Turkey Talk Heritage and Broad Breasted
There are 2 kinds of turkeys, heritage and meat. It is important to know the difference and choose the best for your needs.
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Tony: 0:00
Welcome to the Poultry Nerds Podcast, where feathers meet fun. Your podcast hosts are Carey Blackmon and Jennifer Bryant. Together, they work hard to bring you the latest news and information from the world of poultry. So get ready for eggciting interviews, foul facts, and more. Now here's Carey and Jennifer.
0:17
Mhm.
Jennifer: 0:25
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 think about Thanksgiving and turkey day. And it's a good time to talk turkey, I think. What do you think?
Monica: 0:40
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Carey: 1:01
Yeah, it is. It is a time to talk turkey. I've, I actually recently ordered some meat turkeys and I have them in some tractors now. getting them ready. Conveniently ordered two batches. I call one Thanksgiving and one Christmas. So yeah, it's time to talk turkey.
Jennifer: 1:22
Now, meat birds, they, they take four months to get from beginning to end?
Carey: 1:28
Roughly, yeah. There's, Jeff and I have had a lot of conversations about nutrition and finishing them off and getting them bigger quicker. Or even bigger in, the four months. And I'm using a feed ration now that I'm testing out to see if the 30 pound mark, and that is processed 30 pounds in four to four and a half months,
Jennifer: 2:01
I can't even imagine trying to cook a 30 pound Turkey,
Carey: 2:05
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 get huge if you feed them correctly. And if you look at the nutritional side of it, they do have. requirements than chickens do. So it makes sense, but I gotta say I've had them for three weeks now. And some of them are about the size of a game chicken.
Jennifer: 2:40
Yeah. So meat birds that you have. They come in two kinds, the whites and the bronze, right? Which one do you have?
Carey: 2:50
Bronze. I actually talked to a couple people in my area that I knew had raised them in the past. To see what the market was because you know me, I don't care what color the feathers are, but there are a certain amount of people that do and especially some cultures. So he was like, hands down the bronze. I said, really? I don't know. And so the guy that I talked to about a lot of this stuff isn't. A friend of mine, he's, and he's Hispanic. And we talk a lot about the culture. Those of you that don't know, I have a couple of kids that are Hispanic as well. And, he said that the only thing that he can figure out is for the ones that are actually from Mexico that grew up on a Ranchero, it's like home. Nobody makes it like mama made it. If that's what they grew, that's what they had as a kid. So when they make that, it reminds them of being a kid, which is why they would much more prefer a traditional or heritage bird over a like a Cornish or something like that on the chicken side.
Jennifer: 4:17
So I would think that the white bird would pluck cleaner. Do you not think so?
Carey: 4:23
So my pluck is orange and it doesn't know what color. Bird goes in it. And for me, the only white birds I have processed a couple of American breasts that were fully feathered, but to me, it's a different, like when you're dealing with a Cornish and I'm not sure the turkeys may be the same way that are designed for that. But it's like the Cornish have been bred to not have a whole lot of feathers because they are very hot birds and, feathers insulate them. That may be why the plucking process is a lot easier because, you're Cornish when you posted the video on your Facebook of them waddling around in the yard, they didn't have a lot of feathers.
Jennifer: 5:15
No,
Carey: 5:15
they don't. Mine didn't have a whole lot of feathers either, 30 seconds in a plucker. They're clean.
Jennifer: 5:20
So your turkeys are three weeks old now. Do they have a lot of feathers?
Carey: 5:24
Yes.
Jennifer: 5:25
Okay, it'd be interesting to see how this works out.
Carey: 5:28
Like my Cornish, it's like the first couple of weeks they have what I call on a chicken their baby feathers. And then when they lose all their baby feathers and get their big boy feathers, they didn't really get a whole lot. So I'm thinking that maybe the turkeys will do the same, which means I need to get them out really quick because that should happen over the next week. Otherwise I'm going to have a ridiculous amount of feathers in my brooder barn.
Jennifer: 6:01
Okay. So interesting. You've got them out on a tractor already at three weeks. Okay. How long did you breed them inside? A
Carey: 6:11
week.
