Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat
Poultry and Pets => The Hen House => Topic started by: millymolymandy on October 09, 2008, 19:52
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Hello there, I was wondering whether to try keeping some turkeys next year, but to be honest I love looking at them but find them a bit scary. My thought is to buy some hatching eggs, so that when they hatch I will become used to handling them while they are small, and hopefully as they grow so will my confidence, is this a good idea or am I being silly? I do keep hens so I'm not a complete novice. Any advice would be appreciated even if it's just to tell me not to be so daft!
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I cant help you but Vember has a turkey chick
http://www.chat.allotment-garden.org/viewtopic.php?t=24530&highlight=turkey
http://www.chat.allotment-garden.org/viewtopic.php?t=24762&highlight=turkey
I am sure she will give you any advice you want.
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Our Grannieannie has a whole shed full of turkeys. She'll be along with some advice soon :D
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Annie buys them as day olds so she knows what she's getting.
Hatching seems to be largely a lottery of success rate and sex ratio. :?
Brian loves them all :wink:
Rob 8)
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Turkeys are wonderful!!!! They look very much like chicks when they are first hatched. The...some people would say 'ugliness'....I say Cuteness...comes very gradually. They are a very gentle creature, love attention and are very inquisitive. I just really love 'em....not looking forward to Christmas...but don't tell Munty!!!
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We have five turkeys and I love em and they're not scary at all they are just very inquisitive and like to be friendly.
Do you want them for pets or for Christmas lunch?
(http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a12/mummyhen/TURKEYSCHICKS13thAug08004.jpg)
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Definately get them young if you are a bit nervous of them. we have bought six week old chicks for the last few years and they have been no trouble at all.
However:
We bought a fully grown norfolk black stag 4 years ago and between spring and late summer he is vicious (putting it mildly!) talk about biting the hand that feeds you, I get attacked every time I try to feed him and his wives! I don't mind it but I don't let my kids anywhere near him. He is very handsome though
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That's boy's for you :wink:
Thank goodness we have a all girl band.
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Turkeys are beautiful & friendly ( well the ones I've had have been) :D
I got my first a couple of years ago she was 2 months old & really friendly, would sit on my shoulder :lol:
Paxo I have hatched myself and he/she is fantastic.
If your planning on eating them it will be real difficult after you've seen them as tiny babies :?
The only birds I've hatched & then eaten are Guinea Fowl and the odd spare cock, and when I do that I try to get a hen to do the work so I don't get too attached :lol:
Sarah
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And when you've got a shed full of hens and stags and you get back from a visit to the dentist to find one dead in the run at nearly 12 weeks becuase the other little b*****s hae pekced it to death, it'll make you wish you'd never seen a turkey in your life!!!!!
Grrrrrrrr. We hadn't been out long, got home, told Brian to go look make sure everything was okay while I fixed a sandwich. then I went out ito the garden and the turkeys in the run were making a funny noise, a bit like they ere trying to sooth someone who wasn't well, you know what I mean?
So I looked over the run and several were crowding round one that was on the ground. As I got nearer, I could see she was dead. They'd been pecking her ear and made the earhole very large, and she'd pushed her head through the fence to get it away from them, but because she was weak, they started on her thigh. Poor thing. We've put her in a black sack in the freezer, as we met a couple on sunday who have a Harris Hawk, and they said if we get any dead birds, they'd love it for the hawk and they are getting an eagle owl soon too! so that sorts my deadstock problem out.
It's strange though, we know the only reason it died was because of the pecking, but Brian won't let me cook it, even though it was a decent size! Funny man!!!
Turkeys are not quite as easy to rear as chicks. They have to be kept at 37C for the first week, whereas chicks are 32C and it only needs a slight fluctuation in temperature to kill them. I didn't know this at first, and we did lose 8 in the first couple of weeks, but once they are older, they can take much colder weather than chickens do.
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Thank you all for the replies, I would be wanting some for Christmas, but also in time a stag and a few hens to breed from myself later on, so I would make a fuss of the ones I want to keep and try to distance myself from the others. My cockrels from a megga e-bay egg hatching session this summer are now in the freezer, such a shame I did try to find homes for some of them but wasn't very successful poor boys far too beautiful to eat!