August 15, 2024 • 46 mins
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Tony (00:00):
Welcome to the Poultry Nerds Podcast, where feathers
meet fun.
Your podcast hosts are CareyBlackmon and Jennifer Bryant.
Together, they work hard tobring you the latest news and
information from the world ofpoultry.
So get ready for eggcitinginterviews, foul facts, and
more.
Now here's Carey and Jennifer.
Mhm.
Jennifer (00:25):
Today is just the two of us and we're just going to
talk turkey today.
Fall's coming up.
We're getting, starting to thinkabout Thanksgiving and turkey
day.
And it's a good time to talkturkey, I think.
What do you think?
Monica (00:40):
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Carey (01:01):
Yeah, it is.
It is a time to talk turkey.
I've, I actually recentlyordered some meat turkeys and I
have them in some tractors now.
getting them ready.
Conveniently ordered twobatches.
I call one Thanksgiving and oneChristmas.
So yeah, it's time to talkturkey.
Jennifer (01:22):
Now, meat birds, they, they take four months to get
from beginning to end?
Carey (01:28):
Roughly, yeah.
There's, Jeff and I have had alot of conversations about
nutrition and finishing them offand getting them bigger quicker.
Or even bigger in, the fourmonths.
And I'm using a feed ration nowthat I'm testing out to see if
(01:51):
the 30 pound mark, and that isprocessed 30 pounds in four to
four and a half months,
Jennifer (02:01):
I can't even imagine trying to cook a 30 pound
Turkey,
Carey (02:05):
like I'm thinking when we're having this conversation,
I'm like, okay, a 30 pound bird,you process it and you.
May have a 20 pound.
He goes, no, these birds gethuge if you feed them correctly.
And if you look at thenutritional side of it, they do
have.
requirements than chickens do.
(02:25):
So it makes sense, but I gottasay I've had them for three
weeks now.
And some of them are about thesize of a game chicken.
Jennifer (02:40):
Yeah.
So meat birds that you have.
They come in two kinds, thewhites and the bronze, right?
Which one do you have?
Carey (02:50):
Bronze.
I actually talked to a couplepeople in my area that I knew
had raised them in the past.
To see what the market wasbecause you know me, I don't
care what color the feathersare, but there are a certain
amount of people that do andespecially some cultures.
(03:13):
So he was like, hands down thebronze.
I said, really?
I don't know.
And so the guy that I talked toabout a lot of this stuff isn't.
A friend of mine, he's, and he'sHispanic.
And we talk a lot about theculture.
Those of you that don't know, Ihave a couple of kids that are
(03:35):
Hispanic as well.
And, he said that the only thingthat he can figure out is for
the ones that are actually fromMexico that grew up on a
Ranchero, it's like home.
Nobody makes it like mama madeit.
(03:55):
If that's what they grew, that'swhat they had as a kid.
So when they make that, itreminds them of being a kid,
which is why they would muchmore prefer a traditional or
heritage bird over a like aCornish or something like that
(04:15):
on the chicken side.
Jennifer (04:17):
So I would think that the white bird would pluck
cleaner.
Do you not think so?
Carey (04:23):
So my pluck is orange and it doesn't know what color.
Bird goes in it.
And for me, the only white birdsI have processed a couple of
American breasts that were fullyfeathered, but to me, it's a
different, like when you'redealing with a Cornish and I'm
(04:47):
not sure the turkeys may be thesame way that are designed for
that.
But it's like the Cornish havebeen bred to not have a whole
lot of feathers because they arevery hot birds and, feathers
insulate them.
That may be why the pluckingprocess is a lot easier because,
you're Cornish when you postedthe video on your Facebook of
(05:10):
them waddling around in theyard, they didn't have a lot of
feathers.
Jennifer (05:15):
No,
Carey (05:15):
they don't.
Mine didn't have a whole lot offeathers either, 30 seconds in a
plucker.
They're clean.
Jennifer (05:20):
So your turkeys are three weeks old now.
Do they have a lot of feathers?
Carey (05:24):
Yes.
Jennifer (05:25):
Okay, it'd be interesting to see how this
works out.
Carey (05:28):
Like my Cornish, it's like the first couple of weeks
they have what I call on achicken their baby feathers.
And then when they lose alltheir baby feathers and get
their big boy feathers, theydidn't really get a whole lot.
So I'm thinking that maybe theturkeys will do the same, which
(05:48):
means I need to get them outreally quick because that should
happen over the next week.
Otherwise I'm going to have aridiculous amount of feathers in
my brooder barn.
Jennifer (06:01):
Okay.
So interesting.
You've got them out on a tractoralready at three weeks.
Okay.
How long did you breed theminside?
A
Carey (06:11):
week.
Jennifer (06:13):
Wow.
So that's a whole different.
Carey (06:15):
Like we're having a hundred during the day, some
days and high nineties and we're70 plus at night and so I'm
using an Alumi-Coop, which has areally thick tarp, like top on
it.
Like 18 to 20 mils.
(06:38):
And so if you, the way myproperty is, the wind pretty
much flows in the same directionall the time.
So if I put the tractor wherethe back of it goes all the way
to the ground and it doesn't leta lot of the wind come through,
as long as they're on that backhalf of it, they don't get wind
and the heat stays in there.
Jennifer (07:00):
Do you have a heat lamp in there?
Carey (07:02):
Not anymore.
I did for about a week and ahalf.
I'm using a I think it's a fiveby six.
This is the smallest one theyhave for to brood them in.
And I put 50 of them in my 100gallon stock tank and that's
what got me past the first fewdays.
(07:22):
And then bump this, I need themout of my barn.
Put them in the tractor and Iput one of the red 250 watt heat
lamps.
I don't like heat lamps.
So I stuck that in there.
And one morning I went to gocheck on them and they felt hot
and I had it towards the front.
(07:45):
They were all on the far side.
At six o'clock in the morning.
So that tells me, Hey, theydon't need this heat source.
They're hot.
And I looked on my weather appand saw the nighttime lows for
the next few days.
That they were about the same.
I pulled the heat and sincepulling the heat, I've lost one
(08:08):
bird.
Jennifer (08:08):
We jumped right into the conversation about the meat
birds, so let's back up for justa minute.
Yeah.
For those people who aren'tfamiliar with turkeys, broad
breasted whites and broadbreasted bronze are meat birds.
There are bronze heritage birds.
We're going to get to that injust a minute.
So we're talking about meatbirds, cause that's what you do.
(08:31):
And so you brooded them insidefor a week on shavings.
Carey (08:36):
Peat moss.
Jennifer (08:37):
Okay.
And then you moved them out, butyou're in Alabama.
It's July.
It's, 800 degrees here.
So they're doing pretty good.
You would never do a heritagebird that way.
You'd lose all of them if youdid
Carey (08:48):
that.
No, they would have been gonebefore the first week.
It don't matter if you had 50 ofthem, they'd have been gone.
Jennifer (08:56):
So you have to know what kind of turkey you have.
to successfully brood them andraise them up.
So what percentage protein areyou feeding these meat birds?
Carey (09:11):
It's around 29%.
So I make my own feed and I douse a formula.
Sometimes measuring when I'm ina hurry and I'm making it for
me, not for somebody else couldbe loose.
So it could be 30.
(09:33):
It's definitely the 28 percentthat the recipe says it is, but
it may be 29, 30 plenty oflysine, methionine, vitamin A, D
and E.
I use a lot of fish meal and,all the nutrients and stuff
that's recommended for them.
(09:54):
I did not use a commerciallyavailable feed.
Now, the next time I do this.
I am going to use a brand namethat is highly available in the
southeast at any feed storethat's big enough to have a
(10:14):
credit card machine.
I'm going to use one of those.
Side by side.
So one tractor is going to havethat company feet.
The other tractor is going tohave mine and I'm going to go
OCD weighing them every week,the whole life and all that good
stuff this time.
I wanted to try this recipemainly because.
(10:38):
The guy that I talked aboutearlier, he and I went together
to order birds because obviouslythe more you order, the cheaper
they are.
And when I told him the pricethat I could get them from a
commercial house, he's beenbuying from the same hatcheries
that everybody buys from andpaying almost twice as much.
We're looking at that.
(11:00):
We went in together.
I'm feeding mine this.
And he's feeding his whatever henormally feeds and we're going,
I'm going to give him one ofmine and I want him to try it
because I've been trying toconvince this guy that
nutrition, better nutrition isbetter bird, taste and
everything.
(11:20):
So we're going to compareprocessed weights.
And taste and texture.