Jennifer: 6:13
Wow. So that's a whole different.
Carey: 6:15
Like we're having a hundred during the day, some days and high nineties and we're 70 plus at night and so I'm using an Alumi-Coop, which has a really thick tarp, like top on it. Like 18 to 20 mils. And so if you, the way my property is, the wind pretty much flows in the same direction all the time. So if I put the tractor where the back of it goes all the way to the ground and it doesn't let a lot of the wind come through, as long as they're on that back half of it, they don't get wind and the heat stays in there.
Jennifer: 7:00
Do you have a heat lamp in there?
Carey: 7:02
Not anymore. I did for about a week and a half. I'm using a I think it's a five by six. This is the smallest one they have for to brood them in. And I put 50 of them in my 100 gallon stock tank and that's what got me past the first few days. And then bump this, I need them out of my barn. Put them in the tractor and I put 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 go check on them and they felt hot and I had it towards the front. They were all on the far side. At six o'clock in the morning. So that tells me, Hey, they don't need this heat source. They're hot. And I looked on my weather app and saw the nighttime lows for the next few days. That they were about the same. I pulled the heat and since pulling the heat, I've lost one bird.
Jennifer: 8:08
We jumped right into the conversation about the meat birds, so let's back up for just a minute. Yeah. For those people who aren't familiar with turkeys, broad breasted whites and broad breasted bronze are meat birds. There are bronze heritage birds. We're going to get to that in just a minute. So we're talking about meat birds, cause that's what you do. And so you brooded them inside for a week on shavings.
Carey: 8:36
Peat moss.
Jennifer: 8:37
Okay. And then you moved them out, but you're in Alabama. It's July. It's, 800 degrees here. So they're doing pretty good. You would never do a heritage bird that way. You'd lose all of them if you did
Carey: 8:48
that. No, they would have been gone before the first week. It don't matter if you had 50 of them, they'd have been gone.
Jennifer: 8:56
So you have to know what kind of turkey you have. to successfully brood them and raise them up. So what percentage protein are you feeding these meat birds?
Carey: 9:11
It's around 29%. So I make my own feed and I do use a formula. Sometimes measuring when I'm in a hurry and I'm making it for me, not for somebody else could be loose. So it could be 30. It's definitely the 28 percent that the recipe says it is, but it may be 29, 30 plenty of lysine, methionine, vitamin A, D and E. I use a lot of fish meal and, all the nutrients and stuff that's recommended for them. I did not use a commercially available feed. Now, the next time I do this. I am going to use a brand name that is highly available in the southeast at any feed store that's big enough to have a credit card machine. I'm going to use one of those. Side by side. So one tractor is going to have that company feet. The other tractor is going to have 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 recipe mainly because. The guy that I talked about earlier, he and I went together to order birds because obviously the more you order, the cheaper they are. And when I told him the price that I could get them from a commercial house, he's been buying from the same hatcheries that everybody buys from and paying almost twice as much. We're looking at that. We went in together. I'm feeding mine this. And he's feeding his whatever he normally feeds and we're going, I'm going to give him one of mine and I want him to try it because I've been trying to convince this guy that nutrition, better nutrition is better bird, taste and everything. So we're going to compare processed 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 all lock type that's available central Alabama ish It's, I know the guy that makes it, nice guy, and, but the feed, people feed it to chickens, turkeys, and 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 an all flock is what you would feed to keep your critters alive, but not necessarily an optimal feed.
Carey: 12:17
Yeah, because if you look at an offlock, they're typically lower in protein because it's designed for everything. And some things have a higher need than others. And some if you look at a quail. When a quail is first born, the first three weeks of their life, four weeks
Jennifer: 12:37
hatched,
Carey: 12:38
whatever hatched born. So when a quail is first hatched the 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 the rest of that bird's life. Some birds, it needs to be more steady, but like you said, an all flock is, it's a generic thing for people that want to feed the same thing to their goats 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 my recipes, but there's like a so for the grower phase of their life, I'm using the same formulation as a starter and I just ground it, it's a mash the whole life of the bird. That's what commercial people use is mash. And so that, that's going for the first month. And then I have a formula for developing and that's the next little lower on the protein, but higher in some of the vitamins and amino acids to help them develop better. And then the finisher it kind of tapers out on some of the things because some of the stuff you, that affect the taste, if you lower the concentration, you get a more tender bird. and a juicier bird without the high fat because, nobody wants 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 and everything else. But, if you go to the grocery store and you look at their chicken and their turkey that's thawed out and fresh, there's huge chunks. And you're paying for that.
