Why Do You Have Turkeys? What Kind Do You Have?

[Tunastopper]

A.T. Hagan :

I have turkeys because chickens weren't making me crazy enough. White Midgets are what I have right now.

I sell poults.

How much do you sell them for? Do you ship them?​

 

[MandyH]

We raise Sweetgrass and blue slate turkeys. I have sold a bunch of poults this Spring and now all the turkey hens are broody and are sitting on any and every egg they can find. I have 3 turkey hens that have each hatched a clutch of chicken eggs LOL!!!!

 

[A.T. Hagan]

Quote:
How much do you sell them for? Do you ship them?

Eight dollars apiece, but I do not ship. Hate dealing with the losses.

 

[Tunastopper]

A.T. Hagan :

Quote:
How much do you sell them for? Do you ship them?

Eight dollars apiece, but I do not ship. Hate dealing with the losses.​

I wouldn't ship either. To big a pain to ship even eggs. My feed store wants to buy some. They didn't say how much they would pay me. I don't even know if I want to sell any to them.

 

[slc]

I decided to add turkeys for sustainability. I'm currently hatching genuine Beltsville White from what I've found to be the three last known remaining lines.

We substitute a lot of beef and other meats with turkey in our family diet so we eat a lot of turkey. Fresh locally raised turkey is hard to find on a regular basis because most local markets raise them for the holidays. It's a shame that most families only eat turkey dinner once a year. They are totally missing out. Beltsville were also commonly slaughtered at 5-7lbs for fryers with a feed conversion of 2.5lb feed to pound of weight gain.

The Beltsville was custom developed by the USDA for meat production in the 50's when families had those tiny apartment ovens. It was a very popular commercial turkey for a while. The Beltsville is a small family sized or "chicken dinner" type turkey. These Beltsville are not descended from the Midget White which is sometimes incorrectly interchanged with the name Beltsville. These turkeys are not typical heritage birds. The body shape is stocky and similar to the BBW only smaller (12-20lbs). Unlike BBW they can reproduce naturally. A perfectly sized homestead turkey.

I am very excited to start raising this breed. I hope to bring my new flock back to the original carcase standard that they were once famous for.

 

[pongoid]

That sounds interesting, where can I get those smallish turkeys called Bletsville?

 

[slc]

Quote:
There is a breeder with eggs on ebay right now that are genuine Beltsville Whites. Search for "beltsville hatching eggs"

 

[Tunastopper]

Quote:
There is a breeder with eggs on ebay right now that are genuine Beltsville Whites. Search for "beltsville hatching eggs"

I bought some of those on e-bay. They where not good quality and few hatched. Is that where yours came from?

 

[longranger]

Most of the listings for BSW turkeys on ebay are I believe posted by Jerry Pool under the name birdlady or Sheryl. By reputation he has one of the better documented pure flocks. I got only 2 out of 12 of his eggs to hatch last year. One died as a poult and the other grew into a very nice hen.

No matter who you get turkey eggs from if they are shipped the hatch rate can be very disappointing. I used to assume they were just bum eggs but after shipping out well over 100 turkey hatching eggs this year myself and seeing both good and terrible results I don't assume that. Shipping damages many of the eggs internally and if they get x-rayed forget about it. Pick up eggs or poults locally if you possibly can, even if it is a bit of a drive. Get eggs shipped only if you can't get the same variety or quality locally and do so with low expectations.

 

[Tunastopper]

Quote:
I seen Jerry Pools on Egg Bid. I pretty much done with shipped eggs too. I don't think I need these fancy breeds for my meat birds anyway. I can breed my own using White Holland Toms and BBW hens and I am not wasting my money on eggs.