Jennifer (11:28):
So he's being a bagged feed from the store.
Carey (11:34):
Yes, he feeds a bag feed from the store.
The 1 that he's feeding is a alllock type that's available
central Alabama ish It's, I knowthe guy that makes it, nice guy,
and, but the feed, people feedit to chickens, turkeys, and
(11:55):
goats.
It's a mix of a lot of stuff.
That's what he feeds.
And we're trying mine.
Jennifer (12:03):
So you're more feed nutrition orientated than I am.
But my personal opinion is anall flock is what you would feed
to keep your critters alive, butnot necessarily an optimal feed.
Carey (12:17):
Yeah, because if you look at an offlock, they're typically
lower in protein because it'sdesigned for everything.
And some things have a higherneed than others.
And some if you look at a quail.
When a quail is first born, thefirst three weeks of their life,
four weeks
Jennifer (12:37):
hatched,
Carey (12:38):
whatever hatched born.
So when a quail is first hatchedthe first month, their protein
needs to be above 25, 26%.
The day the first egg pops out,you could drop that down to 18.
And you're good to go for therest of that bird's life.
(12:58):
Some birds, it needs to be moresteady, but like you said, an
all flock is, it's a genericthing for people that want to
feed the same thing to theirgoats and their chickens.
Jennifer (13:09):
Yep.
Okay.
So are you going to feed the 28,30 percent protein all four
months?
Carey (13:16):
No, the last month, I want to say it drops down to 18
or 20.
I'd have to look back at myrecipes, but there's like a so
for the grower phase of theirlife, I'm using the same
formulation as a starter and Ijust ground it, it's a mash the
(13:39):
whole life of the bird.
That's what commercial peopleuse is mash.
And so that, that's going forthe first month.
And then I have a formula fordeveloping and that's the next
little lower on the protein, buthigher in some of the vitamins
and amino acids to help themdevelop better.
(14:00):
And then the finisher it kind oftapers out on some of the things
because some of the stuff you,that affect the taste, if you
lower the concentration, you geta more tender bird.
and a juicier bird without thehigh fat because, nobody wants
(14:21):
the yellow fat.
Jennifer (14:22):
Now don't say that.
There's a purpose for it.
Carey (14:25):
Yes, you do want some because you want to be able to
use it to make your broth andeverything else.
But, if you go to the grocerystore and you look at their
chicken and their turkey that'sthawed out and fresh, there's
huge chunks.
And you're paying for that.
Jennifer (14:48):
All right.
So you're dropping the proteinto, what did you say, 18, 20
percent for the last month?
Carey (14:55):
Yes, ma'am.
Jennifer (14:56):
All right.
And then you're you'reharvesting them at roughly four
months.
Putting them in the freezer.
And now for those of you thatare new to turkeys, you, I'm
going to say you cannot, andthere's going to be people that
argue with me, but you cannotkeep a meat bird for a length of
(15:18):
time.
There's exceptions to everyrule.
I understand that.
Yeah.
But meat birds are too heavy.
Their heart will give out, theirlegs will give out and they
cannot reproduce on their own.
They are more similar to aCornish chicken than a heritage
bird.
Carey (15:40):
So I've had a conversation in depth about
that.
And there are different geneticlines.
Like you said, some you can,some you can't.
The advice that I was given was.
If you, cause I, I talked abouthaving some for breeders and I
(16:00):
was told if I wanted to do thatI needed to cut the protein and
the fat quick instead of waitingtill the developer stage and
Once the birds are fully grownThey recommend you feeding them
(16:23):
A very strict diet to maintainthe weight.
And if you do that and keep themhealthy at a lower weight, they
will be breeders, unlike what,like you can't do that with a
Cornish cross, but I'm told thatyou can with turkeys and me, I
(16:46):
am going to figure that out witha few of these once I can tell
I'll pick me a good Tom and acouple of others and, I'll get
him a few ladies and I'll pullthem out and then I'll put them
in a separate pen and they'll beon a different diet.
Jennifer (17:03):
But you're very particular.
You're precise with yournutrition.
And that's what it would take tokeep that kind of turkey going.
Carey (17:12):
Oh yeah.
You gotta be real, realparticular.
Sure.
To maintain that or you're goingto go check on them one day and
they'll all be dead.
Jennifer (17:21):
Now, here's an interesting question that people
probably don't think about.
Are your turkeys roosting or arethey going to roost?
Carey (17:29):
Yes, and how I
Jennifer (17:31):
ground
Carey (17:32):
in my tractors.
I do have.
Roosting bars that I think thelowest one is eight or 10
inches.
I'd have to double check.
And I want to say the highest is12, but it may be 14.
(17:53):
They're not very high.
Jennifer (17:54):
Inches off the ground.
Carey (17:56):
Yeah, that's inches.
They're not very high, which forany larger bird.
Anything over one to two feet istoo much.
I would say like for a red or anOrpington, even if you go over
24 inches, On a roosting bar,the bird would be okay while
(18:16):
they're younger, but they'regoing to break their legs sooner
or later.
Jennifer (18:22):
I feel people gasping and clutching at their pearls
saying, Oh my, you have to putroost up higher.
You're going to be shocked whenI tell you what mine
Carey (18:31):
are.
There's for your Orpingtons, therooster, Big scene.
A roost is a roost.
It's a place for them to get tosleep.
And if you've done your job withproviding them a safe enclosure
to go into, if the thing is sixinches off the ground, it
performs its duty.
Jennifer (18:53):
All right.
So let's talk about the heritagebirds now.
And that's what I have.
And those I do red bourbons.
So heritage is the breed, andthey come in a variety of
colors.
Carey (19:08):
So
Jennifer (19:08):
it would be like saying a buff orpington.
Orpington would be the breed,buff would be the color.
Carey (19:15):
Yeah.
Jennifer (19:15):
So my birds take.
almost two years to fullymature.
So you have to have a very longpatient span.
In order to do your heritageturkeys.
Carey (19:33):
Yes, you do.
Jennifer (19:35):
And my Tom out there is two and a half years old
right now.
Cause I cycle them out as I workon, I'm finishing up my coloring
my color breeding part.
I'm fine tuning it with theirtails.
And I'm almost there.
I think I've got some of hisboys coming up in the grow up
(19:56):
pen where their tail markingsare exactly right.
But he's two and a half yearsold and I had him up for my NPIP
testing and he is 33 pounds, 35pounds.
If he's an ounce, he's a bigboy,
Carey (20:15):
but like your bronze, I gotta say the bronze is probably
one of my favorite heritagebirds.
The bourbon, sorry, becausethey're like that red color.
It's like a red and white RhodeIsland red.
That, that red color is just sobeautiful, especially when the
(20:35):
sun hits it.
And yours, I've seen the videoson Facebook and I've seen them
in person and I would like tohave a field of them just
walking around.
Jennifer (20:49):
Yeah, I've got them out.
I've got them loose todaybecause it had all that rain
last night and it's so muddy andthey're run.
So I turned them out today, butI had them up looking, my grow
outs are about five months oldnow, and I'm really got some
really nice lacing going ontheir chests.
I'm really excited about mygrouts but let's get back to why
(21:12):
I have heritage and you've gotmeat birds.
So you're raising birds toprocess for your family and to
sell.
And I raise birds because, Ithink they're pretty and I like
them, but we eat them.
You can eat the heritage birdspersonally.
That we've been eating them nowfor maybe, eight to ten years or
(21:35):
so.
And I can't see me ever goingback to a meat bird.
So A lot
Carey (21:41):
of people say that.
The flavor profile is different.
And it's an amazing thing.
It's like eating a heritagechicken over a Cornish cross.
Jennifer (21:51):
Yes some of the differences the biggest
difference that shocked the fireout of me when you cook a,
butterball or a store boughtturkey, you want to cook it low
and slow and baste it and all ofthose yummy things.
And when you cook a heritagebird, you put it in the pot and
(22:13):
put it in the oven at 425 for anhour.
And that's it.
It's done.
And it's fun.
Yes.
The first time somebody told meto do that I was like, whatever,
I'm not listening to you.
But then I got sick.
Everybody always gets sick atThanksgiving.
I got sick and I forgot to putthe bird in.
And it was like two hours beforedinner, and I was like,
(22:36):
whatever, we're gonna try it,and shoot, that's the way you do
it.
I've never cooked it anydifferent stance.
Carey (22:42):
I've never cooked a heritage turkey, but I have ate
one, and they, if I had thespace and the time, I would have
heritage birds to grow out formy family.
Now, doing it for other peopleis a lot of work.