Jennifer: 14:48
All right. So you're dropping the protein to, 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're harvesting them at roughly four months. Putting them in the freezer. And now for those of you that are new to turkeys, you, I'm going to say you cannot, and there's going to be people that argue with me, but you cannot keep a meat bird for a length of time. There's exceptions to every rule. I understand that. Yeah. But meat birds are too heavy. Their heart will give out, their legs will give out and they cannot reproduce on their own. They are more similar to a Cornish chicken than a heritage bird.
Carey: 15:40
So I've had a conversation in depth about that. And there are different genetic lines. Like you said, some you can, some you can't. The advice that I was given was. If you, cause I, I talked about having some for breeders and I was told if I wanted to do that I needed to cut the protein and the fat quick instead of waiting till the developer stage and Once the birds are fully grown They recommend you feeding them A very strict diet to maintain the weight. And if you do that and keep them healthy at a lower weight, they will be breeders, unlike what, like you can't do that with a Cornish cross, but I'm told that you can with turkeys and me, I am going to figure that out with a few of these once I can tell I'll pick me a good Tom and a couple of others and, I'll get him a few ladies and I'll pull them out and then I'll put them in a separate pen and they'll be on a different diet.
Jennifer: 17:03
But you're very particular. You're precise with your nutrition. And that's what it would take to keep that kind of turkey going.
Carey: 17:12
Oh yeah. You gotta be real, real particular. Sure. To maintain that or you're going to 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 are they 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 the lowest one is eight or 10 inches. I'd have to double check. And I want to say the highest is 12, but it may be 14. 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 for any larger bird. Anything over one to two feet is too much. I would say like for a red or an Orpington, even if you go over 24 inches, On a roosting bar, the bird would be okay while they're younger, but they're going 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 put roost up higher. You're going to be shocked when I tell you what mine
Carey: 18:31
are. There's for your Orpingtons, the rooster, Big scene. A roost is a roost. It's a place for them to get to sleep. And if you've done your job with providing them a safe enclosure to go into, if the thing is six inches off the ground, it performs its duty.
Jennifer: 18:53
All right. So let's talk about the heritage birds now. And that's what I have. And those I do red bourbons. So heritage is the breed, and they 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 fully mature. So you have to have a very long patient span. In order to do your heritage turkeys.
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 work on, I'm finishing up my coloring my color breeding part. I'm fine tuning it with their tails. And I'm almost there. I think I've got some of his boys coming up in the grow up pen where their tail markings are exactly right. But he's two and a half years old and I had him up for my NPIP testing and he is 33 pounds, 35 pounds. If he's an ounce, he's a big boy,
Carey: 20:15
but like your bronze, I gotta say the bronze is probably one of my favorite heritage birds. The bourbon, sorry, because they're like that red color. It's like a red and white Rhode Island red. That, that red color is just so beautiful, especially when the sun hits it. And yours, I've seen the videos on Facebook and I've seen them in person and I would like to have a field of them just walking around.
Jennifer: 20:49
Yeah, I've got them out. I've got them loose today because it had all that rain last night and it's so muddy and they're run. So I turned them out today, but I had them up looking, my grow outs are about five months old now, and I'm really got some really nice lacing going on their chests. I'm really excited about my grouts but let's get back to why I have heritage and you've got meat birds. So you're raising birds to process for your family and to sell. And I raise birds because, I think they're pretty and I like them, but we eat them. You can eat the heritage birds personally. That we've been eating them now for maybe, eight to ten years or so. And I can't see me ever going back 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 heritage chicken over a Cornish cross.
