Turkey Talk for 2014

[gevshiba]

If you are anywhere near Minnesota I know where you can get a couple toms!

I must live in a cheap area of the state. I have 4 young toms that are constantly fighting and bickering with each other and a few have taken sneak attacks on me. I tried to get rid of 2 of them on craigslist to no avail. Maybe I am just too cheap, but I refuse to sell them for less than 35 bucks, I will eat them for that. I only got two responses, one said she would take them for free the other wanted them both for 30 dollars......

Soon they will not be a problem, I just need a gathering to eat them... It is a shame the two with the best disposition will be the first two butchered. They had the bad luck to be hatched as self blue.

Thanks, but I'm in Texas. I have Bourbon Reds. I've already decided that I'm not bringing in any adult birds. I have no place to quarantine, since I keep them at the neighbor's house. I have one breed of chicken and my chickens are fairly decent, for the breed, so I don't want to risk bringing something in. Hatching eggs and day olds only.

I would stick those boys in the freezer before selling them for that price. I just cut, ground and packaged up 5 turkeys an hour ago. A lot of work, but totally worth it.

 

[gevshiba]

Do you have pics of your turkeys that you can post? Im sure some of us other turkey owners can sex them for you

Thanks. I'm pretty sure everyone would agree to hen, but I'm still thinking they might just be developing really slowly. Ok, hoping. I don't have any current pictures of them. Maybe I can get some this week.

I intended to order hatching eggs this year. I'll need a new tom, either way. If I don't have a tom, I'll order some BBB's to put in the freezer until I can grow out a new one.

 

[gevshiba]

Don't feel bad...we've had turkeys for 2 years now and usually are pretty good at determining the sex..but the last birds that hatched out seem to have been slow developers and we even tagged 2 of them as female...welllllll....one definitely ended up being a male...and now another one has a snood that is looking a bit bigger than I would have expected...oh well...we have enough females for the bronze breeding pen next year and if we can't sell the boys..they will be the guests of honor for the 2015 holidays.

I don't really feel bad. I'll wait and see, then go with plan A or plan B.

 

[SilkieSensation]

Here are a few more.. Here are a few more, the one shows the blue/black feathers, I really am still confused on which is which.

The tom in the first pic is lavender (self blue). Tom in the 2nd pic is blue. Both are considered part of the blue slate color range, as is black slate. Breeding blue to blue will give you all 3 colors.

 

[klilly20]

I thought I would never see it my boy is sixteen weeks old and has started strutting in my living room. I keep him in large pen in the other room. We let him out to stretch his wings. He runs from one end of the house to the other end. I got in the floor with him and pretend to strut he started doing the same thing along with drumming.... I LOVED IT!!! I thought I would share this with you guys HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!

 

[podgal]

I raised 6 hatchery BBW last year for my first turkey adventure. Huge birds processed at 19 weeks 2 days before thanksgiving. Gonna do the same this year. Just ordered heritage Chocolate and Bronze eggs from Porter for delivery in early April. If I'm lucky enough to get a couple good breeding pairs I'll keep them but plan on processing the rest. At 27 weeks will those heritage birds have developed good weights/ample breast meat? Appreciate any expertise.

 

[chknoodles]

Heritage birds do not grow as fast as Broad Breasted. But at 27 weeks, you should have some fairly big birds, but nothing as big as a 25 pounder. Heritage birds don't reach full maturity until age 2, not that you can't butcher before that. We have a bronze who will be 2 this Spring and he probably weighs about 27 lbs right now. I have read that that flavor is well worth the wait if you raise Heritage to butcher.

 

[podgal]

Heritage birds do not grow as fast as Broad Breasted.  But at 27 weeks, you should have some fairly big birds, but nothing as big as a 25 pounder.  Heritage birds don't reach full maturity until age 2, not that you can't butcher before that.  We have a bronze who will be 2 this Spring and he probably weighs about 27 lbs right now.  I have read that that flavor is well worth the wait if you raise Heritage to butcher.

Well maybe I'll just have to.keep the heritage birds until next year! Was considering a few to possibly breed and hatch my own. Thamks!

 

[duluthralphie]

Heritage birds do not grow as fast as Broad Breasted. But at 27 weeks, you should have some fairly big birds, but nothing as big as a 25 pounder. Heritage birds don't reach full maturity until age 2, not that you can't butcher before that. We have a bronze who will be 2 this Spring and he probably weighs about 27 lbs right now. I have read that that flavor is well worth the wait if you raise Heritage to butcher.

I have never raised heritage birds until this last year. I have some young toms that should be sent to camp, If they are not sent to freezer camp young will they not be tough?

 

[chknoodles]

It is all how you cook it. I will tell you that we have yet to butcher any of our heritage birds simply because they are breeding stock and as soon as we hatch them, they get sold...except this year, I have 2 extra males in our grow out pen and if they don't sell, we will butcher one of them and keep the other as a back-up breeder. BUT we do hunt and bring home wild turkey. The wild turkey are Jakes (less than a year) to mature birds and when we cook them, they are not tough. It's all in how you cook them. You can't rush cooking an older bird and that goes for chickens as well. I have a recipe for wild turkey that works just as well for one you'd have raised..oh, and we skin them, we don't pluck.

Here is the recipe....

Baked Wild Turkey​

~ 1 large or 2 small turkeys, quartered
~ 4 tbsp honey
~ salt and pepper
~ butter
~ 1/2 cup chopped onion
~ 1 cup white wine
~ 1 cup chicken stock
~ 1 tsp parsley flakes

Brush the turkey with the honey. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Place turkey in a baking dish and bake at 450 degrees for 30 minutes. Baste often with the butter!

Mix the onion, chicken stock, wine and parsley together. Pour over the turkey.

Cover and bake at 250 degrees for 1 hour or until turkey is done. Baste turkey occasionally with the liquid from the pan.


Note: Because we skin our turkeys, we brush with the honey and then lay strips of bacon over the bird which adds flavor and helps seal in juices.