Turkeys For 2013

[kuntrygirl]

What would you all say is THE BEST turkey breed to process to get THE BEST tasting turkey meat EVER?

As what the birds eat may effect the flavor, I would love to hear the answers to this awesome questions WITH a comment on the feed, too.

I didn't think about that. Good observation.

I want to concentrate on another breed that will be used strictly to fill my freezer. I want to do ground turkey meat/patties and of course turkeys in the freezer for holidays.

 

[Arielle]

Sounds like a good plan. Ground meat and patties use less freezer space. FOr me, I've never made it past the roast stage. I already have one in the freezer and planned on roasting this week but I'm feeling a little turkeyed out!! FOUR days of turkey is enough for now. I ned a little beef!!


I forgot to answer your earlier question-- the temps are definitely winterish on some days. Nov and early Dec have temps that bump up and down. THe lows can be 20's and rarely high 30's at night and day temps are less than 50's usually.

My duck hen finally gave up her nest of several months. I was getting worried about her with the cold weather coming in. She decided to go back to her little flock of sister and hubby. I will take that as cue that the turkey hens are also on hold until spring. About mid April last year-- I"m thinking of trying to get earlier eggs.

Flavor of meat-- my experience is limited to BBW and BBB. My birds tasted like the grocery store types, which was a disappointment; I anticipated better flavor. THis is where I get the idea that feed makes the flavor as well as the particular type of bird.

Silo-- a box type, much like a small box stall. with special reinforcement along the lower wall to prevent blow out. Still tying to design a very inexpensive silo, but doesn't have an expesive blowout! lol

 

[kuntrygirl]

Sounds like a good plan. Ground meat and patties use less freezer space. FOr me, I've never made it past the roast stage.  I already have one in the freezer and planned on roasting this week but I'm feeling a little turkeyed out!! FOUR days of turkey is enough for now. I ned a little beef!!


I forgot to answer your earlier question-- the temps are definitely winterish on some days. Nov and early Dec  have temps that bump up and down. THe lows can be 20's and rarely  high 30's at  night and day temps are less than 50's usually. 

My duck hen finally gave up her nest of several months. I was getting worried about her with the cold weather coming in. She decided to go back to her little flock of sister and hubby. I will take that as cue that the turkey hens are also on hold until spring.  About mid April last year-- I"m thinking of trying to get earlier eggs. 

Flavor of meat-- my experience is limited to BBW and BBB. My birds tasted like the grocery store types, which was a disappointment; I anticipated better flavor. THis is where I get the idea that feed makes the flavor as well as the particular type of bird. 

Silo-- a box type, much like a small box stall. with special reinforcement along the lower wall to prevent blow out. Still tying to design a very inexpensive silo, but doesn't have an expesive blowout! lol

That is COLD !!!!!!!!!

What did you feed your birds? I wonder what feed makes the best tasting bird? :/

 

[Arielle]

I fed what the mill make for turkey grower. Mostly corn and soy.

I would like to see more grass in the diet. THere is a trade off though. THe fast growing birds ) commercial) were developed with the high protein grain feed available to meet their growth rates. I"m hoping heritage types which are slower growing can better utilize a lower protein, more natural diet. Only I"m not entire sure what "natural" is. I did some research, with the help of other BYC members, and found that many bushes and shrubs and wild grasses are to their liking but that would mean special land management just for the birds. I have the land but is would take a bit of work to make it provide the food for the turkeys. CUrrently, I don't think the land can sustain a lot of birds without improvement. I still have more questions than answers. I would love to have a time capsule and see a whole year of management on the old farms of 1850's!

 

[kuntrygirl]

I fed what the mill make for turkey grower. Mostly corn and soy.

 I would like to see more grass in the diet. THere is a trade off though. THe fast growing birds ) commercial) were developed with the high protein grain feed available to meet their growth rates. I"m hoping heritage types which are slower growing can better utilize a lower protein, more natural diet. Only I"m not entire sure what "natural" is.  I did some research, with the help of other BYC members, and found that many bushes and shrubs and wild grasses are to their liking but that would mean special land management just for the birds. I have the land but is would take a bit of work to make it provide the food for the turkeys.  CUrrently, I don't think the land can sustain a lot of birds without improvement. I still have  more questions than answers. I would love to have a time capsule and see a whole year of management on the old farms of 1850's!

