Author Topic: turkey poults (Read 2973 times)

symjet · « **on:** January 14, 2012, 10:42:57 am »

hi all
can someone pkease tell me when is the best time to buy turkey chicks or when are they availible
many thanks
jon

manian · « **Reply #1 on:** January 14, 2012, 12:57:52 pm »

they should start laying as the days get longer and then a month to hatch.
Our may hatchlings were huge by christmas and late august ones came in dressed weight of 3.5kg minimum
so it depends on breed and the final weight you want- we have norfolk blacks and norfolk black/slate crosses- both taste fantastic

its no good them reaching required weight in november for christmas. just wasting feed

holz306 · « **Reply #2 on:** January 14, 2012, 09:04:17 pm »

I'd really like to raise a couple this year too, so any advice or tips from experienced people are much appreciated.

TheCaptain · « **Reply #3 on:** January 14, 2012, 10:17:14 pm »

we usually buy around June/July time. Ours last year were quite a bit bigger than this years - they seemed to grow like hell until the end of October then just stopped.

StephB · « **Reply #4 on:** January 15, 2012, 12:41:27 pm »

Hi

There is a commercial Turkey farm up the lane from us that rear 3000+ turkeys to supply butchers for the Christmas market.

Last year we purchased 15 day old turkey poults from them and they came in at the end of July. They were massive by Christmas. We bought a range of sizes from medium upto HUGE and the smallest we had was 16lb and the largest was 38lb. A mixture of Bronze and white, although I preferred the bronze.

So i would say that as long as you are getting a commercial double breasted strain then July is the optimum time. I guess you might need abit longer for the Heritage pure bred types.

Hope this helps. Hope you have fun rearing them, we absolutely loved them and am looking forward to rearing them again this year.

Best of luck
Steph x