For several years of Thanksgiving and Christmas dinner party , the quality of the featured roasted turkey acquire more and more unsatisfying . This was often due to the mass - processing practice of injecting slaughtered birds with water and other additives to boost weighting . The early culling of immature birds for sell small turkey and the ongoing interbreeding of various strain were also to blame .
So my family decided to seek to elevate our own inheritance dud . Little did we realize what this decisiveness would need .
With a number of years raising successful flocks of chickens , we made some assumption found on shell of the animal . We did not , however , take into circumstance genetic makeup or behavioral practice . Our current mess of Rhode Island Reds chickens was still in its prime . The hens laid a substantial day-after-day number of eggs , and the individual cock did great at what cock do .
So alternatively of buying replacement biddy or brood eggs to interchange them , we buy five Narragansett turkey chicks . We took into condition the possibility of previous deaths that can take place for innumerable reasons , yet have enough survivors to render us with meat for the year terminate holidays .
Using a stock feeder to serve as a chick brooder , the chicks decide into their raw surroundings . And they thrive .
A Matter of Scale
It turns out that this was really a brusque - terminal figure solution for housing . Within a mates of weeks , they grew quite gravid for bird . They feathered out and bounced off the roadblock screen that covered the top of the birdfeeder .
The feeder / brooder could accommodate 10 to 15 wimp chicks for up to a month . But the turkey chicks indicated their need for larger quickness .
fortunately , we had a pair of vacant 4 - by-4 - foot “ brooder coops ” with 4 - by-4 - fundament screen - topped “ runs ” attached . Into these went the turkeys .
B.P. Lemmon
They could pick at the weeds that maturate from the dirt flooring , get instinctive sun on lovesome mean solar day and supplement their diet with whatever dirt ball and dirt ball that they could find or dig up .
Yet within a calendar month , they had outgrown these quarters . Their heads almost touched the screen mesh on top of the political campaign . Future abode would require a lot of squat to get around .
Read more : require to raise joker ? Here ’s how to start .
B.P. Lemmon
Earlier , we sell off our yearly supply of cock , except for one to keep our biddy happy . This mean our cock pen , with an 80 - straight - fundament run and cage outfit with a feeding post and roost , sat empty .
It just made sensation to relocate them to this playpen , with elbow room to vagabond and research .
As the month progressed , the chicks grew into pullets . As they got larger , there were indication that this , too , would not work for long - term housing . By now , we could n’t really call the turkeys chicks , as they took on feature that differentiated the sexes .
B.P. Lemmon
With the final count consisting of three toms and one biddy , and with quad to roam go away , we realise another move was inevitable .
By the clock time summer firmly established itself — with a substantial increase in feed phthisis , periodic restapling of the chicken telegram to the playpen ’s wooden frame , an ever - lessen amount of vacant penitentiary infinite , and the holiday season being months away — it was clock time for yet another move . B.P. Lemmon
Move Over, Rover
We had fenced in a large sweep , approximately 2,500 square foot , with field fence to serve well as a weenie die hard to keep our three detent confined when we were away for any length of time . Well , we evicted the dogs and moved in the four turkeys .
By this clock time , they had grown substantially , and moving them was no well-heeled feat . A prompt swipe in the face from a 25 - British pound sterling panicked hiss ’s wing can tap off one ’s glasses and will a red welt . And carry 20 pound of flap ferocity four times on a red-hot afternoon really test one ’s patience .
The initial concerns of the hoot fly over the 5 - foot - marvellous fencing and escaping were almost now dispelled . Aside from initial flank flutter , the turkeys never show any dip of essay to lift their girth offfrom the ground , content to lumber from pointA to point B in slow methodical steps .
Now with plenty of elbow room to drift , the hencould get some relief from the easy - sashay toms . And there was plenty of dry land to scrape , insects to prey upon and abundant weeds to nibble .
With a pass over wooden physical body from which to string up a bird feeder and water case , and a simple three - sided wooden shelter to escape any inclement weather , they settled into their own short world .
And Then It Turned Hot
Spring slipped into summer , with the temperatures rise into the mellow double digits and then sliding into triplex - digit territory . The dame , especially the toms , were quickly growing to a point where their strut seemed ungainly .
By midsummer , we were well into give to spray all of our poultry with cool water every duo of hr to prevent going due to heat stress .
We find a dud ’s I.Q. is somewhat on the low remnant . The mintage ’ “ elevator does n’t needfully go to the top level . ”
We had get a line narrative of turkey drowning in torrential downpours because they do n’t have the horse sense to get out of the rainfall and actually will stand out in the outdoors with their heads raised to the sky with their lip undetermined . It became evident that this might be more than a rural caption when we cooled the shuttle with a piss spray .
They would delineate up and put their promontory in the way of the spray , mouth undefended and eyes quickly blinking against the onset of cool off moisture .
Party-Time Gone Awry
One morning , we found one of the Tom had die out . He appeared sizable and participating at the morn feeding . However , within a three - hour menstruum , he had careen over in the middle of the penitentiary . There was no Bob Hope of resurrecting him .
It was comparatively cool as the heat of the mean solar day had yet to develop , find out heat stress as a lawsuit .
Poultry can succumb suddenly for a number of reasons , many of which ca n’t be find without post - mortem lab study . Turkeys are slipshod eaters and drinkers , with more feed and water falling to the dry land than they really consume ( or so it sometimes seems ) .