Gotcha'.

I totally get it when you say "special land management". What all would you have to do with your land to make it like you want it? What is your total number of birds that you have right now?

 

[mstricer]

My car still has muddy foot prints from the turkeys looking in the windsheld!!

I started with a pair about 2 years ago; Bourbon reds. THey love to visit with people who come here--I watch people reach out to pat them and others keep scooting away! lol This year I added a few from POrters: Auburns, Narrigansetts and Sweetgrass. Each pretty and interesting. THey all live togther with some of my BR poults and I"m not seeing much behavioral differences yet.

Auburns are very rare according to Porters. NOt APA but then most turkeys are not. Look much like bourbon reds at this age ( 3 mo) but with out white in the tail and wing. A barred blk and white wing instead.

My girls have stopped laying as we head into winter here in the Northeast. A local wonam gets eggs early, in late winter as she has a big heated barn. Love the idea but makes me nervous = what if the power is out for an extended time.

I still have a few people asking for turkeys; misc requests because they lost one of two and need a buddy. I think next year I would like to hatch earlier in the spring and not after the fourth of July. People are funny about prices; they will pay $15 for a 1-4 week poult but object to a 5 month old with lots of expensive feed in him for a little more. Feed prices have almost doubled in a few years and this will impact what I raise. TUrkeys IMO are not as resourceful in forageing compared to my chickens.

ANyone want to share on how to decrease the feed bill?

I only have two turkeys right now, had 3 but one got invited to Thanksgiving dinner. So I don't go through a lot of feed, they free range mostly in our wooded acre and grass, wild berries, and what they manage to steal from the chickens, they are thieves, will watch the chicken scratching and digging and snatch before the chicken knew what was happening.

Quote: Mine are.......

What would you all say is THE BEST turkey breed to process to get THE BEST tasting turkey meat EVER?

We processed one of these boys, he was 18.7 carcass wait. There was a thick amount of fat on his chest, like 2 inches. where they puff up and their beard is. But that made him really juicy and tasty and will do them again. I want hatch out from the other two.

 

[Celie]

