Am thinking of getting a couple of turkeys for meat, in addition to the chickens I have. Have got some questions about these big birds, how much are they like chooks? do they roost do they eat the same food as chickens do they scratch can we expect eggs if we get females? much appreciated if anyone could shed some light on these issues cheers, Jan
I will have to aske someone else for the answers to those questions, however, I'd just like to tell you, we had home slaughtered turkey last christmas and it was fantastic! One of the tricks was to put a hood over the bird's head, so that it falls asleep prior to giving it the chop. We also hung it inside a fridge for 4 days before eating it.
never heard of that trick, interesting! my main reason for doing this is an economic one, I was flabbergasted at the price of a turkey prior to Xmas (and likewise at the low price just after Xmas) where did you get your turkeys from ? (seeing you did slaughter them yourself) cheers, Jan
Hi, my father bought it live from a young bloke that raises just a few and lives down the road from him (he lives in a little town in southern new south wales).. not exactly sure about the details, he had it for about a month, feeding it on greens, local grain and some herbs.
Oh, and I guess I answered one of your questions yes, they do eat the same sorts of things as chickens.
Hi, If you are doing it for economic reasons, I will tell you the story of the ducklings I raised for slaughter. I had 14 Khaki Campbells and raised them to full size for meat. I calculated the cost of the feed vs the amount I could have sold them for, and I would have come out even. That wouldn't have included my time and effort for slaughter, plucking and gutting. All in all I ended up eating most of them and gave a couple away to family members, but any idea I had of going into business was soon cooled. I think if I had a lot of land and they could have free-ranged more it might have helped. Paula.
Turkeys are fantastic however you need a big mob of people to eat one , big birds get cut into 4 . They can dry out cooking so cook in a oven bag with cut up apples or carrots or spuds stuffed inside , whatever takes your fancy . They do roost and like to get up high ours sort of free range outside our chook run they dont wander far . The hens will sneak off and lay there eggs well hidden so watch for that , eggs are fine to eat but are much harder to crack open .They are MUCH easier to clean than chooks or ducks they dont have the downey feathers .If you have more than one gobbler you may have egg fertility problems the silly gobblers spend all day trying to impress each other instead of doing the business required , so lock extra gobblers up out of site in breeding season .If you want to hatch them use a chook or incubator they can be a bit silly and stomp thier babies to death or take them away as they hatch and keep under a light . regards Terra
One of our neighbours keeps turkeys. They just free range with their cattle, and they have little trouble breeding them as well. My main concern with eating them is due to their dog. It has developed a very disturbing turkey fetish, its not pretty.
thanks folks for all the input, very useful Paula, the idea was to eat the turkeys myself, not sell them. Seeing we'll end up with more or less organic, but certainly free range turkeys, it's hard to imagine they'll be more expensive than buying some birds in the supermarket. cheers, Jan
