Turkeys For 2013

[chickadoodles]

I am going to keep a dozen this year. Last year, I had 15. When I get the MW, Beltsville and BR producing, I would like to keep, to start, at least 6 hens and 2 toms of each breed.
Right now I only have one BR hen and no tom(yet), but well at least be getting 24 hatching eggs by late March/early April and the hen I have has very dark red vivid colored feathers, so she should hatch some nicely colored poults. The MW eggs, that I got last March, hatched into all toms, so I need more MW hatching eggs. I have a swap arranged for a pair or trio of Belteville small white and an order in for a dozen Narragansett hatching eggs, to be picked up as soon as they are available, so I don't have to worry about shipping damage.
In time, I will probably keep a larger number of the Midget Whites and Beltsville small whites, because we love roasted turkey and Hubby calls these our "empty Nester" turkeys! LOL I may wind up keeping a dozen hens for each of these 2 breeds. I may be wrong, but I have heard that MWs lay a lot more eggs than Beltsville Small whites, But the Beltsville are a little larger. Both breeds take up less room and eat less than my huge Hollands, but dress out about 1/4 th the size.
So I will still keep Hollands for large Holliday get togethers and stocking the freezer with turkey breast roasts, sausages and ground turkey meat. One large turkey is easier to debone and ground than 4 or 5 smaller ones. For more meat to the turkey, you can't beat Hollands.
The Bourbon Reds and Narragansetts are both medium sized colorful turkeys, with the toms max weight reported to be about 33 pounds, before processing. This should equate to 26-27 pounds processed weight for the toms. That is a good weight for most people and they will add a lot of color to the flock.
I sold hundreds of poults last year and I need a choice to offer to my customers. It will just take time and I have to be patient!
So by 2015, I would like to have 6-8 Holland, Bourbon Red and Narragansett hens each, 12-15 Midget white and Beltsville hens each. I will keep 2 toms to breed with the H, BR and N and 3 toms for the 2 smaller breed hens. So, eventually, I will have a total of 42 to 54 hens breeding and laying. and a few toms growing out for the next year's harvest.
Any extra hens, I sell with a similar age tom as a pair or trio and I only sell toms for processing.
Tomorrow, I have 4 people to call back, that called for Holiday turkeys to process, so I may have only 7 left to process myself, which would be great, 3 for the Holidays and 4 for the freezer.
I sell breeding pairs at 7 to 12 months for $100 a pair and toms to process at 15 to 18 months live for $2.50 per pound live weight or $4.50 per pound, after process weight, if I process them for the customer. This encourages anyone who is capable of processing their own, to do so, which saves them $ and makes it easier on me, since I do almost all the processing myself, except for the hot water dunking.
I always have a dozen or so growing out for next year's harvest and am hatching out from Late December till ??? Well 5 are in the brooder and over a dozen in the bator yet, so almost year round!

If anyone wants an early start on Hollands for next year, and can pick them up, I have 5 right now! they are a week old and eating, drinking and growing strong and healthy!

Julie, like the others said, if you need the money, sell them. $75 is a good price. If you wait, they will cost some feed, but, just selling the eggs is $300 and hatching the eggs and selling poults is at least triple that! You need to decide how many poults and/or eggs you can sell and decide what is best for you! I am retired, so I can always bring mine to a daytime auction and sell them in the parking lot, if I hatch more than I get orders for and sell the extra eggs there, but have a very low income and raise the livestock to provide good healthy food for our table. You work a full time job and have many more animals to care for. Mine are free range and selling turkeys and rabbits is where I get the money to buy feed. I also free range and grow as much feed as I can, but you do not have that choice and have to pay for all your feed. By eating what I grow helps keep the doctor bills low and our health high. Everyone is different and what works for me might not work for you, so I think you have already made up your mind! LOL

Celie are you saying you get 300. for a dozen hatching eggs?

 

[kuntrygirl]

I have 2 people that want to buy 2 adult hens from me but I really, really, really, really don't want to sell them but they are willing to pay the price, which is $75.00 per hen. I have 12 girls now but that will bring me down to only 10. I will be losing money if I sell them because I want to keep them for laying eggs and hatching poults.


Should I follow my first mind and not sell or go ahead and sell? How many hens do you all have for laying eggs and hatching?

Hmmm.  Do you need the money from selling them now?  If no, then don't do it.
Celie said your girls may start laying in December?  If so, can you let me know?  I want to hatch our poults by the end of Jan or middle Feb.  Do you have other varieties other than Reds?

No. I don't need the sale for the money. As I explained to the customer, I don't like to sell the hens because I actually lose money when I sell them them.

And yes, they should start laying next month. I only have Bourbon Reds. I will let you know.

