Turkey Talk for 2014

[gevshiba]

Anyone have any ideas on how to keep a wild tom away from my birds? He's huge and I think he's fence fighting with my new BR tom. If he decides to hop over the fence, my boy doesn't stand a chance. The neighbor and I have chased him off a few times, but he comes right back. Do you think placing flags around the run might scare him off?

 

[sonderah]

Eat him!!!

 

[BullChick]

Anyone have any ideas on how to keep a wild tom away from my birds? He's huge and I think he's fence fighting with my new BR tom. If he decides to hop over the fence, my boy doesn't stand a chance. The neighbor and I have chased him off a few times, but he comes right back. Do you think placing flags around the run might scare him off?

It is worth a try! If it doesn't work ...

Eat him!!!

 

[BullChick]

I have realized that I have a problem. What the heck do you guys use to scald your turkeys? My biggest pot is 12 quarts. I have not seen any bigger. And as far as your set up, do you guys have your pot over a fire (what I do for chickens), or something else?

 

[gevshiba]

Eat him!!!

Legally, I don't think I can eat him right now. My neighbor's hoping he'll be there for turkey season. I don't know when that is, but fine by me. He can't be shot on Corp land, which my run boarders, but he's coming around into the pasture too. He was standing at the coop door this morning.

 

[RockerHen]

I have realized that I have a problem. What the heck do you guys use to scald your turkeys? My biggest pot is 12 quarts. I have not seen any bigger. And as far as your set up, do you guys have your pot over a fire (what I do for chickens), or something else?

I dry pluck. As soon as they're dead, I start plucking, as that is when the skin is the loosest. It actually isn't that hard, I thought it was going to be way worse than it was. Just firm pulls gets the feathers right off. Needlenose pliers and a blow torch gets any stubborn pin feathers. I cut off the part of the wings with the flight feathers though, those things are nearly impossible to pull out dry. I've heard that people have used 55 gallon drums cut in half for scalding.

 

[DaisyMeadow]

I was randomly gifted a bourbon red turkey earlier this week. Literally, a friend drove up with a turkey in his pickup bed, dropped it off, and said he needed the cage back in a few weeks. No back story. No nothing.

Well, she looks just like my bourbon red hens, and is very friendly. She's decided she'd rather be a horse than a turkey, abandoning the turkey pen for the horse pasture, which is fine since we free range and can do so. But this evening on the way down to the barn, I checked on her as she roosted and noticed a little, tiny discrepancy. She has appears to have a beard, about an inch long, that barely sticks out of her feathers.

SO my question is can females have beards, or do I need to start calling her "MR. Turkey Girl"?

Thanks!

 

[RockerHen]

Two of my girls have beards. Not as big as my toms, but it's definitely there, and they're definitely girls, both are now mothers! One of my toms also has two beards, a smaller one just above his main one.

 

[Sydney Acres]

well shoot now that i have seen the med. & the BB

i can clearly see my girl is BB

what to do with a 30lb tom once he is all dressed out?

that's a bunch of turkey sandwiches

You may have to cut him in half to get him in the oven!

If so, just cook one half at a time, and freeze the other half for later.

I can't remember which web site, but there's a great recipe for butterflied whole turkey on the BBQ out there. I had to look it up one Thanksgiving when our stove was threatening to quit on us.

 

[Sydney Acres]

I was randomly gifted a bourbon red turkey earlier this week. Literally, a friend drove up with a turkey in his pickup bed, dropped it off, and said he needed the cage back in a few weeks. No back story. No nothing.

Well, she looks just like my bourbon red hens, and is very friendly. She's decided she'd rather be a horse than a turkey, abandoning the turkey pen for the horse pasture, which is fine since we free range and can do so. But this evening on the way down to the barn, I checked on her as she roosted and noticed a little, tiny discrepancy. She has appears to have a beard, about an inch long, that barely sticks out of her feathers.

SO my question is can females have beards, or do I need to start calling her "MR. Turkey Girl"?

Thanks!

Can you post a picture?