Jennifer: 21:51
Yes some of the differences the biggest difference that shocked the fire out of me when you cook a, butterball or a store bought turkey, you want to cook it low and slow and baste it and all of those yummy things. And when you cook a heritage bird, you put it in the pot and put it in the oven at 425 for an hour. And that's it. It's done. And it's fun. Yes. The first time somebody told me to do that I was like, whatever, I'm not listening to you. But then I got sick. Everybody always gets sick at Thanksgiving. I got sick and I forgot to put the bird in. And it was like two hours before dinner, and I was like, whatever, we're gonna try it, and shoot, that's the way you do it. I've never cooked it any different stance.
Carey: 22:42
I've never cooked a heritage turkey, but I have ate one, and they, if I had the space and the time, I would have heritage birds to grow out for my family. Now, doing it for other people is a lot of work. It's two years, two and a half years. So you have to plan ahead for this. If I'm thinking flavor profile, ease of cooking, that whole thing. Yeah. I didn't know you don't do anything. 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 the beginning. We, me and you get off on these tangents. So let's go back to the beginning. So your turkey hens won't lay until they're about a year old, but they lay better their second and third year. Okay. So the first year you might get I don't know for me. Anyway, I'm not gonna speak for everybody. For me, you might get 30 or 40 eggs out of a 1st year hen. But when you get up into 2 and 3 year old hens, they're going to lay all summer. So I'm still getting eggs right now.
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, so we're eating those, or I'm feeding them to the pigs. So a turkey will build a nest when she's going broody. They're really prone to broodiness. They fit right in with the cochins and orpingtons on this farm. Mine go broody all the time. When they're going to build a nest, they lay their eggs right there. When they have no interest in building a nest, they're more like a duck, and they just drop an egg wherever they happen to be when it decides to come out. You never quite know how long that egg's been sitting there when you find it in the tall grass. So
Carey: 24:46
I have been looking at developing a nesting box. I've done a little bit of research on that. And from what I have seen, a turkey actually does better with a open top nesting box. That's about a foot square. I can see that. So I talked to Frank Reese Jr. And he actually, I saw a picture of what he has for his heritage birds. And they're huge like yours and it's a one foot square. Open top. Now you try to do that with a lot of hens, a lot of chickens. They, it's like they want to go high. Yeah. They want something covered. And people talk about putting curtains over the front and everything else for chickens. Turkeys want to do their business out in the open.
Jennifer: 25:42
Yeah, so mine will nest out in the run, and I leave the grass high at the fence line, so they'll nest in there. I have in the past used those big galvanized steel tubs, And but then you get all three of them, four of them, however many you got, all wanting to nest together, the eggs get broken they're very clumsy birds so let's go back to the beginning. So you get the egg, it's going to be 28 days to incubate it. And then brooding them, you have to keep them hot, dry, and active. So dry, I use stall pellets. I have been through the entire gamut of everything, including peat moss. I have settled on stall pellets. I do not wet them. I just. throw them in the tub straight out of the bag, make them about two to three inches deep, and I use a heat plate, and then I put either quail or chicks in there with them. You never put ducks in with anything because they're too wet, but I have used quail and I've used chicks, or if you're hatching in succession, use put your freshly hatched poults in with your weak old poults. And the reason being is they will keep them active and moving and they're very inquisitive and so they'll go see why everybody else is, hey what are you eating over there and I'm going to come and check it out too. But the very first hatch you have to be really careful Because they just want to be hot, and so they'll lay under that brooder plate, and they'll never come out to eat, and they'll essentially just, I don't know, sleep themselves to death, is the right word. So you've got to get them up and get them active. But no, you don't have to dip their beak in water, you don't have to hand feed them none of those things. Just simply throw a more active bird in there to get them up and moving. Now here's where people usually mess up, is because the birds are bigger, they want to put them outside quicker, and You have to pretty much brood them about three months and that seems insane, but you've got to keep them off the dirt for three months if you want them to live. If you don't, if you're good with losses, throw them out. But if you want them all to live a hundred percent three months and mine, I have a hundred percent 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 meat birds 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'm going to give him a
Jennifer: 28:45
fire out of me. Honestly, I didn't know you had done that. So y'all heard it on live podcast. You shocked the fire out of me about it.
