The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Poultry & Waterfowl => Topic started by: Bramham Wiltshire Horns on May 28, 2016, 09:30:52 am
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When is the best time to buy turkeys
I'm looking at getting a few this year but don't want to get them too early so they don't fit in the oven at Christmas but big enough for a Christmas dinner
Many thanks
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Depends whether you want a heritage (single-breasted, slower growing, far better flavoured breed) or commercial (none of the above) breed. If you decide on the latter it will probably still taste better after you've raised it than the supermarket one will, though.
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Following this with interest.
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July is when most Christmas turkeys will be grown from.
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Probably looking at a heritage breed
What would anyone recommend
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The nagaransett (spelling!?) Are the rarest according to rbst.
Someone on here was selling them...
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Yup, that was me! The 2015 unrelated breeding pair are now sold. I presently have three broodies sitting and eggs in the incubator too, so may have poults available later in the Summer. Fully mature stags are around 15kg and hens around 11 kg but I would expect this year's hatch to be around only 75% of that by Christmas.
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I had broad breasted commercial bronze poults in June/July depending on age (so June hatched) and raised them on grass and corn. They had an excellent flavour and texture by Christmas and dressed at between 9 and 14lb. There are different breeds of commercial birds: They don't all turn out huge, tasteless and flabby, although some are better than others for free-range.
I haven't done them for a couple of years but maybe will again this year as I can't buy anything that tastes as good!
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Related question.....we want to hatch and raise our own turks for Christmas and for a few friends. When is best to put heritage variety eggs in the incubator. I was thinking in the next few weeks ?
I am sure we got our white turkey poults in August / September last year and they were perfect size by Christmas.
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Yup, that was me! The 2015 unrelated breeding pair are now sold. I presently have three broodies sitting and eggs in the incubator too, so may have poults available later in the Summer. Fully mature stags are around 15kg and hens around 11 kg but I would expect this year's hatch to be around only 75% of that by Christmas.
Ahhh, sorry about that MF. I'm terrible at keeping track of who said what on forums... another couple of years and I'll have it cracked ;)
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I'm glad my livestock is memorable!
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Yes July - KellyBronze sent me a leaflet a few months back in there it states the strains of turkeys if you want them sexed and the dates to order to get the oven ready for December.
Cyril Bason also sell turkeys which can be a lot older so you take the risk factor out. They deliver too.
Turkeys need to be fed and finished well, hung for a good week otherwise they are tasteless.
We paid £75 for an 14lb organic kelly for Christmas day to be honest it was amazing so much better than the prev kelly bronze we've had from conventional farms. There was a absolute mass of yellow fat and cooked in 2hrs. Cant go back now.
They consume a lot of food so be careful what you sell them for and assume you'll be processing them yourself (under the radar) As its too costly to take them to be dispatched plus they dont hang and imo waste of time. Absolutely no cheaper than £40.
Be warned though turkeys are sensitive to the weather and you may buy 6 turkeys poults that are supposed to finish around 14lb - this will not happen. You could have 22lb, 18lb, 16, 14, 12, 10lb hence bouncing around with the figures getting the friends to have the right turkey size for the price they can afford is always fun.
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With the Narragansetts we found they actually consume about 30% less feed to get to maturity than one of our large soft-feathered hens. Drink a lot when they're growing. however, and consume more grit as they slow down. May be different for commercial breeds.
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we get 6 week turkeys in sept.