Turkeys For 2013

Status
Not open for further replies.
I also Agree. 1st because in my town they have to be penned if you have under 2 acres(which I am just shy of) and 2nd because they are curious and they like to wander. Not to long ago I found one of my hens in the middle of the road and the other 4 were gonna follow right behind her silly turkeys. I have an enclosed Pen with a large turkey house attatched. The pen is roughly 14ftx40ft ish.With aviary netting over the top. I do let them out on a occassion supervised. They dont go far from home but given the chance and curiosity hits them they might.


WOW, you all have a requirement for your town? When you say "penned", what does that mean as far as what you have to have for your birds? Does that mean in a coop or run that has a door and netting on top and they cannot get out or is it just an area where there is a fence with a gate and they are "penned" in that fenced area.

It really is a good requirement to have because as you said, it protects them from roaming in the road and getting run over.
 
In my town if you have under 2 acres they need to have adequate shelter and a fully enclosed fenced area attatch to their house so the "fowl" can not get out and roam in streets or neighboring yards(I believe Im not supposed to free range). All of my pens are fully enclosed but I do let everyone free range when I can supervise. If you have over 2 acres I beleive they still need adequate housing but dont require a pen to contain them.
 
In my town if you have under 2 acres they need to have adequate shelter and a fully enclosed fenced area attatch to their house so the "fowl" can not get out and roam in streets or neighboring yards(I believe Im not supposed to free range). All of my pens are fully enclosed but I do let everyone free range when I can supervise. If you have over 2 acres I beleive they still need adequate housing but dont require a pen to contain them.


Gotcha ;)
 
thanks all. I have the space inside the woven wire fence pastures to build something. My chicken run is set out along tha barn it's 40 by 12. Maybe I can design something less than permanent, more substantial than a tractor but that can be dismantled, moved and put together in another part of the pasture
 
Well, we surely know the low temps won't effect the hatching 100% because the eggs are rocking, pipping and zipping. Now the tricky part is if they hatch. I'm hoping the little buggars pop out
fl.gif


What's the normal temp of a refrigerator?

The good thing about your eggs is that they weren't in those low temps for 2 weeks like my turkey eggs were in the fridge.

Keep us updated on your eggs Treebird.
fl.gif
Kuntrygirl, Refrigerators have a control knob to control the temp. you want to set it at. You can put a thermometer on the shelf you want to check, keeping in mind that the top shelf will be the coldest (sometimes, non- sugared drinks will even get ice in them or freeze completely if left long enough) and the temp will get lower as you go down the shelves, making the bottom shelf or draw the warmest. That's why the top shelf is taller, for beverages, milk and such, most cold cut and cheese draws are mid way and the produce draw will be at the bottom. I have 2 draws at the bottom of mine, one says meat and one says produce and they have movable vents to adjust temps. Most refrigerators have a suggested setting, and incremented adjustment points, so you can adjust to your family needs, depending on how often you open the door, especially helpful if you have a house full of kids in the summer, constantly going in for cold beverages!
wink.png

Well, I didn't do it on purpose. (hee hee hee)

The girls had just started laying eggs and since I LOVE turkey eggs so much I was going to eat the first couple weeks of turkeys eggs not knowing if they were fertile or not. Well Celie, chewed my butt out and ripped me a new one and had a come to Jezus meeting with me about eating my turkeys eggs and not hatching them, and I felt so bad, I ran to the fridge and took them out and put them in the incubator.
gig.gif
So there is my story.
lau.gif
So looks like the first eggs of the season are fertile.
smile.png
Are you glad you did, now? What did you do with the eggs you found in your front yard, under that bush? Looked like at least 18 more turkey poults, to me!LOL
lau.gif

Ok dang it I am jealous I have BBW & CX neither of which can give me babies
th.gif
I'm gonna have to get some layers dang it
BBW and CX are not sustainable breeding stock, but if you have BBW hens, you can put a heritage tom over them, while you are waiting to acquire other hens, or breed some smaller breasted, BBW/Heritage cross hens and toms. I held the weight down on some toms that I got from the feed store(before I knew they had to be AI) and the first half dozen or so each hen laid were fertile, before the Toms finally got too big in the breast to breed! Since you already have these, they could be a start toward Heritage turkeys?
hu.gif

Ok I have officially gone crazy I just cooked a meal for my Turkeys Lord help me.
What did you cook for them? Corn? Cricket stew? Kuntrygirl is right, LUCKEY TURKEYS!!!
lau.gif
Don't let them tell my turkeys or my girls might form a union and go on strike !!!
gig.gif

So how is everyone's turkey nesting boxes or areas to lay eggs set up? Anyone have any type of special set up or special nesting box? Has anyone built anything larger than a regular sized nesting box for chickens?