Carey: 28:55
But and they're doing well now, I will say, they're eating a nutritionally balanced diet. And I have a product called jitter juice that I use. It's an all natural electrolyte thing. That's got some apple cider vinegar and molasses and a few other things that are all organic in it. And it has a smell to it. And when they're like a day old, when I first got them, I put a couple of drops of it in their mouth. And I guess that, that got them the taste and the smell. So when I put it in their water they go to it. Because like you said, a while ago, the first time I got turkeys last year, I just thought it's turkeys, it's a big chicken. Do it the same. And I think day five, maybe four day five. I go, my, my brooder, it's a brooder, it's off the ground, it's warm, the barn was heated, they had heat plates, I did all that stuff, plenty of clean water, 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 of days old. They don't drink a whole lot, which is bullcrap. They drink a lot, no matter their age. And I want to say it was day five. I went down there and there was no 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 had went to sleep, and they wasn't waking up.
Jennifer: 30:42
Exactly. They just, I don't know, I guess it's like when it's cold outside, and you're laying in front of the fireplace under a big blanket. You don't want to get up. I guess it's the same thing, but any, except for ducks, don't use waterfowl, but any other bird that you have. handy, be it quail or chicks or whatever, just go them in with the turkeys. And then if you're hatching every week, use the week older poults at that point to keep the fresh ones active. So it's very common for me to have 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 pick the gamefowl out now because they look like runts. They're black too, so I can't tell by color difference, but they're essentially the runts of the bunch now. I hatched them out about two weeks before the turkeys arrived. So mine, my turkeys went in with two week old. And I put the stuff right in their mouth and I mix it in with their water. So they go to that and the feed, it smells, I would put milk in and eat it. It smells like really good oatmeal and I don't even like oatmeal. There's that, but if you don't have feed that has a smell to it and you don't put stuff in your water to. attract them and you don't put a quail or a chicken in with them, then you're going to need to spend 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, five times a day with turkeys in their first week. I'm like, Bro, get you some chickens.
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 on grass. Now the reason I had asked you about roost, is I was just wondering because a meat bird is going to have a thicker leg, they're going to be heavier, their structure isn't the same. So a heritage bird like mine, a lot of people don't understand they can fly like a bird. like they can get 50 60 feet off the ground, they can get up in high trees I mean they can move long distances. A full grown turkey might have a six or seven foot wingspan. You have to be prepared for these big birds. You can't just put them in a tractor supply. store bought coop. They need some space. Just logistically getting up onto the roost, they're going to spread their wings and they have to have that space to get up on their roost. Now, I use a two by eight board and I have mine One is two feet off the ground and one is four feet off the ground. So the two foot one is, I call it a bounce board. They get up on it and then they bounce 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 tippy top of a tree. If you let them, just because they can and they want to, doesn't mean that you as the owner, as the caregiver have to let them. And I might explain to you why I do four feet. Now I'm just a little over five feet tall and I'm the only one that's going to go in there and catch. Turkeys. And the best way to catch a turkey is when they're on the roost. Now this is just assuming you can't walk up to your turkey in the yard and pick it up, but if you have to go in there and catch a bunch of them, When they bounce up to their roost, their balance is off for maybe two and a half seconds. While their balance is off and they're folding their wings in, you reach up both hands and grab both of their ankles from behind. And you swing them down. And as you swing them down there, their wings are going to naturally come out. Watch their wings because I have been 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. So I promise you I'm touching my nose right now cause I remember how much it hurts. But anyway, you grab them from behind as they're regaining their balance and you swing them down. Once they're down, then you can put them back up into the crook of your elbow. So let's see, not visual here. So you're going to swing them up in their chest. It's going to go into the crook of your elbow. So their head is looking away from you. Then you can transfer their feet. to the same hand that they're laying in the arm of. If that, can you visualize what I'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 of the time you're doing that, you're, you're assessing the bird, you're picking it up to harvest it, or you're picking it up for your MPIP tester, for whatever reason you're picking it up. But at that point, their wing, their outer wing is accessible for the MPIP tester or to carry it to the chopping block, whatever you're going to do with it. Assess its tail feathers. In my case, I'm big on trying to get those tails correct. So I can fan those tail feathers out cause that's what's in front of me. But that's how you catch and carry a turkey. I have seen many people try to put a roost up, six or seven feet up in the air. Cause. Hey, my turkeys like to roost up really high. That's fine and dandy. How are you going to catch them? I can't reach seven feet up in the air. And we're talking about swinging a 30, 35 pound bird towards you with a seven foot wingspan. You've got to think this through.
