Turkey Breeds?

Hey All,

I have a large family and just got two acres. I would like to hear some breed suggestions for the northeast.

I am thinking pastured pen and some free ranging here and there.

Also how long does it take a heritage breed to get big enough for thanksgiving?

Thanks

Andrew Seamans wrote:Also how long does it take a heritage breed to get big enough for thanksgiving?
Thanks

seven months-ish. really depends on how big you want them. don't expect a 25-lb bird, though. even the wacky modern large-breasted birds need 21 weeks to start putting on fat (fat=flavor for turkeys).

I have Narragansetts, and I like them a lot. could just be that I would get attached to any turkey, but these just seem to have a whole lot of personality. I haven't eaten any myself yet, but the one I sold got rave reviews. he was 24 weeks old and 14 pounds alive.

How do you house your Narragansetts? and would you mix them with the broad breasted turkeys?

Andrew Seamans wrote:How do you house your Narragansetts?

I build some mobile coops that I move them around in most of the year. honestly, though, they roost on the roofs of the coops or in trees. and they seem to pick the smallest and highest branch, with sometimes hilarious results.

starting probably next week until the end of breeding season, I'll keep them in the barn coop where I've got some houses for the ladies to have some privacy for laying eggs. they'll still go outside, and they sometimes prefer to sleep on top of the barn instead of inside on a roost.

last year, a tom escaped. I figured he would just pick a tree and be fine outside the fence for one night. he picked a tree, but it was a dwarf apple, and he was only 24" off the ground and got nabbed by one or more coyotes.

Andrew Seamans wrote:and would you mix them with the broad breasted turkeys?

I wouldn't, but mostly because I wouldn't keep broad breasted turkeys. part of it is that I don't want to have to buy poults every year, and I'm not going to be artificially inseminating a turkey. that limits me to heritage breeds. stories about them being too big to walk also turn me off of the modern production birds.

I don't think there would be a problem keeping them together, though. the broad breasted birds certainly get a lot bigger, but they're generally pretty lethargic so I don't think they would harass the smaller birds. whether or not the more active heritage birds would give the slower big birds trouble, I can't say for sure, but I wouldn't expect a problem in that direction either.

I have Midget White turkeys. For a "homestead" type of turkey it can't be beat. They are small enough to breed well and lay eggs well. I have eggs in the incubator as we speak.

Six to seven months.

We have had Blue Slate turkeys for about 5 years. Ours free range/forage for themselves (with guardian dog protection) but they do eat feed in the winter and sometimes come when we feed the chickens. We have butchered some of their offspring and they are very slow growing. Maybe because of the way we raise them. The hens were only 5 pounds at 6 months and the tom around 14.

Ernie Schmidt wrote:I have Midget White turkeys.  For a "homestead" type of turkey it can't be beat.  They are small enough to breed well and lay eggs well.  I have eggs in the incubator as we speak.  

Seriously? If you still have them , they were considered kinda lost/gone. But not so long ago they found a little flock. No idea if they've done done too much with them though.

We did a batch of white broad breasted from Townline Hatchery last year - got them in last week of july, moved them out under sweet corn and sunflowers at 3 weeks, then out to pasture at 8 weeks and harvested our first bird, a 30lb+ tom, in the second week of november. Overall, they did really well. They're quite friendly but also very pushy, large and very hungry. They get quite "assertive" about their food.

We ran 15 last year and kept the 4 largest, healthiest hens plus the two smallest but healthiest toms over the winter (with the ducks and geese - chickens stayed separate). The last week of April, the girls started pumping out the eggs. I put 42 eggs in the incubator (home-made coolerbator) and hatched 25 in the 2nd week of June  They moved out to pasture directly to join their parent birds and the geese at 3 weeks since weather was warm enough.

We harvested last year's birds over the course of this summer with the last two going to freezer camp (ok, call it "cooler camp") just last month, still tender enough to enjoy the breast meat and overall pretty healthy. I did note that the hens were pretty much out of eggs, and we did have one tom that became weak earlier in the summer presumably from his heart going (all that strutting around being a man takes a toll, especially for such a big guy)

Total meat harvest was 265lbs from 2022's birds - flavor was good to great and we gained a huge amount of fertilizer, bug control and free pasture management in the process. I find the turkeys much easier to process than chickens and ducks, plus the time and effort in doing so is more "rewarding".

Also ordered in another 15 for this year - this time bronze broad breasted via Cackle Hatchery. They came in during the 3rd week of July and went out to pasture at 3 weeks. Planning to keep some bronze toms and white hens for next year's hatching eggs to ensure we avoid any inbreeding.

I'd say that so far, they're working out quite well. I see no reason the modern broad breasted birds wouldn't work well for a homesteader, especially if you can keep two or three separate flocks going to ensure no inbreeding. The only issue is you'll want to be sure to keep the smaller toms & larger hens for breeding stock, plus put them on a bit of a diet over the leaner months so they'll be in fighting shape come spring mating season. They do breed true to type - not hybridized like cornish cross or anything.

They are a bit heavier and more brutal when it comes to their pasturing - it's similar to cattle in that you should consider the poundage rather than just the number when figuring up paddock sizes or stocking density. They can really do a number on a small area quickly because they were bred to have hyperphagia (always ravenous and will eat everything they can). We're hoping to help correct some of this ourselves next year with rotational grazing as our stocking density was too high for our 1/4 acre of grassy mud this year, especially with the ridiculously wet year we've had.

They'd be a great candidate for a mob-stock grazing technique