this place is worthless for my needs

[Finnie]

Thanks @Finnie ! I just might this spring reconsider -- after kidding is over. 😁😵‍💫 That's a busy time.

Do you incubate or let hens hatch? I've read they'll clutch 20,+/- on average.

I have let a hen set a couple of times. They did ok. Mostly I just take all the eggs and incubate them. For me it depends on if I have a good/safe spot I can let them set on. Which varies year to year according to how I have arranged whatever birds I have.

This year I let one set, and I gave her some goose eggs in addition to her turkey eggs. Two goslings hatched but she stepped on one, so I took the other one away from her. In fact I took all but 3 of the poults away from her too and she did fine with those 3. (I had a buyer lined up for her, but I told him I wanted to give her a week or two with her babies before I yanked them and sold her.)

 

[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]

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.

 

[Finnie]

Huh. Looks like someone left in a huff. Changed the name of their thread before they left. I don’t know, but it seemed like they were getting nice, friendly advice. Oh well.🤷🏼‍♀️

Ha ha, now that I’ve caught up on their other thread it all makes sense.

 

[flowerbug]

I moved recently, so have to start over on the garden thing, and raising my own meat, but I still have plenty in the freezer, and jars that I canned. So how is it I still spend $$ at the grocery store?

buy habit?

 

[CrealCritter]

I moved recently, so have to start over on the garden thing, and raising my own meat, but I still have plenty in the freezer, and jars that I canned. So how is it I still spend $$ at the grocery store?

We came to the conclusion that currently we can't grow or raise all of what we eat. We are working on orchard expansion and establishment of a berry patch. But so far we have put a major dent in the grocery bill, for sure.

What are wolf berries? Everytime I eat them at night I sleep like a rock.

Jesus is Lord and Christ 🙏❤️🇺🇸

 

[R2elk]

I've read they'll clutch 20,+/- on average.

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.

 

[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 🙏❤️🇺🇸

 

[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.