Turkey Question........

[BarredBuff]

I'd like turkeys eventually. I need to know something before I start to research more. Where I live there are wild turkeys. I also do total free range. No fences or anything. Would the turkeys go out and breed and flock with the wild ones?

 

[patandchickens]

I'd like turkeys eventually. I need to know something before I start to research more. Where I live there are wild turkeys. I also do total free range. No fences or anything. Would the turkeys go out and breed and flock with the wild ones?

Yes, also potentially vice versa. Although from BYC it sounds like not *many* people lose their domestic turkeys to wild flocks, especially if they are fancy turkeys as opposed to (say) wild-lineage turkeys themselves or heritage bronzes.

For that reason it is not legal to free range turkeys in some states/provinces (AFAIK it isn't here in Ontario), which you might want to find out.

Chiefly tho I think you will find your turkeys simply crap all over your car and porch and house roof, and mug you for food everytime you go onto the lawn LOL

Good luck, have fun,

Pat

 

[Dunkopf]

I'd like turkeys eventually. I need to know something before I start to research more. Where I live there are wild turkeys. I also do total free range. No fences or anything. Would the turkeys go out and breed and flock with the wild ones?

Yes, also potentially vice versa. Although from BYC it sounds like not *many* people lose their domestic turkeys to wild flocks, especially if they are fancy turkeys as opposed to (say) wild-lineage turkeys themselves or heritage bronzes.

For that reason it is not legal to free range turkeys in some states/provinces (AFAIK it isn't here in Ontario), which you might want to find out.

Chiefly tho I think you will find your turkeys simply crap all over your car and porch and house roof, and mug you for food everytime you go onto the lawn LOL

Good luck, have fun,

Pat

That's exactly what they do. Crap all over everything. They hang out at your front door and make sounds like dogs barking and rush over everytime you open the door. I was real happy when they finally got too heavy to fly over the 8' fence. They seem to do fine in a big run, but I am enlarging ASAP. They need to do more laying first.

 

[Bubblingbrooks]

Be aware that they are expensive to raise. No matter how you undertake it.
For us its worth it, cause I cannot eat commercial turkey, but we ow understand very well, why pastured heritage birds sell for $200 dressed.

 

[Shiloh Acres]

I wonder if it matters where you live or what kind of turkey on the raising cost? I am interested too, and heard they were much like guineas?

My guineas have collectively eaten maybe 20 pounds of scratch their whole lives. They eat almost nothing I give them. Instead they live on grass and bugs, from what I see, and probably other plant material. I wish I had enough land to really let them free range as they'd like.

I can't afford to spend huge amounts fencing and raising turkeys, and I'd hoped to get some very soon, so I need to find out ...

 

[Bubblingbrooks]

I wonder if it matters where you live or what kind of turkey on the raising cost? I am interested too, and heard they were much like guineas?

My guineas have collectively eaten maybe 20 pounds of scratch their whole lives. They eat almost nothing I give them. Instead they live on grass and bugs, from what I see, and probably other plant material. I wish I had enough land to really let them free range as they'd like.

I can't afford to spend huge amounts fencing and raising turkeys, and I'd hoped to get some very soon, so I need to find out ...

Well, Heritage turkeys take about 18 months to be truly at weight for processing.
The other day, I took pics of my tom on top of our coop.
Wings are clipped, but he and his lady sleep on the 5 foot fence, and that day, he worked his way to the top of the coop and gobbled his pretty head off for several hours.
Free range does not work, that is for sure, and fenced runs really need to be covered.

Oh, and his crop is the size of my DHs fist when its full

 

[TanksHill]

I think where you live may pay a big part. I have my turkeys and chicken all fenced in about 1/2 acre. They are all doing well together. The chickens taught my Tom and ladies how to go to bed at night.

My Auntie in Mo. did have several birds run off with the wild ones. I can see why in some areas free ranging would be discouraged.

I don't really feed my turkeys all that much. They free range a lot. I have clipped their wings. Tom made it over the 5 foot fence once when he was young, but now I think hes to big. He even broke the roost in my coop. Fatty!!!

Paula, what do you feed your birds? Just wondering.

I intend to put my little ones in a separate coop until the have some size on them. Then all together they will go.

 

[Bubblingbrooks]

I think where you live may pay a big part. I have my turkeys and chicken all fenced in about 1/2 acre. They are all doing well together. The chickens taught my Tom and ladies how to go to bed at night.

My Auntie in Mo. did have several birds run off with the wild ones. I can see why in some areas free ranging would be discouraged.

I don't really feed my turkeys all that much. They free range a lot. I have clipped their wings. Tom made it over the 5 foot fence once when he was young, but now I think hes to big. He even broke the roost in my coop. Fatty!!!

Paula, what do you feed your birds? Just wondering.

I intend to put my little ones in a separate coop until the have some size on them. Then all together they will go.

Same as the chickens. Barley, fishmeal and BOSS. Scraps in winter. They will get weeds and grass in summer.

 

[patandchickens]

Well, Heritage turkeys take about 18 months to be truly at weight for processing.

I was under the impression that most people process them at 6-10 months? (I'm sure I've never read anywhere of someone growing them up for a year or longer as a *minimum* for slaughter, although of course you CAN do that if you want)

Mine do not seem to gain a whole big lot of weight past 6 months or so, and by then feed-conversion has really tanked and only gettin' worse, so from an economics point of view you are really best off slaughtering them then, especially if feed cost is a big thing.

I worked out how much ours are costing me, I believe it was in the $40 -50 ballpark (food only) and I am not the thriftiest person with food. That's putting them in the freezer at 6 months at a dressed weight of like 12-15 lbs or so, if I am recalling correctly. (If you really wanna know, I could go down and check the weight labels in the freezer ) . Obviously they cost considerably more when they're older (although they sure taste good in a slow cooker, older!! <drool>)

JME,

Pat

 

[Shiloh Acres]

Hmmmm .... Ok.

I have my chickens moving between several yards and sometimes the pasture. They forage very well, IMO. And hopefully getting better, since my silkies live largely on forage and I use them to raise babies, so the chicks I'm raising forage even better than my original heavy layers. Too bad -- I have some silky x standards coming up now that I am HOPING will turn out to some pullets and retain the broodiness but have better size. They'd be good poult-raisers if so. But I'm not planning to wait that long.

I know I'm in a very different climate from you, BubB. I'm hoping that will make a difference? My guineas and chickens live largely on forage even through most of the winter. I don't know how, LOL. But I get orange-yolked eggs even then and have a low feed bill. I'm trying to plant their main yard specifically for them so I'm hoping it will get even better.

As to fencing, that's what I worry about. My guineas went WAY down the road, and hung out on the neighbors deck, so their pen is now covered. My fences range from 4 to 6 foot, but the 6 is only the back run of the pasture.

If I can afford to feed them, maybe they can learn to stay with the chickens. My chickens used to go everywhere, but the braver birds all got picked off so now they stay where I put them.

Still thinking about it. I didn't mean to hijack, BarredBuff -- but so glad you asked!