The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Poultry & Waterfowl => Topic started by: bigchicken on December 15, 2014, 03:39:01 pm
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Thats my turkey killed and hanging he is a big boy. Will have to weigh him.
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Did our turkey yesterday evening and he is hanging now. He looks good with very large drumsticks. No idea of weight yet.
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Weighed turkey and he is 10kg thought he looked more wonder what he will dress out at.
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That is big! My boys are just over 7kg each undressed and the hens about 4kg. We're keeping a hen and I'm actually quite looking forward to not getting up a 7am to get it into the oven. We'll do some beef too which will keep everybody happy!
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Weighed turkey and he is 10kg thought he looked more wonder what he will dress out at.
Will he fit in your oven? :fc:
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Yes he should its a big oven :fc:
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That's our goose killed too, and boy was she huge..... until she was plucked, and then strangely became rather tiny.
Two binbags of feathers though?!? :yum:
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I have a goose to do as well, have a spare gander that I have picked out he is getting a bit of a hard time from his father.
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I can't even think about killing my geese weirdly. Had somebody phone up about buying one for Christmas and I said they'd only go for breeding. I do have a spare gander but still can't face it....
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Oh dear. Perhaps I'm becoming hard hearted in my old age? I'll be honest, I found killing turkeys far harder than the geese, as the turkeys had so much character, wheras whatever kindness you show to the geese, they just seem to hate you all the more for it.
I kindof psyched myself up for the geese over the past few months by marking them with sheep spray each time they escaped over the fence and had to be herded back in. The one that looks as though it's been tie-dyed is going to be our Christmas Dinner! :D
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I supplied a turkey and a goose for the christmas dinner last year and the goose was devoured everyone loved it, they thought it was so like meat. The turkey was so juicy, both were part cooked and finnished at the venue.
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I've just got the opposite problem Womble! Turkeys very stupid and end up all over the place unable to work out they got there or how to get back. They even flew out of the seven foot run a few times and insisted on roosting on top of a duck house so every night I had to chivvy them down and into their fox proof shed. The geese are the characterful ones round here....
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I know what you mean Hester. Our turkeys kept flying out over the electric netting, so I clipped their wings to stop them. They then took to roosting on top of their 6 foot high house, just to show me they still could! :D
We separated our geese into an eating flock and a keeping flock about a month ago. As a result, I had plenty of time to get used to the idea that they were going to go. I do like our geese really, and it wouldn't feel right not to have any. Actually I'd like to get more, but that's dependent on me finding another breed I like.
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Turkey is now 'oven ready' and in the fridge. It ended up weighing just under 9kg which is more than I had expected. It looks great.
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Thats a good weight wayfarer, I prepared my boy today and oven ready he comes in at 7·5 kg plenty for the 4 of us.
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That's certainly heavier than ours! :trophy:
Which breeds did you all rear?
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Mine was a bronze commercial type bought as a chick from the Scottish Smallholders Association as I have done for the last 4 years.
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We got ours as a hatching egg on ebay sold as a Norfolk Black/Bronze and hatched out by our bantam hen. He was more black than bronze in colouring as he was all black except for a couple of bronze plumage tail feathers. He was supposed to be a heritage type but he has grown a lot so I don't know now. Is it possible to tell from the carcass whether they are commercial or heritage?
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Usually the commercial birds are double breasted.
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This is probably a silly question but how can I tell whether it is double breasted?
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Double breasted just means a commercial type being breed to have a large breast where as an ordinary turkey which will reach the same weight slower and have a bigger carcass but the breast will not be as big.
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I will never buy shop turkey again. I can't believe how much tastier ours was despite what others have said. I prefer the dark meat and this was gorgeous - really gamey but the others who like the breast also siad it was the best they had tasted. Will definitely be hatching more eggs this year even though the poults are a hassle and we had to put the turkey to bed each night once he was free ranging.
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We'll have Narragansett hatching eggs available from probably the end of May, once we've had a test hatch to confirm fertility. You can Google the breed - definitely heritage and definitely large!