We got Turkeys!!!!!

[joey7319]

I'm so excited!!! I came home from work about 4 days ago and Joey (fiancee) surprised me with baby turkeys. They are White Faced Black Spanish Turkeys and about 8 weeks old. They are super cute and very friendly. They follow us around the yard like little dogs its so funny. We were outside on the porch last night and they just came wondering up to see what was going on. We think (and hope) we've got two hens and a tom. The lady we got them from said she wasn't 100% sure but she was fairly certain thats what she gave us. They are all supposedly the same age and the one we are guessing is the tom is noticeably larger. Are there any other ways to tell the toms from the hens? Such as coloring or tail feathers. We hope to breed them and sell hatching eggs and chicks when they get to that point. I don't know much about turkey (other than they are delicious) so I've been reading up as much as possible. Anyway......chickens-check, turkeys-check........now have to convince Joey to let me get some peafowl. Just wanted to share. I wish I could post pictures but I haven't figured out how to get my old camera to work with our new computer yet, but I'm working on it.....
Nikki

 

[favoritekitty]

Lets get on that "figuring out the camera" thing

I would love to see them. What are their names?

 

[Struttn1]

I have Royal Palm, Bourbon Red and Black Spanish turkeys and the Black Spanish are by far the most difficult to distinguish the toms from the hens. My BS poults were nearly 3 months old before I could tell for sure last year. The head is the thing to watch. Black Spanish hens have lots of black feathering running up to the back of the head while the young toms will go bald on top. The Black Spanish are beautiful birds when the mature and the toms are beautiful. The hens are very prolific layers.

 

[joey7319]

Quote:
Turkey 1,2, and 3???? I have no idea what to name them........got any good ideas? Lol. Right now the only birds that have names are 2 of our roosters (Big Red and Ginger) and we have 16 chickens. Guess I should get on that too

Nikki

 

[joey7319]

Quote:
I'll be glad when we find out who is what. If they aren't what we want, someone will be joining us for Thanksgiving. The one we think is a tom does look a little thinner on the neck and head, but that could just be wishful thinking. The other two also follow "him" around and "he" always seems to be on alert as well. Who knows? Surely not me, time will tell I guess. I'm quite anxious to see how they turn out.

Nikki

 

[joey7319]

Oh, and does anyone eat their turkey eggs? I was quite curious about this as well. Thats why we got our chickens, for the eggs and maybe meat. Are turkeys the other way around, you get them for the meat and maybe the eggs? I've gotten pretty attatched to them already, and frankley at $20 a bird I just can't see eating them.

Nikki

 

[Struttn1]

Turkey eggs are good to eat but are a bit tougher to crack open than those thin shelled store bought chicken eggs. They have a pretty tough membrane.