Carey: 37:03
Some crap's going to happen. So for me, like going back to what you said earlier about the detractor supply coop, if I wanted to have some turkeys, I would say they have a 10 by 10 dog kennel. That has a roof. You get one of those and you get a two foot a four foot place for them to roost. I use inch and a half PVC pipe on the dog kennel type with the chain link fence. I'll use that PVC pipe and run it in the corners through the chain link. And it's easy and I can put them at different levels, but in a 10 by 10, I would say anything over a trio would be pushing it for space because they need a lot of space 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 top for them to roost on just for especially up north, where their toes might be exposed. But yeah, you could definitely do it with a chain link kennel. That would definitely work. They don't care, if they get rained on, they don't care. They shed just like a duck would almost. So let's see, what else can we talk about turkeys? They pace, they're travelers, they're inquisitive, but really they're quirky personality wise. They have what I call stranger danger. If you put anything inside of their coop or anywhere near them, they'll all stand around in a circle and put their head down and they chatter with each other. And it, they pop their noise is like a pop in noise and they'll just, what is it? What is it? And one of my most popular videos I ever put out there was all of them in a circle looking at a bowl of grit. For 20 minutes. The video wasn't that long, but it went on for 20 minutes. They just had their head out and popping, 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 that a chicken and a turkey are similar in, and that they need grit their whole life, and it doesn't matter if you're feeding them mash, maybe you can get away with a less percentage ratio of grit than you would with a pellet because, grit's designed to break up the food. But, studies show that grit makes Them process a higher percentage of the feed, which means they're getting more of the nutrients out of it, which means they grow better and they look better. And if you feed a pellet, whether it's to a chicken or a turkey, and you give it the grit that they need, they're getting more of the nutrients. And because they're getting more of the nutrients out of the feed, they're going to eat less because they're just like people. They eat when they're hungry. They don't when they're not. And so when they eat less, you save some money in raising them because, two and a half years for 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 on Facebook. Don't overthink giving them grit. You can dump it in a pile in the corner. You can put it in their food. You can put it in a separate dog bowl. Don't overthink it. It's just rock. And it's not gonna, I don't know, dissolve out in the rain or whatnot. So I have a little bit of gravel in all of my coops in front of the door. So I just, I don't know, scoop full. Of grit in that gravel spot in front of the door and when it's gone, I just put some more in there. 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 Rocky or anything like the dirt we have in the south You've Throw that crap on the ground. There are a lot of people that think, Oh, I got a lot of rocks. They get enough grit, which that's not how that works, but I'm a huge person that says you do not feed food on the ground, but you can throw grit on the ground.
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 a half years to eat them. We start eating them at about eight or nine months. But unlike the meat birds where you have to, otherwise they start getting too big. You have to harvest them at four or 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 turkey tomorrow or next week or whatever. So you go out and you harvest one. They will only get bigger and juicier and more flavorful. So unless you just need them off the feed bill or you don't want them any bigger you can get probably eight pounds of meat off of an eight month old hen and 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 start harvesting them here in the next month or so. I'm just waiting for this heat to break and we'll just harvest the biggest one. And then next month we'll do another one and next month we'll do another one. And we don't actually finish harvesting until breeding season, which is like February. So we'll have, we'll be down to all just breeders come February. So it's more of a progression versus. all at once because harvesting a turkey 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 for Thanksgiving, you better run out and get you one today to have it run 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 line Turkey 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 to subscribe to our podcast so you can receive new episodes right when they are released. And they're released every week. Feel free to email us at poultrynerds at gmail. com to share your thoughts about the show. Until next time, poultry pals, keep clucking, keep learning, and keep it egg citing. This is Carey signing off from Poultry Nerds. Feathers up, everyone.
