I love turkey but have never raised my own for the table. Chickens yes but never turkeys. Anyone in southern california know of a source for poults or young birds ready for the outdoor coop? Thanks for any ideas.
You don't say how many, but taking a stab that you don't want the 12-15 that's the minimum for alotta shipping hatcheries. My suggestion would be to either ask if your local feedstore can order you a few when they order thiers, or put a post on craigslist asking if someone wants to split an order with you (say 6 each to make the minimum of 12, etc).
My area is certainly not farm country. The feed stores only order chickens and ducks for easter. No other fowl so I am on my own. A dozen turks would require thier own freezer so that is too much for a first go. Have seen rare posts on craigslist but they have gone before I got to them. You guessed right. Hopefully someone on BYC local to me has a couple of started poults that they want to get rid of. Open to ideas. Basicly anything but the egg bator route.
You don't say which part of SoCal, but on the IE list several ppl are offering an arrangement, your eggs, thier bator, split the hatch, if you get a dozen eggs, you may only get 1-2 out of your "half" or send them a note, that you only want 2-3 poults, and they can sell the rest off after hatch. You can also post the add on craigslist or freecycle asking if someone wants to split an order of poults. Or google county + turkey breeder and see what comes up.
Thanks for the suggestions. I still may try one of those routes but unless it falls through it looks like I found a small group of heritage poults. Should know by monday. Seller was only 90% sure. Keep your fingers crossed for me. Anyway it gives me a great excuse to finish a new coop and run I have been working on. I figure 15 square feet each should be enough for these guys until they are big enough for supervised free ranging. About 2/3 of the 15 square feet is run. Be it this batch or some other group I can't wait.
