Do you have them? Do you love them? Do you only raise them for meat? I personally do like turkeys. And I do have them. I have 3 of the double breasted bronze. Only problem is the eggs are not getting fertalized. So the tom is going off to freezer camp. And today I got a different tom to take care of the job. So now we will see if we get any little ones from this guy. Sure hope so. And yes I do raise them for meat. But what about you?
My husband likes the royal palms and they are a looker... White and the trim in black ... But the last eggs we bought were zapped at the Post Office, mad so no hatch. We keep an eye out for them, but no luck as of yet. On the other hand I just heard NC turned out a flock of easterns (just across the river), so we may have turkey for Thanksgiving anyway ... LOL
I have a pair of Royal Palms....they are about 1 an 1/2 years old now.....the hen is nearly all white.....but the tom is beautiful with his white and black ringed feathers.....the head is a brilliant color blue. I keep them down in the goat lot so they will have plenty of room to roam and free range......no predators so far!! the tom has spurs that are about 2 an 1/2 in. long and he is very aggressive. when I enter the lot I keep a stick with me at all times, many are the times he has sneaked up behind me and demonstrated his spurs for me!! lol the hen produced eggs back in the early spring but has stopped now....last year she produced almost until September. im wondering what gives......anybody have ideas about that? is that normal?
I have midget whites. Got the first one as the feed store gal gave us a "bonus" chick. She sure started something. I love these birds...very social and like to be with people. I have 1 three year old hen Clara who I just love, a 2 yr old hen Emma and then 3 young hens and a tom from this year. Clara has sat and hatched chickens for us each year so this year we got her some hatching eggs and got the young hens and the tom. Clara will come to the porch and peck at the door so someone will come out, she will then fly into your lap and lay there to be pet. She laid her first egg laying between my feet while I was standing there talking to my husband. And she is very fond of my father. When he comes each summer he will call her and she will come running and hollering! She lays down and "purrs" while he pets her and tells her how beautiful she is. The week after they go home she is a nightmare, puts her in a very bad mood! They are very territorial and protective. Came home one day to find our roofers on top of the shed, she was fine while they did the house but once they came into her territory it was a whole different story! Each time one would try to come down the ladder she would attack them! I had a hard time getting her corraled so they could come down as I was laughing way too hard! When we had a garage sale one of the roofers came with his wife and she said he would not get out of the car until he was sure "that crazy a$$ white bird" wasn't running loose! We are hopeful that this young tom will help us have more chicks next summer! Clara and Emma both give us eggs most the year.
This is our Turkey SAM, she is a wonderful pet, we have had her for about 4 years. We will not eat her, although family (outside our household) every year ask if we're having SAM for Thanksgiving. ha ha... so old after the first few years. We're vegetarian (not vegan - so we still eat eggs) SAM eats allot, and constantly she gets mad when the chickens nibble on her food too. Sam has a sweet side, she always wants attention so she gets lots of hugs. She will come and sit or stand by us when we are in the backyard. When our son Jax was about 11yrs he was home from school not feeling so well, I decided he should relax and get some vitamin D by lying on a lounge chair outside in the sun. So he went outside and lied down, Sam went over to him, plopped down and he put his arm around her. they fell asleep together for about an hour. I will never forget this precious moment. Sam is a part of our family as long as she'll have us.
Lost the Hen Our temp was 108 here yesterday so I took a plastic kids pool down to the goat/turkey lot and placed it under a tree in the shade....good fresh cool well water...about 125 gallons worth. Well it wasnt enough...My Royal Palm Hen died from the heat...found her this morning lying near the shelter house dead and stiff as a brick....there goes my plan for turkey chicks this year.
Before we turned the birds loose we did the pool thing on extra hot days. Not that big, about 3 ft diameter & 4-5 inches water. The girls would lay down in it & spread their wings. Being small it was easy to dump & refill. The birds didn't seem to get stressed by the heat & egg production stayed constant. Now they go find a cool spot to hang out, the downside is you sometimes need to hunt for eggs.
I have two all white turkeys. (We are new to raising them so not sure what they are) I have a couple of questions that I hope someone can answer for us. 1. I was feeding 20% protein but think I need to cut back. Our female(?) is bow legged and seems painful when she is walking. Will cutting back the protein help? What should we watch for? 2. To cut back protein I bought 16% layer crumbles. Is this okay? I was feeding Purina Flock Raiser for mixed flocks. The turkeys are about 4 months old. Thanks so much for any help you can give me. I love these birds and would be sick if her legs broke. (Someone told me that if they grow too fast their legs will snap. Is that possible?)
We've raised BB white and BB bronze turkeys for 4H the last three years. Were all set to raise BB white and Burbon reds this year, but the neighbor's dog got in and killed them all along with about half our chickens. So no turkeys this year. I was hoping to start up a flock of Bourbon reds, keep a trio over the winter and hatch out my own in the spring. I have two igloo dog houses I was all set to convert into nesting boxes for them. Guess I'll have to wait until next year to make the dream a reality. However, I'm sorely tempted to give Kevin Porter's Regal Reds a try. See: http://www.porterturkeys.com/regalred.htm They're a little pricey, but they are gorgeous looking birds. Not as striking as the Royal palms or Sweetgrass, but I really like red birds and these are about as red as they come.
Another question. I saw chicken waterers with lids or tubes that have little spouts for them to drink from so that the waterer doesn't get pooped in. Will turkeys drink from these? Any help is so appreciated.
Marengoite , The link didn't work. It works now. Thanks. (could have been my computer too. Been having problems with it lately) That IS a beautiful bird.
We add weeds, carrots, cantaloupe, etc.... daily. She does seem to be strengthening slowly. Thanks for the tip.
I currently have breeding pair of royal palm turkey's and have hatched off total of 14 poults from the pair, while I have learned from trial and error and from speaking with a local woman that raises turkeys, I have found it hard but very rewarding raising these beautiful birds.
I have found out that when starting young turkeys that at first I was using 20% protein feed and was having alot of leg problems then I spoke with a local woman and she told me that young poults needed very high protein diet so I started using 24% protein non medicated(which is very important that it is not medicated because the medication will kill young turkeys) up till they were about 5-6 mnths of age then I start decreasing the amount of protein in the feed down to 20% for about 3 months, then down to just to standard feed just as long as it is not medicated. Really Hope this helps you.
I had some white turkeys for a while. You have to watch how much they eat. If they have grain all day they will eat all day. I had to put them on a diet so that they could walk. They did not live to long, they are bred for meat and not for family pets. It was really sad that they did not live long. I got lucky my girl bred with a black and I have a beautiful half white and half black turkey. I will be getting him soon along with a black girl so I can start raising them again. My mom has been holding them well I get their home built.
Ziggie, I would recommend looking into some of the heritage breeds if you are interested in keeping turkeys beyond Thanksgiving. The most popular heritage breed is the Burbon red. For strictly ornamental birds, the Royal palm is probably the most striking looking variety. A good place to look for some others is Porter's Heritage Turkeys. You can google it.
I would also recommend the American Livestock Breeds Conservancy educational resources for anyone new to turkeys. I printed this entire manual out a couple years ago and have referred to it often: http://albc-usa.org/EducationalResources/turkeys.html
