Raising Turkeys

[Hopewell Tom]

I am so envious of you guys with turkeys to hunt. Meat for the table, wing feathers for arrows, JUST GETTING OUT in the spring. So, from the aspect of wing feathers, has anyone ever raised turkeys for this benefit? I've seen some pics of Bronze turkeys that look like they might have the right type/colour, are there any other breeds you know of?

[Ryan Rothhaar]

We kept domestic turkeys for several years.  There are several breeds readily available - bronze (barred feathers), bourbon red (white feathers), slate blue (gray mottled feathers), royal palm (white/black feathers) would all work.  We had to clip the primaries to keep the turkeys where they belonged so didn't have feathers.  The yearly molt might work but the primaries don't all come off at once and they have a tendency to get messed up/dirty and seemed to me more trouble than it would be worth to gather them.  If you are interested in butchering, of course you could have feathers, you'll spend over a year growing a bird with real nice primaries.  Also you'll likely want a covered pen if you aren't going to clip the primaries - unless you don't mind your turkeys roosting on your house!

They are fun to fool around with - you'll learn more about turkey calls and calling turkeys spending time watching your domestics than buying all the calling tapes and videos there are.  Most hunters/"experts" on the videos know about 10% of the calls real turkeys make.

Ryan

[Stiks-n-Strings]

I have two pet turkeys, A merriams and white hen.

 Funniest daggum things to watch there ever was. The hen is Mildred and the Merriams tom is Henry the Hammer. He struts around and hammers all day. there wings ain't good enough for fletch we keep them cut.

[Ray Hammond]

In many states its illegal to keep wild game as pets...check your regs.

[Ryan Rothhaar]

Yeah, you don't want to fool around with wild strain birds.  First, they won't have near the meat or grow as quickly as an "improved" domestic - that means longer to meat and longer to feathers for your arrows.  Secondly, they have a tendency to be crazy.  I've been around wild strain Easterns in a pen, and I wouldn't complicate things that way.

If you get serious about it, watch out for blackhead, if there were ever chickens around you'll probably get into blackhead problems.  The only fix we found was a Flagil pill each day for two weeks.  Trust me, turkeys don't like taking pills.  I know whereof I speak.

Ryan

[swp]

Hsd two black spanish turkeys and a bronze turkey. The gobblers get to where they want to fight you all of the time. My wife ended up running over one because he liked to chase her car.    They are also eating machines!! And wing feathers were mostly worn off from them strutting constantly.

[Saltydog]

I raise both chickens and turkeys, and like was mentioned before, they are a lot of fun. But to raise turkeys for feathers just ain't worth it. Feed right now is about $10/40lb, and turkeys when you average it out will eat about 1/2 lb. per bird per day. Do the math and it's a lot cheaper buy the feathers, or cadge them off all your successful turkey hunting buddies.

[Mike Most]

I can't resist sharing my experience Tom.

Last year the local feed store had bronze turkeys they were 5.25$ dollars American each. So I wanted feathers I bought three.   I took them home and put them in a cage which was about 3 feet off the ground. They did so well I got three more same price. so now I have about $35.00 invested.

   (There was no other entry point).

Now I babied the last three one of which was crippled but alive. I managed to raise these three birds to 15lb range. But unfortunately the cripple died along the way.

   

The remaining two were getting close to Thanksgiving day, so I moved them to a bigger pen (covered) on the ground. Next morning some critter got in an killed one of the birds. (I strongly suspect a domestic house cat). 4x4 bull panel was in place

 :confused:  

The one bird I got left I now have about $60 plus in feed and $35 in birds plus my time.

   

Buthchering day comes and the bird gets roasted, I have a few feathers, quality not quite as good as what you could do in the wild.  

The local grocer sells em for 59cents a pound. and 3R sells pretty good feathers.

   

Regards Mike

[Hopewell Tom]

So much for that plan then. I wouldn't be dealing with wild stock, just thought it might be possible with a bronze bird. We raised 24 "back in the 1900's" when we were newly married and it was no picnic as I recall. we did all the butchering, that is I did, my wife was pregnant and the whole scene was a little much. Thanks for the comments, once again Tradgang has helped me see the light.

[Roughrider]

If you do decide to raise turkeys, or any other foul, you can just clip one wing and they can't fly - it often works better than clipping both.  So, if you want left wing feathers, just clip the right side.