 

[kuntrygirl]

I have 2 people that want to buy 2 adult hens from me but I really, really, really, really don't want to sell them but they are willing to pay the price, which is $75.00 per hen. I have 12 girls now but that will bring me down to only 10. I will be losing money if I sell them because I want to keep them for laying eggs and hatching poults.


Should I follow my first mind and not sell or go ahead and sell? How many hens do you all have for laying eggs and hatching?

If you keep the 2 hens, how much money will you make from the hens???  More than the $75?? 

Keep the breeding stock, and only sell the extras.

I posted this on another thread, so I will copy and paste this information about the price.

1 hen = 12 eggs layed each time (estimate - 2 times broody) = 24 eggs. If I chose to let the hen hatch the eggs or if I chose to hatch the eggs in the incubator and I have a 100% hatch rate (and I usually do), the 24 poults are sold @ $12.00 each. 24 poults x $12.00 brings in a profit of $288.00 if I sell the poults within a week . If I keep them any longer, the price increases every week by $1.00 (cost of feeding them). Comparing the amount that I could sell a hen for compared to selling 24 poults minus the amount of feed that 1 hen eats still puts me in the + (positive) because they don't eat that much feed.

If the hen only lays eggs and does not go broody for 3 months and lays (let's just say) 75 eggs and I sell all 75 eggs @ $3.00 each. That hen brings in a $225.00 profit.

This profit ($225.00 to $288.00) is the same that a buyer can make off of the hen that I sell him/her (if that's what they chose to do). Now if I sell 2 hens to this same person and Hen 1 hatches all eggs both times and Hen 2 only lays eggs (based on a 3 month period - my hens layed eggs for 10 month this year ($750.00 worth of eggs for 10 months of egg laying), my profit is $513.00 for 3 egg laying for 3 months).

In addition, my turkeys don't eat a lot. The turkeys like to fly over the fence and come into the human yard and the wooded area and eat grass and bugs.

So the $75.00 that I sell them for is nothing compared to what I can make.

I agree with keeping the breeding stock and selling the extras and the extras are always the males.

Thanks for the input.

 

[kuntrygirl]

 

 
NOthing-- it lives here forever, just no new posts added. DOn't know if editing is limited or not.

Editing would not be a problem, but I would hate for all the GREAT information in this thread to be gone forever. We have come so far on this thread, I think anyone starting turkeys could answer almost any question and get a great start in raising turkeys by using this thread as their first textbook and then turkeys 2014 could be their next volume, IMHO ! Just saying!

THe thread doesn' go away. A locked thread continues living on BYC, just we can't ADD more posts. 

I can see it now  Turkeys for 2013 has a life of it's own and it will live on forever!! lol

 

[kuntrygirl]

 
If you keep the 2 hens, how much money will you make from the hens???  More than the $75??

Keep the breeding stock, and only sell the extras.

X2 I agree with this. Breeding stock is worth more money in the long run for you especially since you said yourself you wanted to keep them. Keep your plans on track for 2014.

Thank you for your input. That's what I will do. I just needed confirmation from other experienced turkey people.

 

[kuntrygirl]

Has anyone ever made turkey soup?

 EVERY TIME I ROAST A TURKEY ! ! ! ! ! 

THe easiest is: pile leftover roasted meat and bones into a big stock pot. COver with water and scrap ings from roasting pan.Add garlic salt and diced onions and thyme.  Bring to a boil and then simmer for a few hours. Until meat falls of the bones. LEt cool. Debone. I often eat as is. OR add  wild rice, or brown rice. diced carrots, bay leaf, pepper corns,  or mushrooms. 

NOte:  I buy a large packet of fresh thyme and put into freezer. THen remove the leaves for my scrambled eggs and feta. THe thick branches I use in stock or soup. 

I'm so hungry now.

I have GOT TO try this.

Thanks

 

[kuntrygirl]

 
 EVERY TIME I ROAST A TURKEY ! ! ! ! ! 

THe easiest is: pile leftover roasted meat and bones into a big stock pot. COver with water and scrap ings from roasting pan.Add garlic salt and diced onions and thyme.  Bring to a boil and then simmer for a few hours. Until meat falls of the bones. LEt cool. Debone. I often eat as is. OR add  wild rice, or brown rice. diced carrots, bay leaf, pepper corns,  or mushrooms. 

NOte:  I buy a large packet of fresh thyme and put into freezer. THen remove the leaves for my scrambled eggs and feta. THe thick branches I use in stock or soup. 

When is supper??? 

