Our turkey hatched her eggs today.

[helomech]

She had 11 eggs all hatched but one got smashed. So we have 10 new turkeys.




http://i266.photobucket.com/albums/ii247/helomech1973/animals/281248_2578563639623_79666332_n.jpg

[Evolver]

Right on Helo!!! Are you going to name them like... Thanksgiving, Christmas, Pot Pie, Soup, Mason Jar, Jerky, Leftover, Smoke??? :)

[helomech]

LMAO, no I suck with remember names. They are all called Next.

[bacpacker]

Very cool Helo. The birds look good as best I can see.

[helomech]

Yeah she was did a great job. We had every weather extreme you can imagine, freezing some nights, 90's some days, heavy thunderstorms and she hatched 100% of the chicks. Amazing we can't even get those results inside in an incubator. Some days she never left the nest.

- - - Updated - - -

http://i266.photobucket.com/albums/ii247/helomech1973/animals/224962_2578744404142_1248782316_n.jpg

[4suchatimeasthis]

Awww, what a good mama! Nice, very nice :)

[Jimmy24]

Very cool!! I kept turkeys up till last year. They got a bug of some sort and I lost them all. Not that I had a bunch, but 7 was as big a "flock" as I could deal with.

Hope you have many happy returns....lol

Jimmy

[helomech]

Man that sucks. We only have 4 adults right now. 3 males and 1 female. Trying to figure out which 2 males to kill. I think we have about 75 chickens, 20 ducks, and now 14 turkey (counting the babies). I just killed my 2 geese, and I won't be doing them again. Not near the meat as a turkey, and more annoying than any of the other birds. Oh and 2 guinea

[Jimmy24]

Man that sucks. We only have 4 adults right now. 3 males and 1 female. Trying to figure out which 2 males to kill. I think we have about 75 chickens, 20 ducks, and now 14 turkey (counting the babies). I just killed my 2 geese, and I won't be doing them again. Not near the meat as a turkey, and more annoying than any of the other birds. Oh and 2 guinea

LOL...had 3 geese one time....meanest damn things I ever saw....couldn't let anyone out in the yard much....all 3 ended up as Christmas dinner...

I still got my chickens and hogs...got fresh protein all the time!

Jimmy

Jimmy

[4suchatimeasthis]

My parents actually have the pictures of me, a mere 5 yrs old, being chased by some mean white geese. Mom always said those geese were meaner than her dogs (dobermans and german shepherds) and she was right.


Damn white geese. And clowns.......they still freak me out.

[Sniper-T]

4such, do you have pictures of you being chased around by clowns too? lol

Awesome Job Helo! Your set up is just getting better and better!

[Jimmy24]

My parents actually have the pictures of me, a mere 5 yrs old, being chased by some mean white geese. Mom always said those geese were meaner than her dogs (dobermans and german shepherds) and she was right.


Damn white geese. And clowns.......they still freak me out.

THAT is too funny!!!!

Jimmy

[Stormfeather]

I look at those turkeys. . .. and my stomach starts grumbling!

[Grumpy Old Man]

Nice Helo! I have always heard that turkeys were hard to hatch, but as never had them I had no idea. Were thee her own eggs and what breed is she?

[helomech]

Nice Helo! I have always heard that turkeys were hard to hatch, but as never had them I had no idea. Were thee her own eggs and what breed is she?

Yes they are her own eggs. We thought she got killed because she was missing for 6 days. My son found her near the house and she was on these eggs. She is a cross between a Bourbon red and a royal palm.

[Grumpy Old Man]

Great! I think that the commercial breeds are the stupid ones.

[helomech]

Yeah all of our animals are heritage breeds.

[Jimmy24]

So how are the poults doing?

Jimmy

[helomech]

4 of them are doing great. The mom killed the rest of them by stepping on them and leaving them out in the cold. We have decided to sell our turkeys and just stick with chickens and ducks. The hatch rate is just too slow on turkeys and geese.

[Grumpy Old Man]

Helo, I've heard that turkeys and geese are hard to raise, but having no experience I don't know. Thanks for your experience! It keeps me from making mistakes!

[helomech]

Helo, I've heard that turkeys and geese are hard to raise, but having no experience I don't know. Thanks for your experience! It keeps me from making mistakes!

If they laid more eggs it would be worth it, but only twice a year it isn't. Feeding them for a full year to get maybe 20 eggs is just not worth it.

[Sniper-T]

But how much meat does those 20 eggs translate into?

[helomech]

If they all make it to slaughter age, my guess would be about 5lbs of meat each, maybe a bit more. But I can get over 300 ducks in the same time frame with only one breeding pair. And chickens I can get also get at lest 300 a year off one breeding pair. And with ducks you can slaughter them at about 2 months. They grow very fast.

[4suchatimeasthis]

Very interesting, Helomech, I didn't realize ducks grew that fast!

I remember we raised a dozen or so turkeys when I was a kid. My parents faithfully got a set of 50 chicks every spring from the local co-op, raised to butcher, separate from our laying hens. One year just to try it I guess, they got some turkeys too. I will say this, I never heard my Dad swear (very pious, devout man) except at those turkeys. They followed him everywhere, they even tried to get into the car with him. I think they loved him, as crazy as that sounds. And they crapped all over his tractor, and all over the front porch. Looking back I couldn't say why Mom and Dad didn't have the turkeys in a pen, the chickens had a large (probably 30'x30' fenced in area) run to be in. But the turkeys roamed free.

I love the flavor of turkey, I prefer it to chicken. And I have thought about buying chicks and raising them for meat. But we have a large number of wild turkeys in this area as well, I guess we could let Mother Nature raise them.....

[helomech]

Very interesting, Helomech, I didn't realize ducks grew that fast!

I remember we raised a dozen or so turkeys when I was a kid. My parents faithfully got a set of 50 chicks every spring from the local co-op, raised to butcher, separate from our laying hens. One year just to try it I guess, they got some turkeys too. I will say this, I never heard my Dad swear (very pious, devout man) except at those turkeys. They followed him everywhere, they even tried to get into the car with him. I think they loved him, as crazy as that sounds. And they crapped all over his tractor, and all over the front porch. Looking back I couldn't say why Mom and Dad didn't have the turkeys in a pen, the chickens had a large (probably 30'x30' fenced in area) run to be in. But the turkeys roamed free.

I love the flavor of turkey, I prefer it to chicken. And I have thought about buying chicks and raising them for meat. But we have a large number of wild turkeys in this area as well, I guess we could let Mother Nature raise them.....

Turkeys are very expensive now. One young chick will cost you at least 15 dollars. I think I actually like the flavor of the duck over all of them. Goose is better than turkey IMO. Also turkey has to be the hardest animal to process. They are some tough critters.

[4suchatimeasthis]

Wow, dang, that is expensive! That is nuts, considering what you can buy them for, whole frozen.

I only had duck once, my uncle had shot one and brought it over....it was fishy and dirty tasting. I would rather eat bear, and that's saying something! But, perhapes raised duck, with a more "tame" diet would not taste as bad.

Now, Chinese duck sauce, that I like ;)

[helomech]

Wow, dang, that is expensive! That is nuts, considering what you can buy them for, whole frozen.

I only had duck once, my uncle had shot one and brought it over....it was fishy and dirty tasting. I would rather eat bear, and that's saying something! But, perhapes raised duck, with a more "tame" diet would not taste as bad.

Now, Chinese duck sauce, that I like ;)

A 1 year old tom is about 60 dollars around here, and a hen is a little more.

I don't like wild duck either, but tame duck is amazing. So much flavor.