It's two years, two and a halfyears.
(23:04):
So you have to plan ahead forthis.
If I'm thinking flavor profile,ease of cooking, that whole
thing.
Yeah.
I didn't know you don't doanything.
You just, You
Jennifer (23:20):
put a little water in the bottom of the pan and cook
it.
All right.
So let's go back to thebeginning.
We, me and you get off on thesetangents.
So let's go back to thebeginning.
So your turkey hens won't layuntil they're about a year old,
but they lay better their secondand third year.
Okay.
So the first year you might getI don't know for me.
(23:41):
Anyway, I'm not gonna speak foreverybody.
For me, you might get 30 or 40eggs out of a 1st year hen.
But when you get up into 2 and 3year old hens, they're going to
lay all summer.
So I'm still getting eggs rightnow.
Carey (23:54):
So how many a week do you get?
Jennifer (23:57):
I only have four hens, so I probably get a dozen eggs a
week.
They don't lay every day.
Carey (24:03):
That's not bad though.
Jennifer (24:05):
No, it's not, and it's too late in the year.
I'm not hatching anymore, sowe're eating those, or I'm
feeding them to the pigs.
So a turkey will build a nestwhen she's going broody.
They're really prone tobroodiness.
They fit right in with thecochins and orpingtons on this
farm.
Mine go broody all the time.
When they're going to build anest, they lay their eggs right
(24:27):
there.
When they have no interest inbuilding a nest, they're more
like a duck, and they just dropan egg wherever they happen to
be when it decides to come out.
You never quite know how longthat egg's been sitting there
when you find it in the tallgrass.
So
Carey (24:46):
I have been looking at developing a nesting box.
I've done a little bit ofresearch on that.
And from what I have seen, aturkey actually does better with
a open top nesting box.
That's about a foot square.
I can see that.
(25:07):
So I talked to Frank Reese Jr.
And he actually, I saw a pictureof what he has for his heritage
birds.
And they're huge like yours andit's a one foot square.
Open top.
Now you try to do that with alot of hens, a lot of chickens.
(25:29):
They, it's like they want to gohigh.
Yeah.
They want something covered.
And people talk about puttingcurtains over the front and
everything else for chickens.
Turkeys want to do theirbusiness out in the open.
Jennifer (25:42):
Yeah, so mine will nest out in the run, and I leave
the grass high at the fenceline, so they'll nest in there.
I have in the past used thosebig galvanized steel tubs, And
but then you get all three ofthem, four of them, however many
you got, all wanting to nesttogether, the eggs get broken
(26:05):
they're very clumsy birds solet's go back to the beginning.
So you get the egg, it's goingto be 28 days to incubate it.
And then brooding them, you haveto keep them hot, dry, and
active.
So dry, I use stall pellets.
I have been through the entiregamut of everything, including
(26:27):
peat moss.
I have settled on stall pellets.
I do not wet them.
I just.
throw them in the tub straightout of the bag, make them about
two to three inches deep, and Iuse a heat plate, and then I put
either quail or chicks in therewith them.
(26:47):
You never put ducks in withanything because they're too
wet, but I have used quail andI've used chicks, or if you're
hatching in succession, use putyour freshly hatched poults in
with your weak old poults.
And the reason being is theywill keep them active and moving
(27:09):
and they're very inquisitive andso they'll go see why everybody
else is, hey what are you eatingover there and I'm going to come
and check it out too.
But the very first hatch youhave to be really careful
Because they just want to behot, and so they'll lay under
that brooder plate, and they'llnever come out to eat, and
they'll essentially just, Idon't know, sleep themselves to
(27:32):
death, is the right word.
So you've got to get them up andget them active.
But no, you don't have to diptheir beak in water, you don't
have to hand feed them none ofthose things.
Just simply throw a more activebird in there to get them up and
moving.
Now here's where people usuallymess up, is because the birds
(27:54):
are bigger, they want to putthem outside quicker, and You
have to pretty much brood themabout three months and that
seems insane, but you've got tokeep them off the dirt for three
months if you want them to live.
If you don't, if you're goodwith losses, throw them out.
(28:16):
But if you want them all to livea hundred percent three months
and mine, I have a hundredpercent success rate.
So I've
Carey (28:28):
had people tell me that It was insane for me to put mine
out as fast, even, the meatbirds were, they, they do
typically go out quicker.
They said that was insane.
And I was like you know what?
I don't want the mess and I'mgoing to give him a
Jennifer (28:45):
fire out of me.
Honestly, I didn't know you haddone that.
So y'all heard it on livepodcast.
You shocked the fire out of meabout it.
Carey (28:55):
But and they're doing well now, I will say, they're
eating a nutritionally balanceddiet.
And I have a product calledjitter juice that I use.
It's an all natural electrolytething.
That's got some apple cidervinegar and molasses and a few
other things that are allorganic in it.
And it has a smell to it.
(29:16):
And when they're like a day old,when I first got them, I put a
couple of drops of it in theirmouth.
And I guess that, that got themthe taste and the smell.
So when I put it in their waterthey go to it.
Because like you said, a whileago, the first time I got
(29:36):
turkeys last year, I justthought it's turkeys, it's a big
chicken.
Do it the same.
And I think day five, maybe fourday five.
I go, my, my brooder, it's abrooder, it's off the ground,
it's warm, the barn was heated,they had heat plates, I did all
(30:00):
that stuff, plenty of cleanwater, food, and I go check on
them, and the water doesn't,like it doesn't seem like
they're hardly any gone.
And I'm like they're a couple ofdays old.
They don't drink a whole lot,which is bullcrap.
They drink a lot, no mattertheir age.
And I want to say it was dayfive.
(30:22):
I went down there and there wasno poult running around and I'm
like, They didn't get out.
Where are they?
I lifted up the brooder plate,and literally in a 24 hour
period, every one of them hadwent to sleep, and they wasn't
waking up.
Jennifer (30:42):
Exactly.
They just, I don't know, I guessit's like when it's cold
outside, and you're laying infront of the fireplace under a
big blanket.
You don't want to get up.
I guess it's the same thing, butany, except for ducks, don't use
waterfowl, but any other birdthat you have.
handy, be it quail or chicks orwhatever, just go them in with
(31:03):
the turkeys.
And then if you're hatchingevery week, use the week older
poults at that point to keep thefresh ones active.
So it's very common for me tohave a brooder with, three
different age groups in there.
Carey (31:20):
So like with these, I do have, about half a dozen
gamefowl living with them.
And the I can definitely pickthe gamefowl out now because
they look like runts.
They're black too, so I can'ttell by color difference, but
(31:40):
they're essentially the runts ofthe bunch now.
I hatched them out about twoweeks before the turkeys
arrived.
So mine, my turkeys went in withtwo week old.
And I put the stuff right intheir mouth and I mix it in with
their water.
So they go to that and the feed,it smells, I would put milk in
(32:02):
and eat it.
It smells like really goodoatmeal and I don't even like
oatmeal.
There's that, but if you don'thave feed that has a smell to it
and you don't put stuff in yourwater to.
attract them and you don't put aquail or a chicken in with them,
(32:25):
then you're going to need tospend a lot of time with them.
Jennifer (32:28):
Yep.
Carey (32:29):
I've heard of people spending, like going out and
spending 20 to 30 minutes, fivetimes a day with turkeys in
their first week.
I'm like, Bro, get you somechickens.
Jennifer (32:42):
Yeah, so chickens solve a lot of problems.
Carey (32:46):
Yeah, they do.
Jennifer (32:48):
So let's talk about once a month or three months,
and then I put them out ongrass.
Now the reason I had asked youabout roost, is I was just
wondering because a meat bird isgoing to have a thicker leg,
they're going to be heavier,their structure isn't the same.
So a heritage bird like mine, alot of people don't understand
(33:09):
they can fly like a bird.
like they can get 50 60 feet offthe ground, they can get up in
high trees I mean they can movelong distances.
A full grown turkey might have asix or seven foot wingspan.
You have to be prepared forthese big birds.
You can't just put them in atractor supply.
(33:30):
store bought coop.
They need some space.
Just logistically getting uponto the roost, they're going to
spread their wings and they haveto have that space to get up on
their roost.
Now, I use a two by eight boardand I have mine One is two feet
off the ground and one is fourfeet off the ground.
(33:52):
So the two foot one is, I callit a bounce board.
They get up on it and then theybounce up to the four foot.
Now I know there's a.
A lot of people that, Oh,turkeys want to roost high.
Sure they do.
They're going to go to the tippytop of a tree.
