I'm thinking of getting a Turkey???

[Wrigley62]

I'm thinking of raising two Broad Breasted Whites so that they my grace my Thanksgiving and Christmas table this year. I've just recently started with chickens, and they are doing well. I did loose one a week or so ago, but , from what I i've been told that was to be expected.
Ok, back to the turkey thing. There is not alot of information out there on raising turkeys. Like, shelter, how much area the bird will need and so on.
Am I biting off more than I can chew??
Any help would be greatly appreaciated.
Thanks,
Wrigley

 

[Magweno]

I got a turkey this time last year for the same reason and he only just hit the freezer. He was a double breasted bronze stag and was a complete sweetheart, hence his missed Christmas deadline!! He did start getting really aggressive though, which is why he went in the freezer...

He ate a LOT, I think it would be cheaper buying an expensive turkey from M&S to be honest! But then you don't have the satisfaction and pleasure of raising your own turkey of course. He was a really charming character with his sweet little pewpewpews and disgusting "hairy maggot" snood thing! You know they can suck it in and out? It was all long and dangly and if he went for a drink of cold water it would shrink to the size of a peanut! Gross! But so cool, kept the local school children fascinated for hours.

We kept Tinsel (yep) in a 15sq ft patch of what once was lawn with a small garden shed from B&Q for shelter (4ft long, 2ft deep, 6ft high with doors on two sides). I split the shed in half to save on space and conserve heat... Quail on bottom, turkey and chickens on top. He would roost with the chooks but sometimes had trouble getting up or down there, so I put a straw bale outside for him to jump onto and from. He lived off mixed grain with some layers pellets thrown in, kitchen scraps... I did get turkey grower pellets but he wouldn't eat them :roll: Mealworms as a treat. I taught him to play fetch! Well, if he picked up and brought me a stick then he got a handfull of mealworms. Clever bird, but TERRIFYING when he got aggressive! He drew blood. If you get yours now then they probably won't get to that stage yet - we didn't eat Tinsel at Christmas for two reasons. First we thought he was too young which in retrospect he wasn't, he would have been perfect. Secondly... we were too attached to him!

I haven't got another yet because Mum wants her garden back

I got him from the same guy who gave me the quail and chickens, he made me a "starter pack" - 19 quail eggs, 3 chicken eggs and a turkey egg! Great guy and very helpful whenever I had questions. Maybe your supplier can help you out with that?

 

[Wrigley62]

That is a BEAUTIFUL Bird!!! I can understand why you would want to keep him around. You have given me alot of great information. I think I'm going to give it a shot. I have two dates that I can pick up my chicks, the first is late May and the second is mid June. I want them to be for the holidays, Thanksgiving Nov, 22 and Christmas Dec, 25. Which pick up date do you suggest? I was not aware that a bird could be too young. What is the perfect age? Male or Female? These are Broad Breasted Whites, if that makes a difference.
About their shelter, they do need a place to perch? How far off the ground?
I have so many other questions, i just don't want to overwhelm you so soon. Do you know of a good website that I can visit for more info??

Thanks for the help.
Talk to you soon,

Wrigley

 

[Magweno]

I THOUGHT the bird could be too young but like I said in retrospect I think it would have been fine. I don't know where I got that idea from! Either date will be fine but for maximum turkey fun I'd go for May. Tinsel was 20lb deadweight and we had him for six months. Gonna have to get the neighbours round to help us out as we are only three and he will make a mean feast. He would have been three months old at Christmas and perfectly fine to eat. I only have headshots of him in December but for fun...

I've only had Tinsel and he was a stag, I don't think a female would have been any different other than she wouldn't have constantly displayed (the first pic I showed you - he never stopped doing that, even when he was eating). Actually if Tinsel had been a she he may have made it longer as I doubt a lady would get so aggressive. But you're eating them so I don't think it matters! Haven't experiences BBwhites but I think the main difference is that white turkeys are preferred in the industry because they don't have nasty black stubble when you pluck 'em. BBbronze are more of a heritage breed (I think?? not sure!)

Tinsel had a perch which he used and kept the chooks warm and safe at night. It wasn't far off the floor because he was so huge, but he did have to jump about 3ft to get to the space, see pics...

Weird customised shed... the other side opens out into an aviary which has quail, lovebirds and finches. When the chickens/turk were out in the garden the aviary-side top door would be shut to stop the aviary birds escaping and the bottom aviary door open so the quails could shelter. Half of that straw bed lifts up so I can get in and out (chooks have decided to make a nest on it though so I have to crawl under it now :roll

Perches... You can see on the second one up that all the bark has been rubbed off where Tinsel used to roost.

