this place is worthless for my needs

[flowerbug]

@R2elk what kind are those lovely light grey ones? Very pretty. Do you have issues with their flying off? How about wild coming in? We have a lot of wild ones here!! Like 30 or so together....

I see $12-15 per day olds all the time and sell fast. Makes it worth a bator full.

i'm curious how you would keep them from going wild or running off. we have a lot of wild turkeys around here also. huge flocks of them at times (they don't come into the yard though which is good because they'd probably eat the gardens as much as the deer do).

 

[R2elk]

@R2elk what kind are those lovely light grey ones? Very pretty. Do you have issues with their flying off? How about wild coming in? We have a lot of wild ones here!! Like 30 or so together....

I see $12-15 per day olds all the time and sell fast. Makes it worth a bator full.

The light gray ones are the rare Recessive Slates that Kevin Porter brought back after they had been extinct in the U.S. for many years.

The Recessive Slates don't seem to be as prone to flying as many of the other heritage turkeys are.

I have a 2 acre area fenced off with 2"x4"x6' welded wire. There is no top bar or rail which eliminates the top of the fence from being an attractive perch.

There are wild turkeys around and the toms usually call one or two hens in annually. I don't mind the hens but I do not want wild toms coming in and messing with my breeding plans.

They also have a 50'x100' run that contains their roosts. During laying season the hens fly out of the run and make their hidden nests in the 2 acre enclosure.

Porter sells the day old Recessive Slates for $20 plus shipping.

If you can sell the poults within the first week you can do alright. As soon as you start feeding them, you start losing money.

Raising heritage turkeys for meat will never be as cheap as you can do buying loss leader turkeys around the holidays in grocery stores.

 

[R2elk]

I'm curious how you would keep them from going wild or running off. we have a lot of wild turkeys around here also. huge flocks of them at times (they don't come into the yard though which is good because they'd probably eat the gardens as much as the deer do).

I have no problem keeping my turkeys home. There is an occasional one that will overshoot the fence on the south of the hill. They usually start running the fence trying to get back in. I have my turkeys and guineas trained to be herded which makes it easy to herd them back in if they happen to get out.

I had a hen that has been making her nest in the garden for the past three years. This year was the first that she bothered anything. She was working the tomatoes over pretty good this year.

I pulled her off of her last nest this fall and sold her when a fellow who had lost all his hens was wanting one.

The only other problem with turkeys getting in my fenced garden was an occasional wild turkey hen that would go down a row of onion plants and either clip off the tops or pull the onions. She never ate them but made it difficult to get the onions started good.

 

[CrealCritter]

Most clutches are in the 8 to 12 range but I had a hen that wouldn't go broody until she had at least 20 eggs.

Ours 20+ is a low average per hen. I have a 2x4 broody box for them and they fill up the floor, quite crazy. Turkey eggs make a very tasty 1 egg omlet.

Jesus is Lord and Christ

 

[CrealCritter]

No, have considered and researched this option thoroughly and it is just too much work/time for too little reward. We could make a milk cow out of a Highland as they are sometimes used for this purpose, are generally very tame, gentle cattle if raised properly, but I follow a mix of mostly Paleo/Ketogenic diets which allow unlimited meats (as long as they are not processed meats especially not including sugar such as ham and bacon, though non-sugar-cured bacon is allowed so we can make our own healthier bacon and ham once we have pigs) and organic produce but no grain and very little dairy. We consume almost no dairy and never any milk, no kids here just two adults and dogs, so it would be way more trouble than worth to have a milk cow just to produce the tiny amount of butter, cheese, etc. that we do eat plus then we'd have to find buyers for our surplus milk (though skim milk is excellent as a pig food supplement), much more cost-effective to pay extra to buy grassfed, antibiotic and other drug-free butter and cheese from stores/farmers markets in the small amounts we use. Goal is to supply all of our meat and produce needs and only use grocery stores and other food sources for the small amount of high quality dairy products we consume, only from grassfed organic cattle of course, and occasionally to treat ourselves to things which are healthy but we can't or haven't yet been able to produce at home.


Valium does the same for me. Maybe wolf berries are a natural source for this pharmaceutical miracle drug.

Kidding of course. I have PTSD and am prescribed Valium/diazepam for that and without it I can't get any kind of decent sleep.


Obviously it's your choice, but I hope you will someday research what is in those cheap bags of "dog food" and decide to feed them something better.

Ha... I don't know what's in wolf berries, but I sleep like a rock after eating a hand full.

As far as sending cattle to the meat locker. Check with your local processor.

Two things you want to ask.

1) is there a weight limit? Can I drop off a 1500lb plus beast for processing?

2) Ask about the 30 month rule and what it means.

Jesus is Lord and Christ

 

[R2elk]

Ours 20+ is a low average per hen. I have a 2x4 broody box for them and they fill up the floor, quite crazy. Turkey eggs make a very tasty 1 egg omlet.

Jesus is Lord and Christ

Yours is most likely a communal nest. Mine get to have individual hidden nests. Once I leave enough eggs for them to go broody it is usually between 8 to 12. Later in the season they will even go broody on a single fake egg.

 

[CrealCritter]

Yours is most likely a communal nest. Mine get to have individual hidden nests. Once I leave enough eggs for them to go broody it is usually between 8 to 12. Later in the season they will even go broody on a single fake egg.

Ours lay in the later winter or very early spring. Then again late summer. Summer lay is significantly lower in volume, they brood both lays

All this talk of turkey eggs is making me hungry. Nothing quite like a turkey egg omlet with thin sliced pre fried deer meat, diced green pepper, tomato & onion, salt, pepper and grated yellow cheese. I done did it to myself now.

Jesus is Lord and Christ

 

[R2elk]

Ours lay in the later winter or very early spring. Then again late summer. Summer lay is significantly lower in volume, they brood both lays

I am guessing that you provide supplemental lighting. It can mess up their normal laying schedules. All the turkeys that I have had begin laying at the earliest in mid March and stop laying at the latest by the first week in November.

I do not give them supplemental lighting. That also means that most of my chickens do not lay during the winter.

Turkey eggs make really good custards. They also are good for egg fried rice.

 

[CrealCritter]

I am guessing that you provide supplemental lighting. It can mess up their normal laying schedules. All the turkeys that I have had begin laying at the earliest in mid March and stop laying at the latest by the first week in November.

I do not give them supplemental lighting. That also means that most of my chickens do not lay during the winter.

Turkey eggs make really good custards. They also are good for egg fried rice.

No supplemental lighting, I have them on the east side of the barn. I was wondering about egg drop soup with turkey eggs. Might be really good, since turkey eggs seem more favorable to me. Will have to try turkey egg fried rice, sounds delicious.

Jesus is Lord and Christ

 

[R2elk]

No supplemental lighting, I have them on the east side of the barn. I was wondering about egg drop soup with turkey eggs. Might be really good, since turkey eggs seem more favorable to me. Will have to try turkey egg fried rice, sounds delicious.

Jesus is Lord and Christ

Egg drop soup using turkey eggs is good.