If you let them, just becausethey can and they want to,
doesn't mean that you as theowner, as the caregiver have to
(34:15):
let them.
And I might explain to you why Ido four feet.
Now I'm just a little over fivefeet tall and I'm the only one
that's going to go in there andcatch.
Turkeys.
And the best way to catch aturkey is when they're on the
roost.
Now this is just assuming youcan't walk up to your turkey in
(34:35):
the yard and pick it up, but ifyou have to go in there and
catch a bunch of them, When theybounce up to their roost, their
balance is off for maybe two anda half seconds.
While their balance is off andthey're folding their wings in,
you reach up both hands and grabboth of their ankles from
(34:57):
behind.
And you swing them down.
And as you swing them downthere, their wings are going to
naturally come out.
Watch their wings because I havebeen caught multiple times
across the bridge in my nose,which is why I swing them down,
not towards me anymore.
And you will see stars.
(35:18):
So I promise you I'm touching mynose right now cause I remember
how much it hurts.
But anyway, you grab them frombehind as they're regaining
their balance and you swing themdown.
Once they're down, then you canput them back up into the crook
of your elbow.
So let's see, not visual here.
(35:39):
So you're going to swing them upin their chest.
It's going to go into the crookof your elbow.
So their head is looking awayfrom you.
Then you can transfer theirfeet.
to the same hand that they'relaying in the arm of.
If that, can you visualize whatI'm talking about?
Carey (35:56):
I tell people you carry it like a football.
Jennifer (35:59):
Exactly.
And they'll just sit there.
Carey (36:01):
One point back towards your
Jennifer (36:02):
elbow.
Carey (36:04):
And then you have the other end or the feet
Jennifer (36:07):
in your hand.
Exactly.
And at that point, and most ofthe time you're doing that,
you're, you're assessing thebird, you're picking it up to
harvest it, or you're picking itup for your MPIP tester, for
whatever reason you're pickingit up.
But at that point, their wing,their outer wing is accessible
for the MPIP tester or to carryit to the chopping block,
(36:29):
whatever you're going to do withit.
Assess its tail feathers.
In my case, I'm big on trying toget those tails correct.
So I can fan those tail feathersout cause that's what's in front
of me.
But that's how you catch andcarry a turkey.
I have seen many people try toput a roost up, six or seven
feet up in the air.
Cause.
Hey, my turkeys like to roost upreally high.
(36:51):
That's fine and dandy.
How are you going to catch them?
I can't reach seven feet up inthe air.
And we're talking about swinginga 30, 35 pound bird towards you
with a seven foot wingspan.
You've got to think thisthrough.
Carey (37:03):
Some crap's going to happen.
So for me, like going back towhat you said earlier about the
detractor supply coop, if Iwanted to have some turkeys, I
would say they have a 10 by 10dog kennel.
That has a roof.
You get one of those and you geta two foot a four foot place for
(37:30):
them to roost.
I use inch and a half PVC pipeon the dog kennel type with the
chain link fence.
I'll use that PVC pipe and runit in the corners through the
chain link.
And it's easy and I can put themat different levels, but in a 10
(37:50):
by 10, I would say anything overa trio would be pushing it for
space because they need a lot ofspace and in a 10 by 10, three
would be tight.
Jennifer (38:03):
I would be more apt to use like a portable saw horse.
With a flatter top on the topfor them to roost on just for
especially up north, where theirtoes might be exposed.
But yeah, you could definitelydo it with a chain link kennel.
That would definitely work.
They don't care, if they getrained on, they don't care.
They shed just like a duck wouldalmost.
(38:28):
So let's see, what else can wetalk about turkeys?
They pace, they're travelers,they're inquisitive, but really
they're quirky personality wise.
They have what I call strangerdanger.
If you put anything inside oftheir coop or anywhere near
them, they'll all stand aroundin a circle and put their head
(38:48):
down and they chatter with eachother.
And it, they pop their noise islike a pop in noise and they'll
just, what is it?
What is it?
And one of my most popularvideos I ever put out there was
all of them in a circle lookingat a bowl of grit.
For 20 minutes.
The video wasn't that long, butit went on for 20 minutes.
(39:11):
They just had their head out andpopping, looking at this bowl of
grit that I had given them.
Carey (39:17):
And that was talking about grit.
I am a firm believer.
That may be the only thing thata chicken and a turkey are
similar in, and that they needgrit their whole life, and it
doesn't matter if you're feedingthem mash, maybe you can get
away with a less percentageratio of grit than you would
(39:37):
with a pellet because, grit'sdesigned to break up the food.
But, studies show that gritmakes Them process a higher
percentage of the feed, whichmeans they're getting more of
the nutrients out of it, whichmeans they grow better and they
look better.
And if you feed a pellet,whether it's to a chicken or a
(40:01):
turkey, and you give it the gritthat they need, they're getting
more of the nutrients.
And because they're getting moreof the nutrients out of the
feed, they're going to eat lessbecause they're just like
people.
They eat when they're hungry.
They don't when they're not.
And so when they eat less, yousave some money in raising them
(40:22):
because, two and a half yearsfor a heritage bird, you're
going to go through some feet.
Jennifer (40:29):
So two things there.
Let's, I see this a lot onFacebook.
Don't overthink giving themgrit.
You can dump it in a pile in thecorner.
You can put it in their food.
You can put it in a separate dogbowl.
Don't overthink it.
It's just rock.
And it's not gonna, I don'tknow, dissolve out in the rain
or whatnot.
(40:49):
So I have a little bit of gravelin all of my coops in front of
the door.
So I just, I don't know, scoopfull.
Of grit in that gravel spot infront of the door and when it's
gone, I just put some more inthere.
I don't overthink grit
Carey (41:04):
No, I definitely wouldn't because grit if you have if your
runs are like a sandy or Rockyor anything like the dirt we
have in the south You've Throwthat crap on the ground.
There are a lot of people thatthink, Oh, I got a lot of rocks.
They get enough grit, whichthat's not how that works, but
(41:28):
I'm a huge person that says youdo not feed food on the ground,
but you can throw grit on theground.
Jennifer (41:35):
Oh yeah, definitely throw grit on the ground.
And what was the other thing?
Just a second ago.
Oh, two and a half years.
Oh, two and a half years.
You don't have to wait two and ahalf years to eat them.
We start eating them at abouteight or nine months.
But unlike the meat birds whereyou have to, otherwise they
(41:59):
start getting too big.
You have to harvest them at fouror four and a half months.
Carey (42:03):
The
Jennifer (42:03):
heritage birds, they're going to be more like,
hey, I think we'll have turkeytomorrow or next week or
whatever.
So you go out and you harvestone.
They will only get bigger andjuicier and more flavorful.
So unless you just need them offthe feed bill or you don't want
them any bigger you can getprobably eight pounds of meat
(42:26):
off of an eight month old henand maybe 13 pounds dressed
weight on a Jake.
Carey (42:33):
Yep.
Jennifer (42:34):
But if you for me, what we do is we'll start.
We're actually going to startharvesting them here in the next
month or so.
I'm just waiting for this heatto break and we'll just harvest
the biggest one.
And then next month we'll doanother one and next month we'll
do another one.
And we don't actually finishharvesting until breeding
(42:56):
season, which is like February.
So we'll have, we'll be down toall just breeders come February.
So it's more of a progressionversus.
all at once because harvesting aturkey is a much bigger job than
harvesting a quail.
Carey (43:16):
Oh yeah.
Jennifer (43:20):
All the scars on my arms are from harvesting
turkeys.
Carey (43:26):
I can see that.
Yeah.
Jennifer (43:29):
It's been fun today talking Turkey.
So if you want Turkey forThanksgiving, you better run out
and get you one today to have itrun out by then, it's going to
Carey (43:40):
be,
Jennifer (43:42):
yeah, or find somebody that
Carey (43:43):
has them.
And if y'all have any questions,make sure you send us an email
to poultry nerd podcast, gmail.
com, but in the subject lineTurkey talk, and we both get
that email.
So we'll reply.
Jennifer (43:56):
We will.
All right till next week.
Carey (44:01):
See y'all later Thank you for joining us this week.
Before you go, be sure tosubscribe to our podcast so you
can receive new episodes rightwhen they are released.
And they're released every week.
Feel free to email us atpoultrynerds at gmail.
com to share your thoughts aboutthe show.
(44:22):
Until next time, poultry pals,keep clucking, keep learning,
and keep it egg citing.
This is Carey signing off fromPoultry Nerds.
Feathers up, everyone.
Mhm.
Welcome to the Poultry Nerds Podcast, where feathers
meet fun.
