Turkey Talk for 2014

[poultrypals]

How many toms do you keep? They don't fight with each other? We have only one hen she is the mother of the young tom. We have kept "mom & dad" together and separated junior when he seemed a threat to dad. We think we would like to see if they would merely display at each other and not really do battle. We are a rescue and sanctuary so getting rid of our beautiful royal palm family is not happening. This is a cool and informative website.

 

[desertmarcy]

How many toms do you keep? They don't fight with each other? We have only one hen she is the mother of the young tom. We have kept "mom & dad" together and separated junior when he seemed a threat to dad. We think we would like to see if they would merely display at each other and not really do battle. We are a rescue and sanctuary so getting rid of our beautiful royal palm family is not happening. This is a cool and informative website.

I have several rare color varieties, so I keep a spare tom for each one. They live in a bachelor pen and aside from some minor squabbling, no one has been seriously hurt. I recently separated one breeding pair and returned the tom to the bachelor pen. He was the underdog for a while but the others never really hurt him and after a couple of weeks, they all settled down. They are all within sight of hens, which is not ideal. I would like to have another pen for my bachelor toms out of sight of the hens which I think would make it better but that is not going to happen this year.

Even if you have well known varieties of turkeys, depending on where you live, it can be difficult to find a replacement sire if one dies.

I think a lot depends on the individuals because sometimes one can get hurt in a fight and need to be separated. Also, if you have more than one tom in with hens, that will definitely aggravate fighting. One year I keep a son with my Royal Palm tom and his hens. All was sweet for a year or two, then son beat up dad. Even after I sold the son and the father had his flock to himself, he was never quite the same after that. He quit trying to breed the hens and I couldn't get any fertile eggs. I ended up placing him in a pet home.

 

[Quailsong]

Took a huge break from BYC, last time I was here reading the forums it said I left off in April. That's far too long to be away from BYC!

I wanted to update, as a first time turkey keeper, I've learned a lot about turkeys & have plenty more learning left!

I've got 2 Broad Breasted Bronze boys, about 12.5 weeks old now. Ordered them as day-olds from a small hatchery. They've sure been challenging as well as fun to keep. They continue to surprise me with how much food they can consume (and how it seems to triple every week), as well as seeing how they try to eat anything & everything that looks edible. One of them nearly took out my eye a few weeks ago, thinking it was a delicious morsel, but that was my fault for forgetting they're really just feathered dinosaurs. (Don't worry, I'm wearing safety goggles now with them!)

I'm thinking next year I'd like to have a go at heritage breed turkeys. I'm torn between Bourbon Reds & Royal Palms. From what I've read they're basically the same in temperament/smarts/feed, just different feather suits.

So now that I've rambled away, it's time to catch up on all this Turkey Talk!

 

[nsa19]

I'm raising 3 turkeys this year..2 Spanish black and 1 slate. They are 9 weeks old now but I feel like they are a little under weight. They are currently on a 22% protein feed. Any suggestions? I would like to process at least one for thanksgiving.

 

[chickadoodles]

I'm raising 3 turkeys this year..2 Spanish black and 1 slate. They are 9 weeks old now but I feel like they are a little under weight. They are currently on a 22% protein feed. Any suggestions? I would like to process at least one for thanksgiving.

You have heritage turkey which are slow growing turkey they will not reach their full weight till next year. If you want to process turkey in the same year you need to get broad breasted turkey they grow very quickly in 5-6 months but they are not able to breed naturally like the heritage turkey.

 

[Marselle210]

 

[nsa19]

Thanks chickadoodles!

 

[Marselle210]

 

[Marselle210]

unfortunately many of them (40%) died of mycoplasma ... (((

 

[Marselle210]

but their kids more beautiful...







about 300 pieces