With the water font being cheeseparing to the hanging tributary , the feed on the ground was damp . We mistrust that it could have been moldy food that was the lawsuit . But all of the other shuttlecock were just fine and shew no signaling of any ailment or negative chemical reaction that might have result from an unsanitary alimentation area .
We did a thorough cleansing and disinfect around the feeder area and relocated the water baptistery several yards aside from the eating station . This was to help control no further possibility of mould and/or unrest and another premature dying . The two remaining tomcat and the hen were now safer .
With a false sense of surety , we begin planning for the holiday , which were still months away , trying to make up one’s mind which bird would be do at Thanksgiving and Christmas , and whether we would have enough Deepfreeze space to support such a big bird in typeface we had a desire for a turkey dinner party during the fall out spring or summer . B.P. Lemmon
Dog-Days Afternoon Follies
With summertime ’s end in sight but not yet operate and temperature get down to a more tolerable grasp , we experience fewer bi - hourly showers .
Oneday , there was an orchis in the husk bedding of theshelter . The biddy had accomplish a novel benchmark in her ontogeny , and the toms were becoming more “ protective ” of her . They place themselves between her and whoever might enter the pen .
The toms displayed more frequently . They spent most of the day with their tail end plume fanned , annexe drooping almost to the ground . They raised their cervix and heads upright and push backinto their mess up back feather .
Their neck wattles turned a undimmed red in color . The biddy would subsequently lay an ball every other day , like clockwork .
One afternoon , a razz was lying on its back in a heap with its wings splay out and nothing moving . With trepidation upon enrol the pen to absent another carcass — this time the hen’s — I noticed the foot claw at the sky and the brain wind upward in all-embracing - eyed panic with the neb gasping silent screams .
Evidently , she had somehow ended up on her back , whether tipped over by an amorous tomcat trying to put on her or endeavor to give herself a dust bath . With her wings splayed out , she could n’t get the leverage to roll herself back upright . How long she remain in that quandary was anyone ’s guessing . Without aid she would have eventually died .
Luckily , after flipping her over on to her abdomen and once on her feet again she ruffle off as if nothing happened .
Shortly after one of the tom turkeys developed a crooked neck opening as if somehow he bring a muscle sprain of some sort , perhaps in a fight with the other tomcat . Research suggested that this might be a result ofMycoplasma meleagridis , a continuing eggs - borne upper respiratory disease found in turkeys .
Though the tom did n’t exhibit other symptom of this condition , nasal discharge and difficulty in external respiration , we put the bird on an antibiotic drug . This seemed to avail but the wryneck would return once off of any medication for a while .
Aside from having an “ S ” shaped neck , he seemed to be a tidy bird . He feel no loss of appetency , no deficiency of attention to the hen , no coughing , no signs of loose muck and no weight - loss or torpor .
Lessons Learned
Though he lived a seemingly normaltrouble - free liveliness , the remain wry - necked tom give in , we assume , to his chronic ill by the second month of the new year . presently after the afternoon eating , at which timeall seemed normal and with no indication of impending problems , he was found dead in the penitentiary .
A neighbor had witnessed a wad of thrashing in the penitentiary and was surprised he had expired .
Now alone , the biddy provided a steady stream of egg . As turkeys are repute to be a very social species and do n’t do well alone , she became best buddies with our three goats in an adjoining , though much larger , fenced - in arena .
She straightaway sidled up to anyone who entered her pen , could be mitt - fed and followed the fencing railway line anytime someone walk by the playpen .
Because of the unexpected demise of the two tomcat , we research the literature and came up with a possible grounds . If you recover a turkey dead on its back with legs outstretched to the sky and neck and head stretched upon the ground and no grounds of injury , you’re able to assume the likely cause of a heart attack .
In butchering the third tom we did observe an unreasonable amount of fat in the abdominal caries .
We cohere to the schedule passage of one provender to the next as they grew . However , we never transition to a depleted protein maintenance feed . With the in high spirits protein levels in his grower feed increase its fertile content , possibly put a strain on his meat .
So , what object lesson has this tale of mischance taught us ? Like every new venture , one needs to have a learnedness curvature . No matter how much research one has done , it ultimately becomes a “ been there , done that ” summons of maximizing on winner and get word from failure .
More Information
Republic of Turkey necessitate a lot of room to wander , much more than a little hatful of volaille because of their size of it . Up to 50 per centum of their recommended dosage of vitamin and minerals come from free - range pasturing .
So just remember , more room means healthier bird .
The optimal timing for slaughter is between18and 28 hebdomad for turkeys—20 to 24 weeks being ideal . Any jr. and the fat deposits are insufficient , lead in a dryer meat .
Slaughter beyond 28 hebdomad can result in too much productive and stringier consistence to the meat , especially the breast centre .
turkey are a very societal metal money . A single doll does n’t do well alone and will attach to another mintage in close proximity . However , a motley flock of turkeys and chickens is n’t a good estimate . Each can experience susceptible to adverse reactions to disease that each species may gestate .
An resistance to a sponger or bacteria that a chicken may carry can harm and even kill a turkey , which has no such immunity . Even housing turkeys in fourth part once occupy by Gallus gallus flock can result in grisly boo , stunted growth and even death .
This article in the first place appeared in the March / April 2022 number ofHobby Farmsmagazine .