Your podcast hosts are CareyBlackmon and Jennifer Bryant.
Together, they work hard tobring you the latest news and
information from the world ofpoultry.
So get ready for eggcitinginterviews, foul facts, and
more.
Now here's Carey and Jennifer.
Mhm.
Jennifer (00:25):
Today is just the two of us and we're just going to
talk turkey today.
Fall's coming up.
We're getting, starting to thinkabout Thanksgiving and turkey
day.
And it's a good time to talkturkey, I think.
What do you think?
Monica (00:40):
The Poultry Nerds Podcast is brought to you, in
part, by the generous support ofeggfoam dot com.
Your trusted source to shiphatching eggs safely.
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Carey (01:01):
Yeah, it is.
It is a time to talk turkey.
I've, I actually recentlyordered some meat turkeys and I
have them in some tractors now.
getting them ready.
Conveniently ordered twobatches.
I call one Thanksgiving and oneChristmas.
So yeah, it's time to talkturkey.
Jennifer (01:22):
Now, meat birds, they, they take four months to get
from beginning to end?
Carey (01:28):
Roughly, yeah.
There's, Jeff and I have had alot of conversations about
nutrition and finishing them offand getting them bigger quicker.
Or even bigger in, the fourmonths.
And I'm using a feed ration nowthat I'm testing out to see if
(01:51):
the 30 pound mark, and that isprocessed 30 pounds in four to
four and a half months,
Jennifer (02:01):
I can't even imagine trying to cook a 30 pound
Turkey,
Carey (02:05):
like I'm thinking when we're having this conversation,
I'm like, okay, a 30 pound bird,you process it and you.
May have a 20 pound.
He goes, no, these birds gethuge if you feed them correctly.
And if you look at thenutritional side of it, they do
have.
requirements than chickens do.
(02:25):
So it makes sense, but I gottasay I've had them for three
weeks now.
And some of them are about thesize of a game chicken.
Jennifer (02:40):
Yeah.
So meat birds that you have.
They come in two kinds, thewhites and the bronze, right?
Which one do you have?
Carey (02:50):
Bronze.
I actually talked to a couplepeople in my area that I knew
had raised them in the past.
To see what the market wasbecause you know me, I don't
care what color the feathersare, but there are a certain
amount of people that do andespecially some cultures.
(03:13):
So he was like, hands down thebronze.
I said, really?
I don't know.
And so the guy that I talked toabout a lot of this stuff isn't.
A friend of mine, he's, and he'sHispanic.
And we talk a lot about theculture.
Those of you that don't know, Ihave a couple of kids that are
(03:35):
Hispanic as well.
And, he said that the only thingthat he can figure out is for
the ones that are actually fromMexico that grew up on a
Ranchero, it's like home.
Nobody makes it like mama madeit.
(03:55):
If that's what they grew, that'swhat they had as a kid.
So when they make that, itreminds them of being a kid,
which is why they would muchmore prefer a traditional or
heritage bird over a like aCornish or something like that
(04:15):
on the chicken side.
Jennifer (04:17):
So I would think that the white bird would pluck
cleaner.
Do you not think so?
Carey (04:23):
So my pluck is orange and it doesn't know what color.
Bird goes in it.
And for me, the only white birdsI have processed a couple of
American breasts that were fullyfeathered, but to me, it's a
different, like when you'redealing with a Cornish and I'm
(04:47):
not sure the turkeys may be thesame way that are designed for
that.
But it's like the Cornish havebeen bred to not have a whole
lot of feathers because they arevery hot birds and, feathers
insulate them.
That may be why the pluckingprocess is a lot easier because,
you're Cornish when you postedthe video on your Facebook of
(05:10):
them waddling around in theyard, they didn't have a lot of
feathers.
Jennifer (05:15):
No,
Carey (05:15):
they don't.
Mine didn't have a whole lot offeathers either, 30 seconds in a
plucker.
They're clean.
Jennifer (05:20):
So your turkeys are three weeks old now.
Do they have a lot of feathers?
Carey (05:24):
Yes.
Jennifer (05:25):
Okay, it'd be interesting to see how this
works out.
Carey (05:28):
Like my Cornish, it's like the first couple of weeks
they have what I call on achicken their baby feathers.
And then when they lose alltheir baby feathers and get
their big boy feathers, theydidn't really get a whole lot.
So I'm thinking that maybe theturkeys will do the same, which
(05:48):
means I need to get them outreally quick because that should
happen over the next week.
Otherwise I'm going to have aridiculous amount of feathers in
my brooder barn.
Jennifer (06:01):
Okay.
So interesting.
You've got them out on a tractoralready at three weeks.
Okay.
How long did you breed theminside?
A
Carey (06:11):
week.
Jennifer (06:13):
Wow.
So that's a whole different.
Carey (06:15):
Like we're having a hundred during the day, some
days and high nineties and we're70 plus at night and so I'm
using an Alumi-Coop, which has areally thick tarp, like top on
it.
Like 18 to 20 mils.
(06:38):
And so if you, the way myproperty is, the wind pretty
much flows in the same directionall the time.
So if I put the tractor wherethe back of it goes all the way
to the ground and it doesn't leta lot of the wind come through,
as long as they're on that backhalf of it, they don't get wind
and the heat stays in there.
Jennifer (07:00):
Do you have a heat lamp in there?
Carey (07:02):
Not anymore.
I did for about a week and ahalf.
I'm using a I think it's a fiveby six.
This is the smallest one theyhave for to brood them in.
And I put 50 of them in my 100gallon stock tank and that's
what got me past the first fewdays.
(07:22):
And then bump this, I need themout of my barn.
Put them in the tractor and Iput one of the red 250 watt heat
lamps.
I don't like heat lamps.
So I stuck that in there.
And one morning I went to gocheck on them and they felt hot
and I had it towards the front.
(07:45):
They were all on the far side.
At six o'clock in the morning.
So that tells me, Hey, theydon't need this heat source.
They're hot.
And I looked on my weather appand saw the nighttime lows for
the next few days.
That they were about the same.
I pulled the heat and sincepulling the heat, I've lost one
(08:08):
bird.
Jennifer (08:08):
We jumped right into the conversation about the meat
birds, so let's back up for justa minute.
Yeah.
For those people who aren'tfamiliar with turkeys, broad
breasted whites and broadbreasted bronze are meat birds.
There are bronze heritage birds.
We're going to get to that injust a minute.
So we're talking about meatbirds, cause that's what you do.
(08:31):
And so you brooded them insidefor a week on shavings.
Carey (08:36):
Peat moss.
Jennifer (08:37):
Okay.
And then you moved them out, butyou're in Alabama.
It's July.
It's, 800 degrees here.
So they're doing pretty good.
You would never do a heritagebird that way.
You'd lose all of them if youdid
Carey (08:48):
that.
No, they would have been gonebefore the first week.
It don't matter if you had 50 ofthem, they'd have been gone.
Jennifer (08:56):
So you have to know what kind of turkey you have.
to successfully brood them andraise them up.
So what percentage protein areyou feeding these meat birds?
Carey (09:11):
It's around 29%.
So I make my own feed and I douse a formula.
Sometimes measuring when I'm ina hurry and I'm making it for
me, not for somebody else couldbe loose.
So it could be 30.
(09:33):
It's definitely the 28 percentthat the recipe says it is, but
it may be 29, 30 plenty oflysine, methionine, vitamin A, D
and E.
I use a lot of fish meal and,all the nutrients and stuff
that's recommended for them.
(09:54):
I did not use a commerciallyavailable feed.
Now, the next time I do this.
I am going to use a brand namethat is highly available in the
southeast at any feed storethat's big enough to have a
(10:14):
credit card machine.
I'm going to use one of those.
Side by side.
So one tractor is going to havethat company feet.
The other tractor is going tohave mine and I'm going to go
OCD weighing them every week,the whole life and all that good
stuff this time.
I wanted to try this recipemainly because.
(10:38):
The guy that I talked aboutearlier, he and I went together
to order birds because obviouslythe more you order, the cheaper
they are.
And when I told him the pricethat I could get them from a
commercial house, he's beenbuying from the same hatcheries
that everybody buys from andpaying almost twice as much.
We're looking at that.
(11:00):
We went in together.
I'm feeding mine this.
And he's feeding his whatever henormally feeds and we're going,
I'm going to give him one ofmine and I want him to try it
because I've been trying toconvince this guy that
nutrition, better nutrition isbetter bird, taste and
everything.
(11:20):
So we're going to compareprocessed weights.