Lisa

x2

 

[kuntrygirl]

I have 2 people that want to buy 2 adult hens from me but I really, really, really, really don't want to sell them but they are willing to pay the price, which is $75.00 per hen. I have 12 girls now but that will bring me down to only 10. I will be losing money if I sell them because I want to keep them for laying eggs and hatching poults.


Should I follow my first mind and not sell or go ahead and sell? How many hens do you all have for laying eggs and hatching?

I am going to keep a dozen this year. Last year, I had 15. When I get the MW, Beltsville and BR producing, I would like to keep, to start, at least 6 hens and 2 toms of each breed.
Right now I only have one BR hen and no tom(yet), but well at least be getting 24 hatching eggs by late March/early April and the hen I have has very dark red vivid colored feathers, so she should hatch some nicely colored poults. The MW eggs, that I got last March, hatched into all toms, so I need more MW hatching eggs. I have a swap arranged for a pair or trio of Belteville small white and an order in for a dozen Narragansett hatching eggs, to be picked up as soon as they are available, so I don't have to worry about shipping damage.
In time, I will probably keep a larger number of the Midget Whites and Beltsville small whites, because we love roasted turkey and Hubby calls these our "empty Nester" turkeys! LOL I may wind up keeping a dozen hens for each of these 2 breeds. I may be wrong, but I have heard that MWs lay a lot more eggs than Beltsville Small whites, But the Beltsville are a little larger. Both breeds take up less room and eat less than my huge Hollands, but dress out about 1/4 th the size.
So I will still keep Hollands for large Holliday get togethers and stocking the freezer with turkey breast roasts, sausages and ground turkey meat. One large turkey is easier to debone and ground than 4 or 5 smaller ones. For more meat to the turkey, you can't beat Hollands.
The Bourbon Reds and Narragansetts are both medium sized colorful turkeys, with the toms max weight reported to be about 33 pounds, before processing. This should equate to 26-27 pounds processed weight for the toms. That is a good weight for most people and they will add a lot of color to the flock. 
I sold hundreds of poults last year and I need a choice to offer to my customers. It will just take time and I have to be patient!
So by 2015, I would like to have 6-8 Holland, Bourbon Red and Narragansett hens each, 12-15 Midget white and Beltsville hens each. I will keep 2 toms to breed with the H, BR and N and 3 toms for the 2 smaller breed hens. So, eventually, I will have a total of 42 to 54 hens breeding and laying. and a few toms growing out for the next year's harvest.
Any extra hens, I sell with a similar age tom as a pair or trio and I only sell toms for processing.
Tomorrow, I have 4 people to call back, that called for Holiday turkeys to process, so I may have only 7 left to process myself, which would be great, 3 for the Holidays and 4 for the freezer.
 I sell breeding pairs at 7 to 12 months for $100 a pair and toms to process at 15 to 18 months live for $2.50 per pound live weight or $4.50 per pound, after process weight, if I process them for the customer. This encourages anyone who is capable of processing their own, to do so, which saves them $ and makes it easier on me, since I do almost all the processing myself, except for the hot water dunking.
I always have a dozen or so growing out for next year's harvest and am hatching out from Late December till ??? Well 5 are in the brooder and over a dozen in the bator yet, so almost year round!:/ If anyone wants an early start on Hollands for next year, and can pick them up, I have 5 right now! they are a week old and eating, drinking and growing strong and healthy!

Julie, like the others said, if you need the money, sell them. $75 is a good price. If you wait, they will cost some feed, but, just selling the eggs is $300 and hatching the eggs and selling poults is at least triple that! You need to decide how many poults and/or eggs you can sell and decide what is best for you! I am retired, so I can always bring mine to a daytime auction and sell them in the parking lot, if I hatch more than I get orders for and sell the extra eggs there, but have a very low income and raise the livestock to provide good healthy food for our table. You work a full time job and have many more animals to care for. Mine are free range and selling turkeys and rabbits is where I get the money to buy feed. I also free range and grow as much feed as I can, but you do not have that choice and have to pay for all your feed. By eating what I grow helps keep the doctor bills low and our health high. Everyone is different and what works for me might not work for you, so I think you have already made up your mind! LOL

I think 12 is a great number to keep.

I really don't need the $75.00 because the profit if I keep them is three times that and more. They really don't eat a lot. They are too busy running around bullying people, as you can tell by the pics. lol I think they would pass up a meal if they could torcher another animal on the farm.

 

[kuntrygirl]

Anyone ever make turkey pot pie? I'm thinking turkey soup and a small turkey pot pie.

 

[TexasLisa]

Anyone ever make turkey pot pie?

I'm thinking turkey soup and a small turkey pot pie.

I think you need to eat some breakfast!!

I am waiting for recipes to follow your request.

Lisa