Couldn't quite fit the whole plot in the camera but that's where he used to live. (The lawn's slowly but surely growing back!! Yay!)

I don't have any websites to recommend other than this one! I just winged it with Tinsel (pardon the pun). If I had a specific question I would look it up on yahoo answers which usually worked. I have a poultry book by Katie Thear which is excellent, I don't think she did a turkey one but her advice on quail and chickens is so brilliant.

By the way they say you can't keep chickens and turkeys together because of the risk of blackhead but I did and he didn't die! Probably because the lawn has always been a lawn and has never been a chicken run before. Turkeys get blackhead when they eat chicken poo apparently and I'm sure Tinsel ate plenty of chicken poo accidentally but he was okay. They get ACV in their water once a week but those were the only meds I gave - we did find out he had lice though He also has weird green patches on his hips but we haven't found out what they are yet.

 

[Wrigley62]

Thanks for the wonderful advice. I'm not sure where you live, how are they with cold weather? should I insulate their pen? As you probably already know I live in Rhode Island, our weather can be very unpredictable. This past winter was very mild, we only got about a total of eight inches of snow in three storms. This winter we could get 58 inches starting in October.
How did you............you know......take care of Tinsel??? Did you do it yourself or have it done by a professional?

I'll have more questions, if thats ok??

Thanks Wrigley

 

[Magweno]

I live in the North East of Scotland so the weather is bad but not too bad. We didn't get much snow this winter but when it got really chilly I fed them layers pellets and corn soaked in hot water with yummy tidbits.

We hung him upside down and slit his throat with a sharp knife, he went pretty quickly but his spasms were terrifying! He was so strong, I literally was using all my strength trying to hold his wings down to stop blood from going everywhere. It was very quick. Plucking him wasn't so quick, that took forever and I had blisters on my fingers by the end.

Yes ask away! I don't know how much I can help because I've only had Tinsel and I'm sure there are other experts here on the forum hiding somewhere

edit: here's a really short video of him near the end when he was so aggressive he chased us! http://youtu.be/K174mhsMYP0

 

[AlexArt]

I started with turkeys last year with some eggs I hatched - we got 3 stags, they were norfolk black x bronze so not as large as the BB breeds, but they finished in at around 14.5 lbs dressed weight, which was all we needed as there are only 3 of us!! I don't think you can kill them too young - if you only want a small bird then no point waiting till it is a 40lb whopper!, just make sure they are not mid moult as they are a pain to pluck then!
I shoot mine at point blank with an air rifle at the back of the head, as slitting their throat without either stunning/killing or breaking their neck first is not a nice way to die at all and they do know about it and will feel it, so I shoot mine first then slit their throat and hang to drain, then pluck and hang for a week, then gut etc, they tasted sooooo nice - I would never go back to shop bought ones again! 17
This year I got 3 bronze hens to run with the best stag I hatched last year who I kept, I have 8 eggs due to hatch under a broody next week - I can't wait!
If you want to read up on them a great book about turkeys is Katie Thears one - very handy and of course the net. Mine are out with my chooks on an acre but they don't need all that space if you don't have it, they share the chook house too, they just need extra space to roost as they will pick on the chooks either side of them as they seem to want the whole perch to themselves! You also need to worm more regularly if you want to keep them long term with chickens because of histomoniosis - think that's how you spell it!! - or blackhead disease.
I'll be putting my stag in the freezer at the end of the breeding season - apparently their fertility declines a good bit after their first season so not much point in me feeding him all winter, so I'll get a BB bronze this time I think to put to my 3 girls next year, then they'll go in the pot at the end of the next breeding season and I'll buy in some new hens.
They are pretty hardy birds and don't need anymore than a chicken would do shelter wise so no need to put extra cladding/heating in winter or anything.
They do make great pets though, if you don't want to eat them, as the are very friendly although a bit dim, or at least the stag is!, but the hens follow me everywhere in the orchard, the stag just spends all day displaying to anything that moves and has a thing for my indian game cockerel!! :lol:

 

[Wrigley62]

Thanks Alex and Magweno for all the great information. I'm on the fence about raising a couple of turkeys. My friend up the road is going to try it with about 5 turkeys, I think I will let him be the test pilot on this one. We'll see, I still have some time to decide.

Take care Guys, Please keep in touch

Wrigley