the idea that any member here has a bird fetish.

 

[zippychickens]

Turkeys huh? I've been thinking about turkeys. Have you raised them before? If you were going to process them when do you do that. Is it at a certain age or do you go by weight?

 

[Corona~Barb]

Wow, Lorie, very nice buy. I'm surprised they didn't sell...blue slate turkeys are very rare. You should keep a few to breed.

Corona~Barb

 

[pdpatch]

Quote:
Usually turkeys are processed at a certain age. But you can go do it by both.

The most desirable meat on a turkey is the Breast meat. So you check the development of that and gauge when to process. But for Non-Heritage type would be ready at around 20 weeks, Heritage at around 30 weeks. Like any bird it all depends on the feed, weather, ect on how big they can get and how soon.

You can also gauge the size of the processed bird by the variety you raise. BB Bronze and Great Whites male can dress out at 15 to 20 lbs at 20 weeks. Where a Bourban Red male can be around 10 to 15 lbs at 30 weeks.

 

[mergmet]

you should keep some to breed! they are beautiful birds! I have started with some turkeys this year, they grow FAST

also, I have heard not to keep them with chickens. mine did ok with the chickens up to a few weeks, but now I am finding they do better separated.

m

 

[sandspoultry]

The blue Slates are pretty birds but they don't breed true. With Blue slates you get a mix of colors when you breed them. You get 50% blue and a %age of other colors. The Lavendar's also called self blues do breed true. Alot of the very colorful breeds of turkeys are like that. You can write a whole book on color genetics.

Steve in NC

 

[lorieMN]

I probably will keep some to breed,or at least try to breed,there is a lady a couple hours away that has some so I could get new stock from her as well..I have never raised them before,I have the blues in a seperate pen,but I have 2 RP in with my chickens and they are doing great...I have them on a mixture of gamebird starter and chick starter,and give them greens and stuff,they really love watermelons..my father-in-law says you pluck turkeys dry..is this true? its not that big of a deal,just used to the chiken process..he also said his dad used to kill them by taking a knife and punching a hole in the roof of there mouth and that way they relax and pluck easier..but then that was 50 years ago so the memory may be a little distorted..