Turkeys For 2013

[chickadoodles]

I will get my first taste of a home grown turkey this year! Yea!

 

[TexasLisa]

You will absolutely love it! Have you figured out how you will do the turkey?

Lisa

 

[Reyvaughn]

Okay, the trio from Aunt Kat and my original 7...


Original 7 - 2 BBBs by the feeder are the deformed ones. I am hoping to get them processed next week. The one is easily 10-12lbs. The other is a lightweight - about 8lbs.


The Black Spanish trio from Aunt Kat. They are in quarantine but I allowed them to run my 12x24 shed while I swept and ran the sweeper in there today.

 

[AUNT KAT]

Okay, the trio from Aunt Kat and my original 7...


Original 7 - 2 BBBs by the feeder are the deformed ones. I am hoping to get them processed next week. The one is easily 10-12lbs. The other is a lightweight - about 8lbs.


The Black Spanish trio from Aunt Kat. They are in quarantine but I allowed them to run my 12x24 shed while I swept and ran the sweeper in there today.

AWWW! So happy to see my buddies doing well :')

 

[Arielle]

I will get my first taste of a home grown turkey this year! Yea!

You are making me hungry!!! I always love a roasted turkey-- so many ways though to cook a turkey . . . .

I look at the narrigansetts and think "wow, they are huge and would make a great dinner" BUt honestly I am liking the growth on the cross breds that are sired by the narrigansetts. I think keeping feed always available for them might get them into the freezer faster!! lol

 

[desertmarcy]

IT is starting already-- people don't like my turkey pricing. THe cost of keeping turkeys is expensive. I'm happy to put them in MY freezer. I've been looking in my freezers to decide what can be tossed at this point-- to feed the chickens! -- and make room. Canning is sure helping to save freezer space. I love roasted turkey-- a good week as the temps are dropping.

Is the price for processed or live turkeys? So many people want cheap food, but there are people out there who are willing to pay for quality. It is just a matter of getting the word out to the right people. I have deposits for 12 Thanksgiving processed turkeys so far. I have at least 3 more hens and 3 more toms that I want to process. I'm charging $7.50/pound this year. Mine are fed certified organic feed, so I don't know if I will get my feed money back on these or not. I'm raising a lot of birds for breeding pens for next year, so it is hard to figure out the feed bill just for the birds that will be sold butchered since they are all together. I guess I could estimate, come Thanksgiving, see how much feed I've used for them and divide by the total number of birds at that time. That might give me a rough estimate. I put an ad in a new magazine that just started here in Tucson, "Edible Baja Arizona". It is patterned after "Edible" magazines from other parts of the country, focused on local and quality foods. I've gotten some sales from that. I also had a local public media station, "Arizona Illustrated" come out and interview me for a turkey story. That will air sometime late October and if I don't have all my unwanted turkeys promised by then, I suspect I will get them all sold after that publicity. I don't have freezer space for turkeys, it is all taken up by chickens.

Us people who are doing all the work raising quality birds need to stand firm on pricing, is what I think. People who have not raised birds just don't have a clue to the costs and effort involved.

 

[Arielle]

Quote:
Thanks Desert Marcy--- I'm going to keep my canner busy. Not my favorite way to eat turkey but I"m sure it will taste good in soup!!

 

[Sally8]

The first turkeys I sold, I sold for $15.00. They were several months old. I hatched them myself and were a mix between Royal Palm and Bronzes. They sold within a few weeks of posting. The next batch, were of the same but I asked $20.00 a piece and they were gone in a few hours. This last bunch were the same mixed breeding, $20.00 a piece and I had a pair of Blue Slate, pure and I asked $25.00. They were gone by the next morning after I posted them but the man that came 2 hours away gave me a hard time about the pricing and I told him he could just leave them and go home. He paid the money and tried to buy my car.
I think there is a market here as I never see any for sale around me. I just don't have the room. I think I'll have turkeys again as I really do like them but need to be sure that I have the room for them. I'm not sure that I can say that mine are 100% organic but I've never added anything. Something for me to research this winter.

 

[casportpony]

The first turkeys I sold, I sold for $15.00. They were several months old. I hatched them myself and were a mix between Royal Palm and Bronzes. They sold within a few weeks of posting. The next batch, were of the same but I asked $20.00 a piece and they were gone in a few hours. This last bunch were the same mixed breeding, $20.00 a piece and I had a pair of Blue Slate, pure and I asked $25.00. They were gone by the next morning after I posted them but the man that came 2 hours away gave me a hard time about the pricing and I told him he could just leave them and go home. He paid the money and tried to buy my car.
I think there is a market here as I never see any for sale around me. I just don't have the room. I think I'll have turkeys again as I really do like them but need to be sure that I have the room for them. I'm not sure that I can say that mine are 100% organic but I've never added anything. Something for me to research this winter.

I advertise my birds as fed all natural feed, no hormones, no antibiotics, fresh garden fruits and veggies, that seems to be okay with most people here.

-Kathy

 

[desertmarcy]

I advertise my birds as fed all natural feed, no hormones, no antibiotics, fresh garden fruits and veggies, that seems to be okay with most people here.

-Kathy

There are a lot of people who do not want the GMOs (genetically modified organisms) in their food chain. For those people, and I am one of them, organic is the only way to go since GMOs are not allowed in organic feed. All commercial poultry feeds use GMO corn, soy, or canola, and now GMO alfalfa has been approved, unless it is organic.