And taste and texture.
Jennifer (11:28):
So he's being a bagged feed from the store.
Carey (11:34):
Yes, he feeds a bag feed from the store.
The 1 that he's feeding is a alllock type that's available
central Alabama ish It's, I knowthe guy that makes it, nice guy,
and, but the feed, people feedit to chickens, turkeys, and
(11:55):
goats.
It's a mix of a lot of stuff.
That's what he feeds.
And we're trying mine.
Jennifer (12:03):
So you're more feed nutrition orientated than I am.
But my personal opinion is anall flock is what you would feed
to keep your critters alive, butnot necessarily an optimal feed.
Carey (12:17):
Yeah, because if you look at an offlock, they're typically
lower in protein because it'sdesigned for everything.
And some things have a higherneed than others.
And some if you look at a quail.
When a quail is first born, thefirst three weeks of their life,
four weeks
Jennifer (12:37):
hatched,
Carey (12:38):
whatever hatched born.
So when a quail is first hatchedthe first month, their protein
needs to be above 25, 26%.
The day the first egg pops out,you could drop that down to 18.
And you're good to go for therest of that bird's life.
(12:58):
Some birds, it needs to be moresteady, but like you said, an
all flock is, it's a genericthing for people that want to
feed the same thing to theirgoats and their chickens.
Jennifer (13:09):
Yep.
Okay.
So are you going to feed the 28,30 percent protein all four
months?
Carey (13:16):
No, the last month, I want to say it drops down to 18
or 20.
I'd have to look back at myrecipes, but there's like a so
for the grower phase of theirlife, I'm using the same
formulation as a starter and Ijust ground it, it's a mash the
(13:39):
whole life of the bird.
That's what commercial peopleuse is mash.
And so that, that's going forthe first month.
And then I have a formula fordeveloping and that's the next
little lower on the protein, buthigher in some of the vitamins
and amino acids to help themdevelop better.
(14:00):
And then the finisher it kind oftapers out on some of the things
because some of the stuff you,that affect the taste, if you
lower the concentration, you geta more tender bird.
and a juicier bird without thehigh fat because, nobody wants
(14:21):
the yellow fat.
Jennifer (14:22):
Now don't say that.
There's a purpose for it.
Carey (14:25):
Yes, you do want some because you want to be able to
use it to make your broth andeverything else.
But, if you go to the grocerystore and you look at their
chicken and their turkey that'sthawed out and fresh, there's
huge chunks.
And you're paying for that.
Jennifer (14:48):
All right.
So you're dropping the proteinto, what did you say, 18, 20
percent for the last month?
Carey (14:55):
Yes, ma'am.
Jennifer (14:56):
All right.
And then you're you'reharvesting them at roughly four
months.
Putting them in the freezer.
And now for those of you thatare new to turkeys, you, I'm
going to say you cannot, andthere's going to be people that
argue with me, but you cannotkeep a meat bird for a length of
(15:18):
time.
There's exceptions to everyrule.
I understand that.
Yeah.
But meat birds are too heavy.
Their heart will give out, theirlegs will give out and they
cannot reproduce on their own.
They are more similar to aCornish chicken than a heritage
bird.
Carey (15:40):
So I've had a conversation in depth about
that.
And there are different geneticlines.
Like you said, some you can,some you can't.
The advice that I was given was.
If you, cause I, I talked abouthaving some for breeders and I
(16:00):
was told if I wanted to do thatI needed to cut the protein and
the fat quick instead of waitingtill the developer stage and
Once the birds are fully grownThey recommend you feeding them
(16:23):
A very strict diet to maintainthe weight.
And if you do that and keep themhealthy at a lower weight, they
will be breeders, unlike what,like you can't do that with a
Cornish cross, but I'm told thatyou can with turkeys and me, I
(16:46):
am going to figure that out witha few of these once I can tell
I'll pick me a good Tom and acouple of others and, I'll get
him a few ladies and I'll pullthem out and then I'll put them
in a separate pen and they'll beon a different diet.
Jennifer (17:03):
But you're very particular.
You're precise with yournutrition.
And that's what it would take tokeep that kind of turkey going.
Carey (17:12):
Oh yeah.
You gotta be real, realparticular.
Sure.
To maintain that or you're goingto go check on them one day and
they'll all be dead.
Jennifer (17:21):
Now, here's an interesting question that people
probably don't think about.
Are your turkeys roosting or arethey going to roost?
Carey (17:29):
Yes, and how I
Jennifer (17:31):
ground
Carey (17:32):
in my tractors.
I do have.
Roosting bars that I think thelowest one is eight or 10
inches.
I'd have to double check.
And I want to say the highest is12, but it may be 14.
(17:53):
They're not very high.
Jennifer (17:54):
Inches off the ground.
Carey (17:56):
Yeah, that's inches.
They're not very high, which forany larger bird.
Anything over one to two feet istoo much.
I would say like for a red or anOrpington, even if you go over
24 inches, On a roosting bar,the bird would be okay while
(18:16):
they're younger, but they'regoing to break their legs sooner
or later.
Jennifer (18:22):
I feel people gasping and clutching at their pearls
saying, Oh my, you have to putroost up higher.
You're going to be shocked whenI tell you what mine
Carey (18:31):
are.
There's for your Orpingtons, therooster, Big scene.
A roost is a roost.
It's a place for them to get tosleep.
And if you've done your job withproviding them a safe enclosure
to go into, if the thing is sixinches off the ground, it
performs its duty.
Jennifer (18:53):
All right.
So let's talk about the heritagebirds now.
And that's what I have.
And those I do red bourbons.
So heritage is the breed, andthey come in a variety of
colors.
Carey (19:08):
So
Jennifer (19:08):
it would be like saying a buff orpington.
Orpington would be the breed,buff would be the color.
Carey (19:15):
Yeah.
Jennifer (19:15):
So my birds take.
almost two years to fullymature.
So you have to have a very longpatient span.
In order to do your heritageturkeys.
Carey (19:33):
Yes, you do.
Jennifer (19:35):
And my Tom out there is two and a half years old
right now.
Cause I cycle them out as I workon, I'm finishing up my coloring
my color breeding part.
I'm fine tuning it with theirtails.
And I'm almost there.
I think I've got some of hisboys coming up in the grow up
(19:56):
pen where their tail markingsare exactly right.
But he's two and a half yearsold and I had him up for my NPIP
testing and he is 33 pounds, 35pounds.
If he's an ounce, he's a bigboy,
Carey (20:15):
but like your bronze, I gotta say the bronze is probably
one of my favorite heritagebirds.
The bourbon, sorry, becausethey're like that red color.
It's like a red and white RhodeIsland red.
That, that red color is just sobeautiful, especially when the
(20:35):
sun hits it.
And yours, I've seen the videoson Facebook and I've seen them
in person and I would like tohave a field of them just
walking around.
Jennifer (20:49):
Yeah, I've got them out.
I've got them loose todaybecause it had all that rain
last night and it's so muddy andthey're run.
So I turned them out today, butI had them up looking, my grow
outs are about five months oldnow, and I'm really got some
really nice lacing going ontheir chests.
I'm really excited about mygrouts but let's get back to why
(21:12):
I have heritage and you've gotmeat birds.
So you're raising birds toprocess for your family and to
sell.
And I raise birds because, Ithink they're pretty and I like
them, but we eat them.
You can eat the heritage birdspersonally.
That we've been eating them nowfor maybe, eight to ten years or
(21:35):
so.
And I can't see me ever goingback to a meat bird.
So A lot
Carey (21:41):
of people say that.
The flavor profile is different.
And it's an amazing thing.
It's like eating a heritagechicken over a Cornish cross.
Jennifer (21:51):
Yes some of the differences the biggest
difference that shocked the fireout of me when you cook a,
butterball or a store boughtturkey, you want to cook it low
and slow and baste it and all ofthose yummy things.
And when you cook a heritagebird, you put it in the pot and
(22:13):
put it in the oven at 425 for anhour.
And that's it.
It's done.
And it's fun.
Yes.
The first time somebody told meto do that I was like, whatever,
I'm not listening to you.
But then I got sick.
Everybody always gets sick atThanksgiving.
I got sick and I forgot to putthe bird in.
And it was like two hours beforedinner, and I was like,
(22:36):
whatever, we're gonna try it,and shoot, that's the way you do
it.
I've never cooked it anydifferent stance.
Carey (22:42):
I've never cooked a heritage turkey, but I have ate
one, and they, if I had thespace and the time, I would have
heritage birds to grow out formy family.
