Turkeys For 2013

[Arielle]

We use colored plastic zip ties. You can get a bag for a few dollars of mixed colors. Clear can also be used and they are a little cheaper. If the colored is used just pick a color for the year, if using clear. Right leg - 2013, left leg 2014, both legs 2015, then you could double band for 2016 if you keep breeders that long. Walmart, Lowes and Tractor supply all carry the colored zip ties

HAahaa-- I have oodles of zip ties, in many colors. Used to id individual chickens for various reasons, or marking a specific breed with close look alikes. Flouresent green and yellow look too much alike so I use them as the same color.

Come in many sizes. ANd I cut with nail clippers. THis is for chickens so far.

 

[Arielle]

We just hatched out four poults from a set of five eggs - we were trying out a new bator. We've set another 25 eggs which will be ready for hatch around Feb 22. They are white hollands which clean really nice for eating and grow pretty well too. We started the first of April last year and had an 18 lb dressed weight bird for Thanksgiving dinner and it wasn't the biggest of the bunch. They started laying really well in December and we get 3 eggs a day now (we have 3 hens). Anyone interested in poults or hatching eggs just send me a PM.


This pic is at 2 days old.

Very cute--

 

[Arielle]

Quote: For me, a big help is to not play with them. NOt the lambs, not the poults. It helps. NOt perfect but it helps. Nursing a near frozen lamb and having it sleep in my room for a month . . . . those are the one't that result in

. We will not breed for Easter lambs any more. Costs too much for what we get back. A couple toms -- the 3 muskateers have escaped the butcher a few times, oops for got to call-- and one will get a few young girls this spring.

Raise in a group, don't play with them, do not single out "pet" one--not a perfect system, but it helps.

 

[Arielle]

Time to run out and shut off the chicken light. It is VERY coold here-artic blast for 3 days is 3 days too many. Zero tonight.

 

[kuntrygirl]

Originally Posted by Celie

What do yours weigh when they hatch out? I also am raising HW's, too, and mine weigh about the same as Kuntrygirl stated hers weighted and a few a little more, but they seam to be laying smaller eggs than I remembered getting last year? I had a breach hatching yesterday, the poult started to peck the bottom half of the shell, instead of the top, so I tried to help the poor thing out and I started to see blood, oops, so I got a rag and wet it in warm water and wrapped it around the shell, except where the shell was broken. I know it would not make it, too much blood. Well this morning it was not in the rag, so I took the shell out and there it was, right in the hatching draw, as good as any poult could be and weighted a tenth of an ounce more than the others!

This year will be my first year tracking the weights of the poults. And I didn't start until a week later for the 1st hatch and 3 days later for the 2nd hatch, so I won't have a weight at the time of hatch for this group. However, the 12 eggs (poults) that are in the incubator right now will be weighed when all of them have hatched and are taken out of the incubator.

Glad that your little poult made it out. I had the same problem with a few eggs. They were some late hatchers and I broke the shell on those eggs but then wrapped them back up as well after I saw a little blood. I thought that I had killed all of them. Then there was one that had been trying to get out for at least 2 days and still had not made it out, so I took it in the bathroom,closed the door, turned on the shower to get it all hot and steamy in there (warmth and humidity) and commenced to getting the tweezers and pealing away the shell. It was a perfect little poult He dried off great and was up and moving the next day.

 

[kuntrygirl]

Where's the cheapest place for the plastic numbered bandettes? Cutler's only has four sizes. :/ Plus at seven bucks a pack, that's twenty eight, excluding shipping and would only band a few of my birds!

NO one has mentioned the toe punch-- it is done with chickens, can it be done with turkeys??  I was looking at the tom legs today and noticed that the state inspectors metal legbands are GONE--wasn't looking for webbing between the toes.  Do turkeys have a spot to punch??

Toe punch?

 

[kuntrygirl]

Here is a pic of the zip ties that are sold at the Dollar Tree. You get 100 zip ties for $1.00. I forgot to take a pic last night of mine. This is a pic from their website.

7½" (28) and 4¼" (72) cable ties

 

[Celie]

THis is the first year I have butchered my own stock. Always took it to Bloods--5 generations of butchrs!!-- and pt my heart on hold went into a mental freeze and helped DH load the lambs. THis year I sold a few animals on the hoof and the guys showed my how to butcher chickens, and sheep. CHickens I got better at--and I use a scalpel as it cuts the throat very fast. THe guys cut the throat on the sheep but I couldn't stay for that. In general I was in a mental freeze--I want the meat, but hate killing the animal. I say a prayer like the Native Americans.

What pocket knife do you use that holds up so well? DO you sharpen it?

The first one was the hardest for me, too!

But I was raising them to eat. That's why I bought all roosters first. I got 3 hens with them by the hatchery error in sexing, but I did this so I could see what breeds would be meek and which aggressive. I had heard stories about aggressive birds my mother ran in fear from when she was young and did not have any experience with before.
I knew I would have to eventually harvest them for food, but it took my 30 minutes with the first one hanging from a tree, with a knife in my hand before I could get up the nerve to do the do! I can't say it was easy, but it became easier, as I got more experienced at it. That's what they were for and probably not have been hatched, if not for food. I can't stand to give pain to any thing or anyone. I have a lot of empathy! Maybe too much. But I realize that if I buy meat at the store, someone had to kill it, so I should not be a hypocrite about it or become a vegan! Now that's just about me, I am not judging others!!! I think the biggest fear people have is that they are afraid they will botch the job and it won't be a quick kill. That was mine. I would suggest that the first one you plan to do, ask someone that is very experienced, you can trust, to stand by with a sharp knife ready to step in if you do! That should give you more confidence to be able to harvest what you raise to feed your family. I tell people that I give my livestock, the best possible and the kill is almost instantaneous, because I feed them, so they can feed us!!!

I know what you mean about the mental freeze. We did our own CX this past summer. I was in a frozen blind state of mind. We made it through all 26 in one day. The next morning I woke up and cried for a long time, I felt nausious the rest of the day. After the CX I couldnt bring myself to do the 2 BBWs I raised, I bonded with them a little and had a very big soft spot for them I couldnt do the deed I brought them to the farm up the road. This year we plan to process all our extra roosters also the CX again and I hope we can bring ourselves to try the Turkeys also. Only time will tell.

That's why I do not name my food or play with them. I can handle my animals fine, my hens even stand up, so I can take their eggs, because they know I am anyway because here I am ALPHA to them.

NO one has mentioned the toe punch-- it is done with chickens, can it be done with turkeys?? I was looking at the tom legs today and noticed that the state inspectors metal legbands are GONE--wasn't looking for webbing between the toes. Do turkeys have a spot to punch??

Now, I could not do that, as I feel putting a hole into a foot has to hurt and they have to live with. I don't think animals feel pain like we do, because God made them to be eaten and I feel that they do not feel emotional pain, except for dogs or possibly cats, that live right beside us as inside animals, I know they learn emotions from us, in their desire to please, as we got our emotions from God!

 

[Celie]

How ofter do you have to change them to a larger size?

 

[Bettacreek]

I'm not sure how accurate their count is. I bought three packs. I ended up with fifteen each of the four different colors of the large ties. That's 20 large per pack, not 28. I wasn't counting all those tiny ties though! Still, for $1.06, way worth it, just buy an extra pack if you're close to their calculation of necessary ties in any color.

Here is a pic of the zip ties that are sold at the Dollar Tree. You get 100 zip ties for $1.00. I forgot to take a pic last night of mine. This is a pic from their website.