Talking Turkey - Part 2

In a part 1 of Talking Turkey, I promised I'd document the rest of the season so you could get an idea of what it takes to raise turkeys.  So here I am.

And what a ride!

When we last left our little band of wild rebels, they were about 12 weeks old.  I really had no idea how long to keep them.  I had reports from different sources that you could keep them anywhere from 12 to 25 weeks depending on the size you wanted them.  The "size" of a farm raised animal, however, can be very subjective.  Size is based on a variety of factors: breed, feed, additives, pasture quality, conditions, weather, hatchery (or sire for non-poultry), stress, other livestock on the premises, etc.  So you can see that to really plan your flock (as much as that is possible) requires a historical pattern that you can glean from.  You have to know your feed, your pasture, your conditions, and the final outcomes of your livestock.

In this case, I had none of that.

As you may recall from a previous post, I fully expected to lose some or all of the turkey flock because of how I raised them.  But God was merciful and we lost none of the 10 poults we purchased.  So I let them grow.  Around the 12 week mark, or so, I began to realize that they were putting on weight fast.  And although we all like a big Thanksgiving Day turkey, there are limits.  So we put a cap on the season at 18 weeks.

I am so glad we did that.  We'll get to why I'm glad we did in a minute.

We ordered the Broad-breasted Bronze turkeys and, if you remember, I ordered a straight run.  I found them to be a hardy breed that withstood a variety of less than perfect circumstances.  They endured:

• Living with chicks
• Having their pen blow away
• Living for several days in a small chicken coop (while the pen was repaired)
• Wind gusts up to at least 30 miles an hour (see the point above about their pen)
• Heat well into the 90's (fairly high for Michigan)
• Unforgiving rain
• Nighttime cold into the mid 30's (fairly typical for Michigan in the fall)
• An insane farmer
• Lot's of insane farmer's kids
• Lot's of insane farmer's friends and family (read on...)

And in spite of all that, they thrived.  They did quite well.  If you're planning on feed rations, my records indicate that the turkeys' ate approximately 950 pounds of turkey feed.  That's almost a 1/2 ton!  You can look at in terms of the individual bird and assume that you need 5.3 pounds of feed per week per bird.  But understand that you're talking about a sliding scale.  They eat less than that in the beginning and more than that at the end.  But that will help you decide how much feed you need based on the size of your flock.  The water was much more difficult to calculate, but I think a fair guess would be 200 gallons.  That will change dramatically depending on the weather conditions so take it for what it's worth.

As they grow, you can start to tell which ones are Tom's and which are Jenny's.  I think we ended up with 3 Tom's and 7 Jenny's.  Now it's not an exact science, but the Tom's are usually pretty large.  They all grew long fat waddles and a long beard (starts at the upper beak and grows long....kind of like ZZ Top).  They also tend to fluff out their feathers and strut around the pen.  This is because we ordered a straight run.  You can certainly specify which gender you prefer.

The day finally arrived.  We had decided to do the needful at age 18 weeks.  Since I have a regular "town job", we always process on a Saturday.  This was no exception.  But the day was incredibly sunny, in the 70's (warm for us) and the sky was a beautiful blue.  Yet another gift from God...

*WARNING* I am going to write in some detail about the processing event.  I will not use excessive description as it is not necessary.  However, there are pictures and as a fair warning, if you do not want to read about how the turkey's were dispatched, you may want to click over to another post.





Wrangling
Catching the birds was the most fun for the kids I think.  Remember, they are more aggressive than chickens.  The little Rough Riders tried a variety of methods including lassoing, trapping, and catching.  The easiest way for us was to take a 5 gallon bucket with a hole at the end and slide it , top first, over the bird until it fits snugly inside.  This quiets the bird and restrains its wings.  See below for an explanation of the bucket.

Killing
Traditionally, the killing takes place in a killing cone.  This is a bit of sheet metal folded into a cone.  You can see it in the back of Sara Palin's

 Scalding
You need lots of room for the scald.  I like my water at around 153 degrees.  You may like it more or less.   The choice is yours.  The old timers say to put Dawn dish soap in your water.  It cuts grease and therefore cuts the natural oils on the turkey feathers.  I didn't do that and really didn't have any problems, but you may want to give it a try.  Make sure you have enough room to swish the bird around.  Here, you can see I used a 30 gallon galvanized garbage can.  The burner is propane and from a turkey fryer (ironically enough).  It was about 1/2 full when we used it.  It worked great.  For me, the stand was a little high and a step ladder would have worked well. I'm assuming, at this point, that you know about scalding.  If not, you can google it or search YouTube and you'll find plenty of info.   Scalding turkeys and chickens is about the same.  The big differences is that the turkeys are MUCH heavier.

 

Plucking
You can pluck by hand.  With the turkeys it's no problem.  If you get that scald right, the feathers come out pretty easily.  We used the Whizbang Chicken Plucker.  You can learn more about it here.  It can't handle a whole turkey being thrown in, but I put the turkey in and just rotated it myself.  I'd estimate it took off at least 80% of the feathers.  The rest of our "team" used pliers to finish off the plucking.  That's very important.  Make sure some patient people are there to help.  Pull up a chair.  Have a chat while you pluck.  It's just like life should be...shared with others.

Evisceration (fancy word for gutting)
It's just like a chicken...only bigger.  Check this video out for some detail.

Bagging
We have one person who is completely indispensable that does quality control after the evic..evis..the gutting.  That person makes sure everything is out (if you know what I mean) and washes the bird down.  Once that's done, you can either let them cool in water first, or bag them and then put them in water.  It's your choice.  We order or bags from Cornerstone Farm Ventures.  Good products, good prices, and speedy delivery.

And there you have it.

So for you stat addicts, here's a wrap up:

• 9 friends to help (because they wanted to)
• 10 turkeys
• 7'x12' movable pen
• 18 weeks
• 200 gallons of water
• 950 pounds of feed
• Broad-breasted Bronze
• Smallest turkey - 15.5 pounds
• Largest turkey - 33.5 pounds

So now you now why I'm glad we stopped at 18 weeks.  33 pounds is a big turkey.  Looks like we'll be having lots of people over for Thanksgiving!