Turkeys For 2013

[RockerHen]

A few of my lovable fool mutts

I'm keeping two toms and all the hens (there were four) from this batch. Probably going to keep one "royal palmish" colored tom and one of the colorful bronzey looking ones.

 

[Celie]

Well, we had our Turkey Supper. Cooked him for 6 hours at a low temp. I'm glad we went ahead and processed him the day before as it took my husband & I about 3 hours from start to finish to get the bird completly cleaned up. Getting all those feathers that were JUST beginning to come through the skin took a lot of time & was a real chore!! After processing, he weighed 20#.

I only ate one small slice off the thigh. It wasn't as tender as I'd have liked it to be. The next turkey we do won't be so big.

Next time, try letting it rest refrigerated for 3 days for the muscle(meat) to go through rigor, and the meat will be very tender and juicy. You can do this in a brine or just season after the 3 days, both work well. It isn't the age of the turkey, but could be the breed, but meat needs to go through rigor to be tender!

 

[Celie]

Does anyone have experience with a hen that has had her side gashed open? I noticed one of my hens has seemed a little off recently so today I gave her a look over and she has a huge open gash on her side under her wing. It doesnt look infected and looks like it is healing but it is huge and Im nervous for her. Is there anything I should do for her or should I just keep an eye on her. Im going to separate the toms from the hens for a while and was thinking about getting the hens saddles. Any other tips?

I reduce the size of my rooster's and Tom's spurs, by removing the outer hard spurs about once a year. I had a hen get slit like this and since there was no internal damage that I could see, cleaned the wound, gave her a clean blanket in a separate pen and kept applying NuStock. She healed fast. Another good product is WONDERFUL. It is mostly used on horses and cows, but works well on turkeys and chickens too. If you nave neither available, try Neosporin ointment, without the pain reliever in it.

 

[Celie]

Does anyone have experience with a hen that has had her side gashed open? I noticed one of my hens has seemed a little off recently so today I gave her a look over and she has a huge open gash on her side under her wing. It doesnt look infected and looks like it is healing but it is huge and Im nervous for her. Is there anything I should do for her or should I just keep an eye on her. Im going to separate the toms from the hens for a while and was thinking about getting the hens saddles. Any other tips?

If the gash is really big and there doesn't seam to be any organ damage or internal bleeding, you might want to stitch up the opening? Poor girl!

 

[Celie]

A few pages back, someone had mentioned the spur on male turkeys. They said something like " get a pair of pliers, grab the end of the spur, and twist back and forth. The spur should pop right of, leaving the nub underneath it. It doesn't hurt the turkey."

If anyone can recall exactly how to do this, please chime in.

And I'd try the triple antibiotic cream, just to keep any infection down. Neosporin makes it and also a generic brand. It also comes with a pain killer in the cream. The generic works just as well as the Neosporin brand.

Good luck to you.

Lynn

I believe you are referring to a post I submitted here and you have it correct. I use a needle nose vice grips so I don't squeeze too hade and crack the spur. A gentle back and forth, accually clockwise and counter clockwise motion and it will come off quite easily. doesn't seam to hurt the tom or roo at all, nut will save your hens. There will be a drop of blood and if that bothers you a little sprinkle of flour will clot it fast. I usually do it just before they go to roost and by morning they are running with the flock. I only have to do this once a year and try to time it about a month before breeding season. It reduces the size of the spurs by 2/3rds and helps prevent the spur from getting caught on something and ripping the tom's or rooster's spurs too, which can happen and is painful for the tom, because it usually tears the skin if it happens. If you have 2 toms with your hens during mating and not enough hens to keep both occupied, they will both try to mount the same hen at the same time, neither will likely succeed and the hen is usually hurt. The toms will fight and sometimes bloody each other, too, so you might want to let only 1 tom with your hens at a time, where the second tom can not see and if you want to be double sure all eggs will be fertile, alternate your 2 toms, one in the am and the other in the pm, or on alternate days. This works best for me.

 

[Celie]

Last year, I had 15 hens and 11 toms, I divided my hens and put half with each of 2 toms, from different bloodlines and the rest in a grow out pen separate. That way each breeding tom only had 7 or 8 hens to service and were from 2 different bloodlines, so the Genetics were kept diverse. This year, I am using young 1 year olds from the opposite line to breed my hens. I lost a couple of hens to wolves and large wild cats, when a wildlife preserve nearby had a perimeter breach. I think I will be keeping 12 hens this year, with 2 yearling toms, as they will be lighter and easier on the hens. Toms that are 2 years old or older are quite heavy on hens that are young and much smaller. Internal damage can occur without your even knowing it, I have been told, and I don't want to chance my hens getting hurt. Besides, my Hollands, next year, I will also have a few Midget Whites, and when I get my butt over to pick them up, a pair of Beltsville Small Whites. I have a lonely Bourbon Red hen 7 months old that will be laying in about 2 to 3 months, so I am trying to get her a pretty tom to mate with. I have more BR hatching eggs promised to me in March or April as well as some Narragansett eggs or poults, So I have a few more pens to put up during the winter. I have greatly reduces the chicken flocks, but those darn hens keep going broody and setting eggs, but most are already sold as soon as they get to POL., including the young cockells, to a chef who has bought from me several times before. I think 10 breeding coops plus one for the extra year old toms to grow out in and free range should work, while I am collecting eggs for hatching and for sale. I was wondering how others with several different breeds are handling this? Anyone else wish to share their methods?

 

[Arielle]

Quote: Such a lovely blue-purple!! Methyl blue stains everything it touches.

Quote: Often better to let the wound slowly close over. After a certain number of hours the edges of the would are no longer viable. THe vets usually trim the dried edge and then sew together. THe wound would need to be very carefully and throuroughly cleaned before trimming and sewing-- overall a good possibiilty of creating an infection . IMO keep it clean, apply bacitracin or petroleum jelly and let it heal.

THe -caines cannot be given to poultry. THese are the local pain killers. Lidocaine, etc.

 

[Lorilyn Farms]

A movie of my baby turkeys strutting....

 

[drakeschicks]

A movie of my baby turkeys strutting....

 

[chickadoodles]

Adorable Lorilyn Farms