A home-grown turkey for Christmas dinner was part of our vision when we started on the turkey raising journey.
I was so excited to raise two turkeys – one for Thanksgiving dinner and one for Christmas dinner. It all seemed nostalgic to me. I envisioned a male and female, happily living at LL Farm. In the end, they would be my bragging rights at the holiday table.
The idyllic vision that I had in my head slowly turned into one trial after another. Ahem…Did someone say homesteading was easy?
The journey began in April (read about it here) when we pre-ordered one day old turkeys (a male and a female for companionship) from a hatchery. They died within 24 hours!
Determined to embark on this adventure of raising turkeys, we didn’t give up. We searched high and low to find two more turkeys. We ended up driving 2 hours to a feed store that had two turkeys left. They weren’t sexed, but thought to be a male and female.
Mr. and Mrs. Turkey quickly outgrew the brooder that we had set up in the basement. We moved them into the garage until the weather steadily stayed warm enough for them to safely live outside.
Handy Hubby built them a coop and we fenced in a corner of our pasture for them to live safely in. (You can read about it here.) Their life set before them was to be carefree. My vision was panning out! Mr. and Mrs. Turkey were flourishing. We enjoyed watching them go about their days – scratching at the ground or relaxing under the shade of a pine tree, they were always together…they were a happy couple. We were often entertained by their whistle (not quite a gobble). To watch a 30 second video of them and hear their whistles, click here.
I enjoyed showing them off to friends and family. Both adults and kids were in awe of them, especially when Mr. would fluff his feathers and start strutting around. I was thankful that I could use the turkeys as a teaching lesson – explaining the cycle of life, expressing how important it is to know where your food comes from, all the while appreciating Mr. and Mrs. Turkey and what they added to LL Farm.
They devoured the meat bird food that I fed them. That stuff cost a pretty penny and that’s really all they liked to eat; they didn’t eat as much kitchen scraps as the chickens. But, I figured it would be worth it in the end to eat my own farm raised turkeys.
BAM! The ideal vision started going down hill…fast! Mrs. Turkey died and Mr. Turkey went crazy. Feeding and watering him daily became a battle, not a welcome chore as it once was. He flogged at me on more than one occasion, making me a little scared of him. Most days I entered his area with some sort of protection: usually a broom or bucket lid. I felt safer having some sort of defense weapon. Thankfully, I only had to warn him with it, never did it get physically violent. Read more about Mr. Turkey’s grief and anger here. You will also read about an unlikely, but welcome friend that helped him through it all – a cow.
The day came, and I think it is safe to say that we were all ready for it. My parents came over to help and we ended up with a 26 pound turkey in the freezer.
On Christmas eve, we put that humongous turkey in the oven to bake ‘low and slow’. The taste was definitely different from the store-bought turkeys that we are accustomed to. After all, it was pasture raised, compared to some poultry farms where the poor things don’t see sunlight or get to roam in the grass.
So, to sum up our turkey raising experience:
Would I consider it a failure? No, not completely – we did raise a turkey and it did make it to our Christmas dinner table. We’ll call this is a ‘learn as you go’ lesson.
Do I think it was financially the way to go? No – Wow, that turkey ate a lot!
Will I do it again? I’m not going to shout NO, but I can say that I don’t plan on raising turkeys any time soon.
Well, like I said, he was 26 pounds! I’ll be busy creating some leftover meals using turkey for the next couple days. To see what I share, visit my blog.
3 Comments
Hi, Interesting read… I also raise turkeys and just wanted to make a few notes.
Firstly, Turkeys like their food all chopped up, diverse and warm. I own a restaurant and cart a shopping bag full of scraps home each evening. In the morning I chop it up. Everyday the scraps vary but there are loads of egg shells, greens, fish off cuttings, raw veg like cucumber, pumpkin, zucchini and a percentage of carbs like day old bread, hand cut fries etc.
I always boil a small amount of rice in a lot of liquid to make like a “starchy water” I add this to everything once its chopped to make the mix warmer (they dont like it cold)
I also add 1 tbl of raw cold pressed coconut oil (i live in asia so this is very cost effective for me) and a good glug of milk kefir. I also add a tbl of some form of nut(whatever i have about) and a tbl or so of salmon pate ( I cook the salmon belly left over from the whole fish with real fermented soy sauce, garlic, ginger and chilli to make like … tinned salmon… ish)
My two birds devour an entire large mixing bowl worth every morning.
Before we had 4 birds. I killed two for Xmas and the hen barely ate or drank for 2 weeks afterwards. They definately “mourn” for their mates but she is coming around now! I intend to acquire a few more birds after Chinese New Year. Turkeys are more “pet” like than chickens and are very rewarding .
DO you know why your hen died?
Although turkey poults aren’t very hardy, they are easier to raise with silky chicks (silkies are not aggressive and help teach poults to eat and drink and the added bodies help them stay warmer. Feeding turkeys on commercial diets counteracts ALL of the reasons for raising your own (it is expensive and usually contains antibiotics and steroids). If you fence a small area and plant it with a mixture of leafy salad greens you can allow the poults to “free range” a little each day, you can also feed scratch (grind in a blender if it is too course at first, or use a mill like I do) and “allstock” pellet feed (very inexpensive). For more protein try raising black fly larvae or compost worms for them. Heritage breeds are far hardier that the broad-breasted and tastier. If you want to try something even better, try raising a few guineas for the table. In most countries they are marketed as pheasant.
Don’t give up. We all have had our share of turkey disasters but in the end it is worth it. Considering trying Standard Bronze birds. Once you get them past the poult suicide stage they are pretty hardy and won’t eat you out of house and home. And best of all, they are super yummy.