World’s Cutest Thanksgiving dinner

[Xouie]

Well, we sold 6 poults and kept 4: Mercedes and Greenbird, and the 2 biggest ones. Their new habit is to fly out of the brooder aiming for a lap! Fun now, but not so much in a few weeks.

What I’m starting to do now is little massages in the brooder. Hopefully the more they’re handled, the less stressful processing day will be for them. I think my target live weight is around 20 pounds to get a 15 pound processed weight.

 

[Tonyroo]

Well, we sold 6 poults and kept 4: Mercedes and Greenbird, and the 2 biggest ones. Their new habit is to fly out of the brooder aiming for a lap! Fun now, but not so much in a few weeks.

View attachment 2643804
What I’m starting to do now is little massages in the brooder. Hopefully the more they’re handled, the less stressful processing day will be for them. I think my target live weight is around 20 pounds to get a 15 pound processed weight.

Seeing turkeys are a lot bigger than a chicken, do you use the same technique to cull them and gut them?

 

[Xouie]

Seeing turkeys are a lot bigger than a chicken, do you use the same technique to cull them and gut them?

My methods won’t really change, but I’ll have to make some equipment adjustments. I don’t have a restraining cone big enough, so I’ll have to either hang them by the feet or use a towel straitjacket. The scalder is big enough, and the ice bath will either be the usual 5-gallon bucket or an ice chest.

It will be a learning experience for sure — my dad always did the turkey process while the rest of us weren’t home. So this will be a first time for me doing turkey.

 

[Xouie]

Three weeks old now. I haven’t been weighing them. These little ones are a lot more active than the Cornish were. They will not hold still on the scale.

 

[Xouie]

Whoops — picture of two of them

 

[Xouie]

Wow, these guys can be brutal. Two of them ganged up on Martin Greenbird:

Just in the time it took to get this photo, Mercedes Turkey and Abbott got into a scrap! Guess I have to let them work it out.

I wonder if this is really why turkeys are bald.

 

[Xouie]

Time for an update — week 8.5

Today the poults decided to pre-season themselves by taking turns dust bathing in a garlic patch (RIP, garlic!) and sneaking into the garden to stuff themselves with tomatoes. They are very on-board with this Thanksgiving thing!

So I went ahead and weighed them:
Costello - 8.75 pounds
Abbott - 10.25 pounds
Martin Greenbird - 9.5 pounds
Mercedes Turkey - 10.25 pounds

An average weight of over 9.5 pounds. I don’t know meat turkeys, but this seems pretty decent to me. The growth rate seemed much slower than Cornish cross chickens for the first few weeks. Now they’re gaining weight fast. Of course by this age all my CX were in the freezer already, so I can’t really compare.

 

[B-Goock]

My last CX batch barely fit the plucker at 14lbs & it didn't do a good job at all. Hand pluck.

I thought about turkeys but I'll watch your adventure instead.

 

[Xouie]

My last CX batch barely fit the plucker at 14lbs & it didn't do a good job at all. Hand pluck.

I thought about turkeys but I'll watch your adventure instead.

Thank you — that is excellent advice.

 

[Parront]

I really like my turkey about 12 pounds dressed. Sounds like you are doing great! 15-17 pounds live wt. would be a great size! Smoke one maybe?