Now, doing it for other peopleis a lot of work.
It's two years, two and a halfyears.
(23:04):
So you have to plan ahead forthis.
If I'm thinking flavor profile,ease of cooking, that whole
thing.
Yeah.
I didn't know you don't doanything.
You just, You
Jennifer (23:20):
put a little water in the bottom of the pan and cook
it.
All right.
So let's go back to thebeginning.
We, me and you get off on thesetangents.
So let's go back to thebeginning.
So your turkey hens won't layuntil they're about a year old,
but they lay better their secondand third year.
Okay.
So the first year you might getI don't know for me.
(23:41):
Anyway, I'm not gonna speak foreverybody.
For me, you might get 30 or 40eggs out of a 1st year hen.
But when you get up into 2 and 3year old hens, they're going to
lay all summer.
So I'm still getting eggs rightnow.
Carey (23:54):
So how many a week do you get?
Jennifer (23:57):
I only have four hens, so I probably get a dozen eggs a
week.
They don't lay every day.
Carey (24:03):
That's not bad though.
Jennifer (24:05):
No, it's not, and it's too late in the year.
I'm not hatching anymore, sowe're eating those, or I'm
feeding them to the pigs.
So a turkey will build a nestwhen she's going broody.
They're really prone tobroodiness.
They fit right in with thecochins and orpingtons on this
farm.
Mine go broody all the time.
When they're going to build anest, they lay their eggs right
(24:27):
there.
When they have no interest inbuilding a nest, they're more
like a duck, and they just dropan egg wherever they happen to
be when it decides to come out.
You never quite know how longthat egg's been sitting there
when you find it in the tallgrass.
So
Carey (24:46):
I have been looking at developing a nesting box.
I've done a little bit ofresearch on that.
And from what I have seen, aturkey actually does better with
a open top nesting box.
That's about a foot square.
I can see that.
(25:07):
So I talked to Frank Reese Jr.
And he actually, I saw a pictureof what he has for his heritage
birds.
And they're huge like yours andit's a one foot square.
Open top.
Now you try to do that with alot of hens, a lot of chickens.
(25:29):
They, it's like they want to gohigh.
Yeah.
They want something covered.
And people talk about puttingcurtains over the front and
everything else for chickens.
Turkeys want to do theirbusiness out in the open.
Jennifer (25:42):
Yeah, so mine will nest out in the run, and I leave
the grass high at the fenceline, so they'll nest in there.
I have in the past used thosebig galvanized steel tubs, And
but then you get all three ofthem, four of them, however many
you got, all wanting to nesttogether, the eggs get broken
(26:05):
they're very clumsy birds solet's go back to the beginning.
So you get the egg, it's goingto be 28 days to incubate it.
And then brooding them, you haveto keep them hot, dry, and
active.
So dry, I use stall pellets.
I have been through the entiregamut of everything, including
(26:27):
peat moss.
I have settled on stall pellets.
I do not wet them.
I just.
throw them in the tub straightout of the bag, make them about
two to three inches deep, and Iuse a heat plate, and then I put
either quail or chicks in therewith them.
(26:47):
You never put ducks in withanything because they're too
wet, but I have used quail andI've used chicks, or if you're
hatching in succession, use putyour freshly hatched poults in
with your weak old poults.
And the reason being is theywill keep them active and moving
(27:09):
and they're very inquisitive andso they'll go see why everybody
else is, hey what are you eatingover there and I'm going to come
and check it out too.
But the very first hatch youhave to be really careful
Because they just want to behot, and so they'll lay under
that brooder plate, and they'llnever come out to eat, and
they'll essentially just, Idon't know, sleep themselves to
(27:32):
death, is the right word.
So you've got to get them up andget them active.
But no, you don't have to diptheir beak in water, you don't
have to hand feed them none ofthose things.
Just simply throw a more activebird in there to get them up and
moving.
Now here's where people usuallymess up, is because the birds
(27:54):
are bigger, they want to putthem outside quicker, and You
have to pretty much brood themabout three months and that
seems insane, but you've got tokeep them off the dirt for three
months if you want them to live.
If you don't, if you're goodwith losses, throw them out.
(28:16):
But if you want them all to livea hundred percent three months
and mine, I have a hundredpercent success rate.
So I've
Carey (28:28):
had people tell me that It was insane for me to put mine
out as fast, even, the meatbirds were, they, they do
typically go out quicker.
They said that was insane.
And I was like you know what?
I don't want the mess and I'mgoing to give him a
Jennifer (28:45):
fire out of me.
Honestly, I didn't know you haddone that.
So y'all heard it on livepodcast.
You shocked the fire out of meabout it.
Carey (28:55):
But and they're doing well now, I will say, they're
eating a nutritionally balanceddiet.
And I have a product calledjitter juice that I use.
It's an all natural electrolytething.
That's got some apple cidervinegar and molasses and a few
other things that are allorganic in it.
And it has a smell to it.
(29:16):
And when they're like a day old,when I first got them, I put a
couple of drops of it in theirmouth.
And I guess that, that got themthe taste and the smell.
So when I put it in their waterthey go to it.
Because like you said, a whileago, the first time I got
(29:36):
turkeys last year, I justthought it's turkeys, it's a big
chicken.
Do it the same.
And I think day five, maybe fourday five.
I go, my, my brooder, it's abrooder, it's off the ground,
it's warm, the barn was heated,they had heat plates, I did all
(30:00):
that stuff, plenty of cleanwater, food, and I go check on
them, and the water doesn't,like it doesn't seem like
they're hardly any gone.
And I'm like they're a couple ofdays old.
They don't drink a whole lot,which is bullcrap.
They drink a lot, no mattertheir age.
And I want to say it was dayfive.
(30:22):
I went down there and there wasno poult running around and I'm
like, They didn't get out.
Where are they?
I lifted up the brooder plate,and literally in a 24 hour
period, every one of them hadwent to sleep, and they wasn't
waking up.
Jennifer (30:42):
Exactly.
They just, I don't know, I guessit's like when it's cold
outside, and you're laying infront of the fireplace under a
big blanket.
You don't want to get up.
I guess it's the same thing, butany, except for ducks, don't use
waterfowl, but any other birdthat you have.
handy, be it quail or chicks orwhatever, just go them in with
(31:03):
the turkeys.
And then if you're hatchingevery week, use the week older
poults at that point to keep thefresh ones active.
So it's very common for me tohave a brooder with, three
different age groups in there.
Carey (31:20):
So like with these, I do have, about half a dozen
gamefowl living with them.
And the I can definitely pickthe gamefowl out now because
they look like runts.
They're black too, so I can'ttell by color difference, but
(31:40):
they're essentially the runts ofthe bunch now.
I hatched them out about twoweeks before the turkeys
arrived.
So mine, my turkeys went in withtwo week old.
And I put the stuff right intheir mouth and I mix it in with
their water.
So they go to that and the feed,it smells, I would put milk in
(32:02):
and eat it.
It smells like really goodoatmeal and I don't even like
oatmeal.
There's that, but if you don'thave feed that has a smell to it
and you don't put stuff in yourwater to.
attract them and you don't put aquail or a chicken in with them,
(32:25):
then you're going to need tospend a lot of time with them.
Jennifer (32:28):
Yep.
Carey (32:29):
I've heard of people spending, like going out and
spending 20 to 30 minutes, fivetimes a day with turkeys in
their first week.
I'm like, Bro, get you somechickens.
Jennifer (32:42):
Yeah, so chickens solve a lot of problems.
Carey (32:46):
Yeah, they do.
Jennifer (32:48):
So let's talk about once a month or three months,
and then I put them out ongrass.
Now the reason I had asked youabout roost, is I was just
wondering because a meat bird isgoing to have a thicker leg,
they're going to be heavier,their structure isn't the same.
So a heritage bird like mine, alot of people don't understand
(33:09):
they can fly like a bird.
like they can get 50 60 feet offthe ground, they can get up in
high trees I mean they can movelong distances.
A full grown turkey might have asix or seven foot wingspan.
You have to be prepared forthese big birds.
You can't just put them in atractor supply.
(33:30):
store bought coop.
They need some space.
Just logistically getting uponto the roost, they're going to
spread their wings and they haveto have that space to get up on
their roost.
Now, I use a two by eight boardand I have mine One is two feet
off the ground and one is fourfeet off the ground.
(33:52):
So the two foot one is, I callit a bounce board.
They get up on it and then theybounce up to the four foot.
Now I know there's a.
A lot of people that, Oh,turkeys want to roost high.
Sure they do.
They're going to go to the tippytop of a tree.
