Getting ready for winter has kept me busy these past few weeks! Luckily, while I've been insulating the house, stacking wood, and tidying up for the year before everything gets iced over, my turkeys have been growing steadily. Yesterday was butchering day, and Yew-doggie, we've got some meat!
The Tail of Two Turkeys
It actually started with four turkeys at the end of May. I had them in a large wooden tote in their own stall in the barn. After a few days one disappeared. I'm guessing it was an ermine, since we've had quite a few ermine troubles in the past. Anyway, I put a wire mesh lid over the tote to protect the poults. The next day one poult was dead. I figure it had gotten hurt in the ermine skirmish the previous day and succumbed to it's injuries. Who knows? ANYway, so it became the Tail of Two Turkeys.I wanted to keep things simple and keep the turkeys fenced in, so I kept them with our chickens. They were in the tote with a light on them until they feathered out, which was maybe a month. Afterward, they free-ranged the chicken pasture. When we raised turkeys two years ago we let them completely free range, which was good in some ways but bad in others. The good is that they really find lots of wild food to eat and that they have lots of room to hide from predators. The bad is that they are territorial and messy. We heard quite a few stories from neighbors about dogs getting attacked and joggers becoming runners because of our "guard turkeys." Also, they are prolific poop producers, and it is enormously huge and gross, so it is nice to keep it off your front porch. So, up on the hill with the chickens they went.
The turkeys ate well and grew like crazy. They ate a flock raiser ration until the middle of September, when my chickens started laying and needed to switch to a layer ration. I didn't want the hens to loose production, so the turkeys ate chicken layer mash. Not ideal, but it worked. Everyone also spent their days scratching in the pasture for bugs and plants. My approach would cause a stampede, as they all loved the buckets of Rainbow Foods produce and deli scraps they got several times a week. One turkey was quite a bit larger than the other. I figured it was a dominance thing, but come butchering day it became apparent that the smaller one was a female, as she had egg yolks forming. It would have been neat to have a few turkey eggs, but we had other plans.
Butchering day went very smoothly, which made it fun. Birds can be feisty, and I won't lie and say I wasn't nervous about getting pecked in the face. I bear-hugged the female turkey down to the house (without incident), where we have an outdoor table and chopping block. I squatted, semi-sitting on its backs while I faced the rear and held its legs. I kept its wings pinched to its chests with my legs. Atlin held the head and chopped with a hatchet. The turkey pulsed for maybe 20 seconds and was done. We put it on the table, plucked it, gutted and rinsed it, then let it soak in a bucket of cold water. 
I sent Atlin up to get the male and next thing I know, he's trying to herd it down the hill. It clearly wasn't working, so I told him to just do the bear-hug method. So we get lined up for round two, but this time, as I'm sitting and Atlin's chopping, the turkey literally bucks me off onto the ground! I could not believe the force of that turkey! Released, it ran headless into the skiff shed squirting blood like a geiser. Within a few seconds he was recaptured and hugged, where he calmly finished his day. This guy couldn't even fit in the 5 gallon bucket after much cramming.
I love this sequence of Atlin and the turkey!
Next Year's Turkeys
Every growing season gives you more knowledge to help the next season be better. I have three improvements for next year
- Raise heritage turkeys - The broad-breasted whites are the industry standard--they grow like crazy but lack in general vigor. They didn't fare so well with the obscene amount of rain we had this summer. They had no tail feathers and had an overall tattered appearance. Ours taste taste a million times better than a store-bought turkey, but I can't help but think that a heritage breed would taste and look even better.....
- Start them later - When you start them in May they are HUGE by November. They-can-hardly-fit-in-the-oven-huge. 35-pounds-dressed-weight huge.
- Raise them separate from the chickens. Turkeys eat a lot. I got really discouraged over the feed bill this summer, and I think it was mostly turkey related. Having them in the old chicken coop would allow me to accurately figure out the cost of the turkeys and also keep the books on my eggs production. I'd also be able to feed the turkeys a grower ration for their whole lives.
Interested in growing your own turkey for the next holiday season? Go for it!--it's easy and rewarding. (I'm looking for someone to go in on an order of poults next year--the minimum is 15--let me know if you're interested) The cost of raising the turkey might give you a heart attack, but that bird will definitely not let you down come meal time. You can't compare the cost of a fresh bird to the cost of a Costco bird--they're simply not the same thing. Liken the cost of a fresh bird to the cost of king salmon or king crab and you won't feel so bad. Raising a turkey is great--everyone should do it at least once! 
