For Will ... Grandpa's New Turkey
Hey Dude! Here he is ... Grandpa's new turkey. His name is Scott and he sure likes to puff himself up, gobble gobble, and stamp his feet!
It was WONDERFUL to see you today. And what a cute new cousin you have!Huge 'Grandpa hugs' to you!
It was WONDERFUL to see you today. And what a cute new cousin you have!
6 comments:
Bill!! Do the turkeys free range your place? do you have to 'teach' them where home is for a few weeks before you release them? are they easy to catch? i have always loved turkeys but I've heard you shouldn't have them with chickens or pigeons...which i have both....:)
thanks for your help!
Yes, we were always told the same thing, hence no turkeys here. What type is he Bill? He looks part Bronze.
Handsome fellow
Cynthia
Hi Garrett and Cynthia. My turkeys came here in dribs and drabs. First came Joan with her six babies. They lived in a 6' X 8' X 6' high shed that I built for them. They have a large 'compound" in the centre of my sheep's night-time paddock. Joan had a wing clipped and her babies did as well as they got older. They are Narragansetts and they are beautiful, easy going birds. They have become quite tame, but not pet-like.
Then I added a younger Red Bourban male. The other turkeys would have nothing to do with him and tormented him terribly. So he now lives in with my laying hens and seems quite happy there, although he has lost a LOT of his 'pride' ... :-). At the same time I got two very tame Red Bourban poults that had been hand raised and are just six weeks old. I am hoping that both are female so that I'll have a breeding trio of the Reds as well. These seem to have adjusted well to the move and are having no trouble finding there way around their new 'digs' ... in my 'Chick Mobile'. They are the only birds NOT raised naturally by parents. My Red Bourban trio will have an identical 6 x 8 x 6 shed and large compound.
The final addition was Leslie and Scott, the other two in my Narragansett trio. Scott is the boy in the picture. He fought a bit with the male poult, but established dominance very quickly.
My intent is to sell fertile eggs from both trios to a hatchery nearby in exchange for meat birds and a few more layer chicks (they approached me with this idea and I am thrilled with the arrangement). Then I plan to let each female hatch out about 10 eggs each and raise up the birds for butchering in November. All of my poults will be raised by parents, free ranged (in their large compounds for their safety), and fed as naturally as possible. I am finding, as with the chickens, that the heritage breeds are much easier to live with and stay healthy with very little intervention.
So far, there have been no issues ... but ... I have ignorance, inexperience and a 'life is good' attitude in my favour ... :-)
... just my experience from my first year with turkeys ... :-)
Gorgeous tom! I love turkeys.
We raise Bourbon Red turkeys and have been breeding them for 2 years now (had turkeys for 4 years, but the first 2 were toms and then the second batch had to mature.) They live with the chickens and nobody got sick so far. This year we had over 30 chicks (some got sold as chicks.)
Your turkey looks very nice! Hopefully they have chicks for you next spring.
Will brought the picture of the turkey to daycare today to show his friends....he's been stomping his feet and saying 'gobble gobble' for 2 days...:)
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