Turkeys For 2013

[Celie]

WHERE ARE EVERYONE TODAY? IS IT A HOLLIDAY AND NO ONE TOLD ME??? LOL

 

[desertmarcy]

Celie, do you do your own processing? I do, and when I process a tom over a year old, I have a devil of a time getting the crop out. There is a ton of fat in the neck. I ended up cutting a lot of the fat out, trimming around so I could get the crop out.

Your price structure is very reasonable. That is approx. what I do, but I am not a stickler for selling pairs, it just depends on what I have at the time that I don't want to keep. However I feed organic, so my processed birds are more expensive. I can't free range here, so everything they eat is what I provide. I don't think I'd be able to keep a pen of toms over to the next year to sell as processed with the set up I have. Most people just want a big turkey for Thanksgiving, some maybe Christmas. If they were hatched early, in April, then they would be 20 months old come the following Thanksgiving. Do you hatch later in the year, so they are a bit younger? I agree, the adults don't eat nearly the feed the growing turkeys do.

 

[Momhunter]

I'm raising my first turkeys, I have 4 royal palms and two blue slates. They were hatched in early May. When should they be ready for processing? The blue slates are hens and were bought for meat, I am keeping a trio of the royal palms for breeding and considering processing the extra tom before they start fighting. They share a large flight pen with my trio of peafowl and get turned out to free range on 85 acres of coastal and woods several days a week. Currently eating free choice flock raiser (22% protein I think), meal worms and cat food as treats along with chicken scratch to call them back into the pen after letting them out for the day. They were on game bird starter 30% protein for the first 2.5 months. The blue slate are supposed to be for thanksgiving, will they be ready for processing by then?

 

[desertmarcy]

I'm raising my first turkeys, I have 4 royal palms and two blue slates. They were hatched in early May. When should they be ready for processing? The blue slates are hens and were bought for meat, I am keeping a trio of the royal palms for breeding and considering processing the extra tom before they start fighting. They share a large flight pen with my trio of peafowl and get turned out to free range on 85 acres of coastal and woods several days a week. Currently eating free choice flock raiser (22% protein I think), meal worms and cat food as treats along with chicken scratch to call them back into the pen after letting them out for the day. They were on game bird starter 30% protein for the first 2.5 months. The blue slate are supposed to be for thanksgiving, will they be ready for processing by then?

Yes, they will be okay for Thanksgiving. 6 months is minimum to grow out the heritage turkeys. I have a group hatched in mid-May and they will be processed for Thanksgiving. If you raise them longer, they will be bigger and meatier but 6 month olds make a decent carcass IMO.
My turkeys don't start laying until mid-March or later here. If I kept some of the earliest hatched, then I'd get another month of growth on the birds I suppose. I always seem to sell the earliest hatched poults because people want them then! I need to start hatching for myself first.

 

[Momhunter]

Thanks

 

[kuntrygirl]

And I thought that I was done with broody hens. To my surprise I found a broody hen sitting on a crap load of eggs. I am so upset right now, I don't know what to do. I thought that I was DONE with babies.

 

[chicken pickin]

Oh Boy!!! you sure do have some persistant hens lol. I am so done with babies too. I have chicks in the garage that my broody chicken hatched. And I cant for the life of me rehome them.

How many poults are you expecting? If I had a little more space I would say send them my way. I want to bring in new blood soon. But I don't have room to over winter.

 

[kuntrygirl]

Oh Boy!!! you sure do have some persistant hens lol. I am so done with babies too. I have chicks in the garage that my broody chicken hatched. And I cant for the life of me rehome them.

How many poults are you expecting? If I had a little more space I would say send them my way. I want to bring in new blood soon. But I don't have room to over winter.

I currently have 5 broody hens but th 4 of them are setting on chicken and duck eggs. It looks like the hen that is on the turkeys eggs is sitting on about 15 eggs.

Eventually, I know that I will need to get new blood too. I would love to have 10 new hens and 2 new toms for Porters. I probably need to get my order in now. :/

 

[kuntrygirl]

The girls have been laying for 10 months now . A couple more months and they would have layed an entire year. It's gotta be something in the water at my place. Go figure.

Oh, I forgot about the other broody hen that hid her nest in the goat pen.

 

[chicken pickin]

On the bright side at least your weather stays decent so you have that on your side with all the new babies. But it must get exhausting. I feel like your always saying you have new babies lol. Your farm is a like a baby making machine, always running. LOL.