Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

So, how'd your turkey turn out?
We slaughtered 4 & have 5 left. Hopefully we'll get some baby poults this spring. We got Royal Palms which is a heritage breed. At 18 weeks our turkeys dressed out at 8lbs which was enough for the 4 of us, some leftovers & soup.
Here's a pic along with some chickens and our LGD Brutus (a maremma):

I had't posted much lately so I need to give an update here. 8 weeks ago I purchased 26 hybrid cornish cross meat birds and raised all but 1 to the harvest. Fact is I will harvest the last 9 tomorrow. They really were easy to raise as lazy birds and really fast growers. I also purchased a dozen Cornish standards to get 1 good rooster to be able to breed my own fast hybrids. I will cull the rest in the spring. When I bought my layers I thought my girls were white rocks but now I'm not so sure. I may order a few white rocks to be sure. It takes them mininum of 19 weeks to start laying by then my girls may be starting to slow down anyway.

I'm not getting any eggs - the girls are molting.

This spring I plan on raising broilers. Where'd you get the Cornish standards?

Tonight I'm cooking a 20 week old cockerel we hatched from our own eggs (Chantecler a dual purpose breed). Supposedly you can eat them at any age but the roosters we slaughtered last year were only good for soup. Do males not count in the "you can eat them at any age" statement?

Mine did the molt thing last year. I purchased my cornish standards from a local feed lot that gets them from somewhere in Arizona, but you can purchase them on line from several places: http://www.efowl.com/Buff_Cornish_Chickens_p/1138.htm. The white ones are almost impossible to find but I can handle a little darker skin I am soon to order the white Plymouth rock hens to ensure I have the right genetics for a good meat bird cross.

The 20 week old cockerel was great. I roasted him. I will hatch more next year. Totally worth (but those heritage breeds do look a bit scrawny).

New to all this, but am wondering how old the ones you slaughtered last year were? From what Ive been told once they start trying to crow its time to cull them (not sure how old they are when they start doing that tho)

More importantly once they start trying to have their way with the hens or each other it means their hormones have kicked in and it taints and toughens the meat. Is this correct?

We purchased some RIRs about a year ago that were a complete disappointment - great legs but no breasts - scrawny and meatless...what can I say - Im a breast girl .

We now have some Light Sussex and Jubilee Indian Game pullets to eventually cross as I have read in many books that they make the best table birds - anyone tried them?

Reading this post is making me a little peckish Pardon the pun

The ones from last year were 6 months old.

I thought RIRs were egg layers. Are they dual purpose?

My turkeys looked scrawny but any heritage breed will I think, compared to the broad-breasted commercial breed. I think this may be true of chickens too.

My family is evenly split between white & dark meat so it worked out fine.

Out of curiosity, has anyone tried using scrambled eggs as fish food? Just looking for a use for extra eggs.

Roy

I have been using boiled egg yolks, Yeast with flour recipe to feed baby Tilapia with, untill i ran out of my own chicken eggs, then got some duck eggs from a neighbor. Doing this has cut down on using bought fish food for the little ones up to 3" or so.....

i feed the the leftover boiled egg whites to the dogs.........

RS

There's a thread about using egg white to clarify water (I think). It may spike the ammonia level due to so much protein.

Try it & report back!

Heritage breeds don't look gorgeous when cooked but they taste great:

If I get baby turkeys out of my holdovers then I'll live with the long scrawny legs at the dinner table. BTW, this was a very small turkey - 6 1/2 lbs! Enough for 4 people, soup, & just a little left overs.

Some lines of RIR are supposed to be dual purpose but I think the line I got had bantam crossed in there somewhere cause they are tiny compared to others Ive seen at poultry shows. The sussex are getting massive really quick which is great to see. Have to say hubby and I LOVE your Royal Palms - they are gorgeous! If we could find them over here I think hubby might actually let me get some! (Hates the noise of turkeys)

Let me know if you get some. They don't gobble as much as other turkeys. And they are friendlier than chickens but we don't appreciate it when they knock on the glass door in the morning asking to be fed. Or roost on our cars. Yuck!

Course I'm the only one I know of that lets them free range to that extent.

i keep barred rocks and dark cornish, have 3 little bantie hens.
i have way to many muscovys and 3 red burbon turkys.
i am putting the finishing touches on the wiz bang plucker and it can be running in a few days.....look out ducks...lol i have 5 cornish cross to pluck too.
i feed mine scratch grains and laying pellets plus what the scaveng off the pasture. mine love the dead minnows and dead cricket cage leavings.