Thanks, Kuntrygirl, for starting this thread. I was thinking about this, too, lately. I have only raised BBW(when I foolishly didn't know they had to be AI) and White Holland. I chose White Hollands because I wanted more bang for my buck, so to say and It is the largest White turkey heritage breed in the US. With the BBW, in 2010, I just harvested them as I needed them and with them being soooo large, had turkey breast cutlets, turkey roasts, ground turkey plus sausage to put into the freezer, from each bird. The last one we harvested was over 80 pounds on foot! I don't remember what the dressed weight was, but I remember the breast meat alone was 35 pounds. It was still very tender, and tasted a lot better than store bought. Sort of like comparing a rooster to a store bought fryer, but not tough or stringy like a rooster. A couple of years ago, I bought my first White Hollands, 15 from a hatchery, again, out of ignorance, because I did not know how much more delicate the poults are compared to chicks, I lost about half. I later bought some others from a different hatchery so the gene pool would be more diversified. I do not have the housing for a lot of separation to pen each bloodline separately to prohibit mating brother and sister( which I understand is a no-no) otherwise. I kept all male from one source and all female from the other. Unfortunately, I was only left with 2 breeder hens this past spring. Darn predators! I have selected the turkeys that have developed the largest amount of breast meat to breed this coming year. This leaves me a dozen hens and 5 to 7 Toms, I am looking at, trying to decide which to keep and which to send to freezer camp, along with the ones I do not want to breed. For Thanksgiving we processed 2 toms from last year's (2011) hatching that dressed out at 34 and 35 pounds. When neither of these would fit into the new smoker DH just bought, they went to freezer camp and we processed a tom hatched early this year that dressed out at 20 pounds, and had about equal breast to leg meat. Last year, I sold most of the eggs from the 2 hens as hatching eggs or young poults. Any that did not sell, became my staggered hatched turkeys for the coming year, so some are still too young to decide what their potential is, yet. The 20 pounder DH smoked was delicious with no seasoning at all. DH doesn't do the cooking around here, obviously! I hope to start a selective breeding program to breed the fattest to the fattest, to increase the breasts of my heritage turkeys, but not to the extent that they need AI. It is an experiment, and I am not into showing birds, I just want good meat. I feed them the highest protein pellets, I can get for a decent price, usually 18%, plus oats(which they love), plus all the grasshoppers and bugs they can catch! LOL We plant winter rye over our Bahaya and Bermuda grasses in the two pastures, where all of our birds free range. They are housed in a 30x50 barn, but unless it is bad weather, the turkeys prefer to perch high under the stars. We have outside and inside perches for them that keeps them out of the trees! LOL My hens are not laying yet, but look like they are presenting themselves, so courtship is probably underway and the males have been strutting and displaying for months. If yours are laying, it gives me hopes that mine will be starting soon. I have a few dozen eggs pre-sold, already and have orders for poults, too. I have 2 Sportsmen 1502 incubators, so my hatching capacity is about 360 eggs a month. How I wound up buying another large incubator is another long story. Since I have never raised, or eaten any other breed, I do not know how they would taste, but maybe we can get together and do a turkey egg swap, so everyone can sample at least some of the different breeds. In all fairness, I think they would have to be raised together on the same feed and pasture to do a good comparison. What do you guys think? Who likes the idea of a turkey egg swap? If I can get the right size bags, I might take orders this year for turkeys dressed for the 2013 Holidays. I ordered 150 "plucking fingers" on Amazon today, cause DH says he's gonna make a plucker out of an old clothes dryer he has in his shop. I know, people do them with washers, and we have a spare one of those, too, but he has to be different! I tried to find a processing plant in my area, but haven't yet, so without the services of a processor, I am limited to how many DH and I can get done in 2 days for Thanksgiving and 2 days at Christmas. Do you or anyone else reading this process turkeys for other people? How many do you sell and do you process them yourself? If so do you have a plucker or do you process by hand? That's another reason, I chose a white feathered bird, no dark pinfeathers!

 

[Arielle]

Quote: We are mostly wooded. Young growth, as it was probably rough pasture years ago. THe rock wall are up but there are far more still on the ground. So till is out. Old fashion methods that we use are: spreading stall material to seed new areas, or moving sheep around and the hay leaves seeds; Cut a lot of trees but also leave plenty for shade, IT gets hot here now-- 5-6 days in a row over 90. These hot days have become common and trees are super to block the heat.
THis is it so far.

 

[Arielle]

@ Michelle

"I only have two turkeys right now, had 3 but one got invited to Thanksgiving dinner. So I don't go through a lot of feed, they free range mostly in our wooded acre and grass, wild berries, and what they manage to steal from the chickens, they are thieves, will watch the chicken scratching and digging and snatch before the chicken knew what was happening. "



My turkeys need lessons in foraging!!!! Send your last two over.

Mine wait for the food bin to be filled. NOT what I had planned on. Looking for foragers to make use of the back 10 acres.

 

[kuntrygirl]

Great info Celie. I didn't realize that the White Hollands were the largest white turkey heritage breed in the US. I learned something new.

I love the idea of the turkey sausage.

WOW!! Can you imagine an 80lb turkey!!!! I bet your new scale will come in handy for the weighing. That's why I needed one that weighed that much as well. I won a bid for the same one that you have from ebay. Although I didn't get it for as cheap as you did, I think $9.00 was an ok price.

Sounds like you have a good plan working over there with your turkeys. Let me know when you get started on the breeding program. I may be interested in purchasing a few from you for meat for the freezer.

That would be a great comparison study. I am think you are right as far as being on the same feed/same pasture for comparison. I like the idea of a turkey egg swap. That would be fun and educational for everyone.

I have never processed any turkeys for anyone, so I'm no help there.

I'm sure yours will start laying eggs soon. My girls have been laying every day but I'm eating them. I will give them another week of laying and then I will start collecting for incubating. I have a little itty bitty incubator,so I can only do so many at one time. :/