My girls lay in the chicken house in the nesting boxes and I have some that feel safer going into the feed store building (I leave the door open halfway for them) and they fly onto the shelves (4 feet high)and will lay on the bales of hay that are stacked high on the shelves, which makes the height another foot, totaling 5 foot high area they fly onto to lay their eggs. So when I go in there to check for eggs, it doesn't look like there are any eggs in there, so I have to get a small ladder and climb up where the bales of hay are and collect the eggs. Those girls love hiding eggs.
hmm.png
Last year my turkey hens hid there eggs under bushes, in a neighbor's tractor shed, under wild thorny blackberry bushes, etc. Not long ago my neighbor was throwing out some very large dog carriers, like this.
only HUGE! So I thought "Celie, those would make good hiding places for your turkeys and chewed my butt out and ripped me a new one and had a come to Jezus meeting with myself
lau.gif
," until I went and picked them up, before the trash man did, used the top half as one hiding place and the bottom half as another. I made a slight impression in the sand, put some hay into it and put the hiding place part over it as a cover. The hens love them, so this year, I found someone selling 2 like it and bought them for $20 each. Did the same thing, giving me a total of 6 hiding places, and as you already know, hens like to share their nests, so it is more than enough nests for a dozen turkeys. DH is talking about increasing the flock for 2014, already, boy is this getting contagious!
th.gif



Right now I have 9 Beltsville Small Whites: 3 Toms and 6 hens (have 14 of their eggs in the incubator). Our lot is just under 7 acres (something like 500 feet on two of the sides...don't know about the rest since the property is wedge shaped). Anyway, we only have neighbors on one side, a horse farm on the second, and woods on the other two. We had to put up a 7' tall metal fence (we are way outside of town) to keep them from going into our neighbors yard since he is a jerk and trained his dogs to attack the birds. We also had to put up tall fencing on the other end of our property since they were going into the woods, which the bobcats liked, but we didn't.

Also, turkeys love to perch anywhere high, so if your vehicles or tractors are not someplace the birds cannot get on them, you need to either keep their wings regularly clipped or be prepared for a scratched up paint job.

Even with clipped wings, mine can jump pretty high, around 3-4 feet. Despite cozy nesting areas, they jump on top of some windows we have stored in the barn and lay up there (they use the tractor tires to help them get to the top of the 5' tall windows). I have convinced my husband to build a nesting box up there for them, which we are doing this weekend....if it ever stops raining here.

Funny thing is that despite causing the most trouble out of any of the poultry or fowl on the property, these guys are my husband and son's favorites. They are completely funny to watch and love to play and investigate anything and everything.
I know what you mean, my turkeys, when they were younger, would fly up to the roof of the house! We came home one day last spring to find all 20something young turkeys up on the ridge of the roof, but as they got older and the roof got hotter in triple digit temps, this past summer, they figured it would be cooler to wade in the shallow end of the pond with the ducks, instead of the hot roof. It's funny, but since we have not gotten all of the property fenced on all sides yet, we had to set boundaries for the dogs and cats, so we led them around by the collars, around the perimeters of the property, everyday for a few weeks, until they realized that is where they live and that is where we want them to stay. They, in turn, will not let the flocks go past "our property" limits either. We only have a neighbor on one side and he has a large pasture between us,that is unmowed most of the year, but the turkeys don't even try to cross. I think until they had their dog carrier nest hiding places, they would go on "walk abouts" to find a good hiding place, and now they don't have too, and they love their warm jacket floor(another story for another time), under their nest on the cement carport, too.
lau.gif

 
Last edited:
Celie, there is no such thing as hi-jacking on this thread. Good conversation and sharing information is what we have going on here. Continue posting as you please. :D

Yes, I'm glad that I started incubating. As far as the other eggs, I put them under 2 broody hens but they kept changing nesting boxes and the eggs went through too many temp changes. I usually put the broody chickens in their own little compartment but I didn't do that this time but will be doing it next time. So, I threw those eggs away.

Good score on those dog carriers. I'm the same way. Anytime I find someone selling them at a good price, I always buy as many as I can. My storage building looks like PetSmart because I have so many cages and pet carriers. :gig

I'm glad that I'm not the only one who is miserable with all of this weather. I'm down right depressed. :hit

I took a pic of 1 of the TERRIBLE 10 roosting on the side of the baby brooder box that I have them in right now in the kitchen. When I got home yesterday, 3 of them had jumped out of the brooder box and were walking around. Time for the next taller brooder. :mad:
1000


I'm hoping to try the same refrigerated egg experiment with pea fowl eggs when my pea girls start to laying eggs in a few months.

ETA: Everyone, please feel free to post pics of your turkeys and babies. It's a turkey party here, so let's celebrate and be proud of our turkeys. POST POST POST PICS !!!!!!!!! :weee
 
Last edited:
I am thinking about selling one of my Bourbon Red Toms, he is 7 months old. If I decide to sell him what is a good asking price? He is from breeder stock not hatchery. I was thinking about making him Easter dinner but havent decide yet.
 
I am thinking about selling one of my Bourbon Red Toms, he is 7 months old. If I decide to sell him what is a good asking price? He is from breeder stock not hatchery. I was thinking about making him Easter dinner but havent decide yet.


Do you have a pic of him that you can post? How much does he weigh? I think every area will be different as far as prices. Feeding them are expensive, so you have to make sure that you don't cheat yourself out of any money. I'm wondering if $40.00 would be a good price for a 7 month old. Maybe others can chime in and comment.
 
Cute turkey
thumbsup.gif
...here is a picture of my month old "he" is so much bigger then the other 2 I have. He is very gentle and will let anyone hold him.
clap.gif
woot.gif



 
We have 1 week before We show the Turkey... Have a pro coming to pick which one to show on Sunday. Wish us luck
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

New posts New threads Active threads

Back
Top Bottom