If you let them, just becausethey can and they want to,
doesn't mean that you as theowner, as the caregiver have to
(34:15):
let them.
And I might explain to you why Ido four feet.
Now I'm just a little over fivefeet tall and I'm the only one
that's going to go in there andcatch.
Turkeys.
And the best way to catch aturkey is when they're on the
roost.
Now this is just assuming youcan't walk up to your turkey in
(34:35):
the yard and pick it up, but ifyou have to go in there and
catch a bunch of them, When theybounce up to their roost, their
balance is off for maybe two anda half seconds.
While their balance is off andthey're folding their wings in,
you reach up both hands and grabboth of their ankles from
(34:57):
behind.
And you swing them down.
And as you swing them downthere, their wings are going to
naturally come out.
Watch their wings because I havebeen caught multiple times
across the bridge in my nose,which is why I swing them down,
not towards me anymore.
And you will see stars.
(35:18):
So I promise you I'm touching mynose right now cause I remember
how much it hurts.
But anyway, you grab them frombehind as they're regaining
their balance and you swing themdown.
Once they're down, then you canput them back up into the crook
of your elbow.
So let's see, not visual here.
(35:39):
So you're going to swing them upin their chest.
It's going to go into the crookof your elbow.
So their head is looking awayfrom you.
Then you can transfer theirfeet.
to the same hand that they'relaying in the arm of.
If that, can you visualize whatI'm talking about?
Carey (35:56):
I tell people you carry it like a football.
Jennifer (35:59):
Exactly.
And they'll just sit there.
Carey (36:01):
One point back towards your
Jennifer (36:02):
elbow.
Carey (36:04):
And then you have the other end or the feet
Jennifer (36:07):
in your hand.
Exactly.
And at that point, and most ofthe time you're doing that,
you're, you're assessing thebird, you're picking it up to
harvest it, or you're picking itup for your MPIP tester, for
whatever reason you're pickingit up.
But at that point, their wing,their outer wing is accessible
for the MPIP tester or to carryit to the chopping block,
(36:29):
whatever you're going to do withit.
Assess its tail feathers.
In my case, I'm big on trying toget those tails correct.
So I can fan those tail feathersout cause that's what's in front
of me.
But that's how you catch andcarry a turkey.
I have seen many people try toput a roost up, six or seven
feet up in the air.
Cause.
Hey, my turkeys like to roost upreally high.
(36:51):
That's fine and dandy.
How are you going to catch them?
I can't reach seven feet up inthe air.
And we're talking about swinginga 30, 35 pound bird towards you
with a seven foot wingspan.
You've got to think thisthrough.
Carey (37:03):
Some crap's going to happen.
So for me, like going back towhat you said earlier about the
detractor supply coop, if Iwanted to have some turkeys, I
would say they have a 10 by 10dog kennel.
That has a roof.
You get one of those and you geta two foot a four foot place for
(37:30):
them to roost.
I use inch and a half PVC pipeon the dog kennel type with the
chain link fence.
I'll use that PVC pipe and runit in the corners through the
chain link.
And it's easy and I can put themat different levels, but in a 10
(37:50):
by 10, I would say anything overa trio would be pushing it for
space because they need a lot ofspace and in a 10 by 10, three
would be tight.
Jennifer (38:03):
I would be more apt to use like a portable saw horse.
With a flatter top on the topfor them to roost on just for
especially up north, where theirtoes might be exposed.
But yeah, you could definitelydo it with a chain link kennel.
That would definitely work.
They don't care, if they getrained on, they don't care.
They shed just like a duck wouldalmost.
(38:28):
So let's see, what else can wetalk about turkeys?
They pace, they're travelers,they're inquisitive, but really
they're quirky personality wise.
They have what I call strangerdanger.
If you put anything inside oftheir coop or anywhere near
them, they'll all stand aroundin a circle and put their head
(38:48):
down and they chatter with eachother.
And it, they pop their noise islike a pop in noise and they'll
just, what is it?
What is it?
And one of my most popularvideos I ever put out there was
all of them in a circle lookingat a bowl of grit.
For 20 minutes.
The video wasn't that long, butit went on for 20 minutes.
(39:11):
They just had their head out andpopping, looking at this bowl of
grit that I had given them.
Carey (39:17):
And that was talking about grit.
I am a firm believer.
That may be the only thing thata chicken and a turkey are
similar in, and that they needgrit their whole life, and it
doesn't matter if you're feedingthem mash, maybe you can get
away with a less percentageratio of grit than you would
(39:37):
with a pellet because, grit'sdesigned to break up the food.
But, studies show that gritmakes Them process a higher
percentage of the feed, whichmeans they're getting more of
the nutrients out of it, whichmeans they grow better and they
look better.
And if you feed a pellet,whether it's to a chicken or a
(40:01):
turkey, and you give it the gritthat they need, they're getting
more of the nutrients.
And because they're getting moreof the nutrients out of the
feed, they're going to eat lessbecause they're just like
people.
They eat when they're hungry.
They don't when they're not.
And so when they eat less, yousave some money in raising them
(40:22):
because, two and a half yearsfor a heritage bird, you're
going to go through some feet.
Jennifer (40:29):
So two things there.
Let's, I see this a lot onFacebook.
Don't overthink giving themgrit.
You can dump it in a pile in thecorner.
You can put it in their food.
You can put it in a separate dogbowl.
Don't overthink it.
It's just rock.
And it's not gonna, I don'tknow, dissolve out in the rain
or whatnot.
(40:49):
So I have a little bit of gravelin all of my coops in front of
the door.
So I just, I don't know, scoopfull.
Of grit in that gravel spot infront of the door and when it's
gone, I just put some more inthere.
I don't overthink grit
Carey (41:04):
No, I definitely wouldn't because grit if you have if your
runs are like a sandy or Rockyor anything like the dirt we
have in the south You've Throwthat crap on the ground.
There are a lot of people thatthink, Oh, I got a lot of rocks.
They get enough grit, whichthat's not how that works, but
(41:28):
I'm a huge person that says youdo not feed food on the ground,
but you can throw grit on theground.
Jennifer (41:35):
Oh yeah, definitely throw grit on the ground.
And what was the other thing?
Just a second ago.
Oh, two and a half years.
Oh, two and a half years.
You don't have to wait two and ahalf years to eat them.
We start eating them at abouteight or nine months.
But unlike the meat birds whereyou have to, otherwise they
(41:59):
start getting too big.
You have to harvest them at fouror four and a half months.
Carey (42:03):
The
Jennifer (42:03):
heritage birds, they're going to be more like,
hey, I think we'll have turkeytomorrow or next week or
whatever.
So you go out and you harvestone.
They will only get bigger andjuicier and more flavorful.
So unless you just need them offthe feed bill or you don't want
them any bigger you can getprobably eight pounds of meat
(42:26):
off of an eight month old henand maybe 13 pounds dressed
weight on a Jake.
Carey (42:33):
Yep.
Jennifer (42:34):
But if you for me, what we do is we'll start.
We're actually going to startharvesting them here in the next
month or so.
I'm just waiting for this heatto break and we'll just harvest
the biggest one.
And then next month we'll doanother one and next month we'll
do another one.
And we don't actually finishharvesting until breeding
(42:56):
season, which is like February.
So we'll have, we'll be down toall just breeders come February.
So it's more of a progressionversus.
all at once because harvesting aturkey is a much bigger job than
harvesting a quail.
Carey (43:16):
Oh yeah.
Jennifer (43:20):
All the scars on my arms are from harvesting
turkeys.
Carey (43:26):
I can see that.
Yeah.
Jennifer (43:29):
It's been fun today talking Turkey.
So if you want Turkey forThanksgiving, you better run out
and get you one today to have itrun out by then, it's going to
Carey (43:40):
be,
Jennifer (43:42):
yeah, or find somebody that
Carey (43:43):
has them.
And if y'all have any questions,make sure you send us an email
to poultry nerd podcast, gmail.
com, but in the subject lineTurkey talk, and we both get
that email.
So we'll reply.
Jennifer (43:56):
We will.
All right till next week.
Carey (44:01):
See y'all later Thank you for joining us this week.
Before you go, be sure tosubscribe to our podcast so you
can receive new episodes rightwhen they are released.
And they're released every week.
Feel free to email us atpoultrynerds at gmail.
com to share your thoughts aboutthe show.
(44:22):
Until next time, poultry pals,keep clucking, keep learning,
and keep it egg citing.
This is Carey signing off fromPoultry Nerds.
Feathers up, everyone.
Mhm.
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