Has anyone here raised turkeys?

[Truscifi]

My feed store has some baby turkeys right now....

[jenangelcat]

we did. They were expensive and most of them died. Thanksgiving dinner was great but not sure it was worth the expense. I've heard lots of stories about how fragile and stupid turkeys are and found them to be accurate.

 

[TracyP]

I used to work on a turkey farm, so technically I've raised several hundred thousand. I'm guessing that is not the input you are looking for. :D

 

My brother had good luck with them a few years ago until something killed them. He decided it wasn't worth the hassle to try again.

[Mothersweets]

Yes! We raised 8 turkeys several years ago. It was just like raising chickens. We let ours get too large before slaughtering them - easily over 23 pounds and it was a tight fit in our oven.

 

Our kids would imitate the "gobble" sound and the turkeys would gobble right back at them. :)

[Dory]

I have never raised them myself, but my grandma raised two every year. They had a small pen that she could pull to a new spot in the yard every day and let them have fresh grass. Her turkeys were always HUGE and she often had troubles fitting them into the oven. I never heard of her losing a turkey to predators or the elements. Her small enclosure always had a good half mesh, half solid, ceiling though.

[WishboneDawn]

We did 9 last year and will be doing a dozen or more this year. They ranged all over the property, were friendly and entertaining, were easier then our CornishX's and tasted delicious. :D The only thing that I wish ours did was go to the coop every night. They tended to find a place to hunker down outside and cuddle together and we'd have to shoo them into the coop. This summer we'll see if we can't train them to a routine a bit better.

 

But we loved them and found them easy to care for.

 

I should add that we bought them as 2 week old chicks, not day olds. We didn't have any deaths.

[xixstar]

Oooh, might have to look up how much space a couple turkeys need... could raise a couple in the chicken tractor now that the chickens have their own yard.

 

Wait - wait - no! Chickens have a yard because the chicken tractor was a pain to deal with.

[Melinda S in TX]

We raised turkeys one year, and they were STUPID. In spite of everything we tried, they insisted on roosting on the rottweilers fence. The rottweiler would jump up and pull their tail feathers one by one. After he ran out of tail feathers, he would just jump up and knock them off the fence. The turkeys would shake themselves off and hop back on the fence. The dog never hurt them, but the turkeys never learned anything either.

[Χά�ων]

Turkeys have great entertainment value.

 

I do not eat meat but I am told they are yummy. The dog certainly thought so.

[skeeterbug]

Am I the only one who looked at the title of this thread and thought, Well, yes, but I try not to call them that when they are within earshot? :D

[amy g.]

We raise turkeys every year. As babies, they are more fragile than chicks. They can be hard to keep alive. Once they are grown, they are pretty low maintenance.

[MrsJewelsRae]

We've done small groups of turkeys a few times and had good success except for one group that all died of blackhead disease. Turkeys are otherwise fairly easy, they are sweet and inquisitive and gentle- but incredibly stupid, kind of a "bless your heart" type thing. ;) Our birds were very tasty!

[Kalmia]

I have read that heritage breeds like Bourbon Reds are much easier to raise than the standard white turkey you'd find at the feed store. Hardy, less likely to succumb to disease, can forage well, and more attractive.

 

http://heritageturkeyfoundation.org