[Bright Raven]

I have taken away their grub today, and on Saturday I will be dispatching my five boys and five girls. I have really enjoyed their company and have cherished all the times my son has rounded them up and helped me to clean and feed them.
I think my daft birds who are so chatty and have such a extended vocabulary of sounds are great. But I won't be missing the rounding up and putting away and pushing off the roof that's for sure.

So much to do this week end, it's quite daunting.
 
 

[little blue]

best of luck.. and enjoy having them for dinner 

[fizzgigg]

mee but i only got 3 lads to do n deffinately wont miss trying to get them off the green house roof haha. theyve been great fun but time to ful fil their purpose them and a ganderfor me

[sam.t]

we not doing our 8 ladies until wednesday but got 2 to do this weekend for a friend so let battle comense
sam

[Riggy]

I'm not.......................................but my wife and son are  !

We've reared 6, sold three, perfect! Our three are therefore free (if you ignore time, electricity, water, straw, etc.!)

[Henstock]

Ours has become a bit of a celebrity just lately http://www.shropshirestar.com/news/2010/12/09/the-shropshire-turkey-who-is-voting-for-christmas/ and cost us loads of money at the vets too!!!
And we're showing our Bronze stag at The Federation show at Stafford this weekend!!!
We do have two Bourbon Red stags which is one too many though and we've not bought Christmas dinner yet!!!

[Elissian]

I've got 5 to kill and pluck tomorrow, will hang them for 6 days then draw them and dress on christmas eve. can't imagine what its like to do loads, my hands cramp after the first few. we went to the pub for a pint tonight and came into the yard singing, the turkeys all gobbled a resonse from the darkness of the barn, delightful.

[Cinderhills]

I am so looking forward to ours going on Sunday.  I do love 'em but they are a bit of a pain.  We just couldn't get them to go inside at night which was fine until the snow came.  One male was killed by a fox so they moved perch.  About 5 days later another male was killed which left 3 females.  This sounds stupid but I have been getting up sometimes 3 times in the early morning to check them depending on how safe they are roosting.

Next year if we keep them will definitely get a proper shed for them as they really didn't like being walked up to the stables every night.

I guess it's a steep learning curve for us.  These will be the most expensive turkeys we've eaten!

[Elissian]

We had much the same problem, they were originally in a spare pig ark free ranging but i found that they wouldn't go to shelter from the rain. I'd find them sitting in the veg plot soaking wet. We were fortunate enough to have an empty barn so we brought them in. I let them out for a wander in the garden for an hour when its dry. I'm not sure what we'll do for the 4 we're keeping i wonder whether a much larger open fronted shelter would encourage them to get out of the rain. You're right everything is a huge learning curve an i there's always something nw to learn with so many differing opinions.

[Floyd]

I thought it was just me that had stupid turkeys.  I love the birds so much more personality than chickens but after building them a nice wind proof house with perches they still wander about in the electric fence in all weathers!  Despatched my 3 today so have tehm hanging in the workshop  not a big as I would like but I have been told the the Bronze is a slow growing bid so hopefully that will show in the taste.

When plucking do you guys scald them first?

[Bright Raven]

No plans to scald ours. We have rigged up our killing cone and plucking area today. The idea is to pluck into an old builders bag.
I will put up a photo of our rig up tomorrow.
Do any of you remove the leg ligaments?

[sam.t]

you sound like you have a simler set up to us cone and builders bag for feathers it works for us and this is our third year of doing them after i got the bright idea that it prob cheaper to do our own than bye one (£60 four years ago) got 8 to do this year 7 sold our free plus profit hopefully so hopefully all will go well for us on wednesday but no we dont take out the leg tendons
sam

[Sandy]

I have 4 hubbards and they are ready but I need the experteeeeeese of my son in law to give us a hand, as there are only 7 of us for Christmas DInner I may prep 2 first then the other 2 a few days later as I will then cook and freeze the meat!!!!! Not looking forward to it!!!!!!!

[Moregin]

We started with nine for our first turkey attempt.  I dispatched on Wednesday night and have hung them after bleeding till Sunday when I will clean and pluck.  Charlie managed to get two last month but only took one away so the other went into the freezer.  The one I have already cleaned was fairly easy to do - apart from size I thought they were easier to prep than a hubbard!!!

I kept them in their own shed and decent sized grassed run to help keep them on a grower pellet but once they could fly and started roosting in the tree or on the fence it became a job trying to hold them. We tried wing clipping but it only lasted about a week although a friend has suggested only doing one wing in future.  I put them onto a finisher for the last fortnight but again it was a pain chasing them all back into the run each morning and my bantams got as much of the feed as they did.  I might try a roof net next time but all in all its been a great experience.
They must be the thickest creatures on this earth.  If it rained they roosted up on the fence, if it was sunny the hid in their shed and during the snow they were out constantly.  And the buggers ate all our brussels - mind you I suppose its only fair since they were for christmas dinner too!!!

That leaves us with one - the Mrs had pleaded to keep a big bronze/brindle stag as he is the friendliest bird we have. So the next job is to name him.

[Bright Raven]

How about ~ .... Burk?