Raising Heritage Turkeys
By Kyle Hand

I don?t really know when and where I decided to try my hand at raising Heritage turkeys, but I do know it had something to do with a conversation with John McLain. I think I started thinking about it while we were having a conversation about me buying some white-tipped turkey feathers. John?s response, as always was a contrite ?Good luck with that?.

That started me thinking about what it would take to raise my own turkeys. There were a number of obstacles, the biggest being that I live in the city and although Texas is a rural state, I don?t think the neighbors would appreciate the noise involved in raising them. The second obstacle was going to be selling the idea to my wife and family, and the least of my worries at that time was what types of turkeys did I want to get.

One of my co-workers had just purchased a small farm about 30 minutes from Ft. Worth and had some cattle and horses but wanted to get some poultry. She told Susie and I to come out and see if she had an area that would work. I don?t know where I sold Susie on the idea. I would like to say that I wined and dined her and showered her with jewelry and roses, but, hey let?s leave the reality stuff to Fox and CBS. I think she finally got tired of me talking about it and just said, ?You are not going to be happy until you try it so get after it.?

We went to Laura?s farm and she had three areas where we could put birds. Two of the pens already had coops on them and we would have to do some fence work to keep the birds in and the cattle and horses out. There was also some pruning which needed to be done as there was a wild plum thicket which none of us wanted to attempt to crawl through to round up birds. I returned a few days later and one roll of wire fence later we were ready for our first birds.

We agreed that I would go to the next Farmer?s Market and purchase some turkeys. I then made some phone calls to John to ascertain the types of turkeys to look for. He also gave me some websites to visit and glean as much information as possible prior to getting the birds. Once I arrived there I was appalled at some of the conditions of the bird housing but later found out it is within guidelines. Long story short, I ended up purchasing three toms, 2 white guineas and a pair of Blue Toulouse geese for Laura to train her dogs to herd.



I purchased a Narragansett, Bourbon Red and Royal Palm. We utilized dog carriers with straw in them to get the birds back to the farm. The birds had been caged in an old wagon and were naturally quite happy to be turned loose in a pen that large. It was a little embarrassing driving through some of the communities with the dog kennels full of gobbling turkeys and honking geese, but I did not even get any strange looks.

Laura had purchased feeders, watering stations and feed so we were ready to go when the turkeys arrived back at the farm. Laura also had a small wading pool which we filled and the noise the geese made when they found the ?cement pond? was incredible. The turkeys just stood around and watched and did not know what to do so they puffed up and displayed. Made sense to me. We let the birds free range which helps cut costs significantly. They usually put themselves up at night in the chicken coop. They supplement their diets with grasshoppers, other bugs, grass clippings, greens from the garden, wild plums and they absolutely love cottage cheese. Our total investment, including birds was under $200. I would bet that at this time we have spent maybe $500 between the two of us at the most.



We harvest tail feathers approximately every three months or whenever the blood is out of the quills. Some folks also pull wing feathers but we don?t. That process has led to some comical moments in itself. Imagine if you can a 6?3?, 280 pound city dude trying to corner turkeys to pull their tail feathers. Conjures up memories of the first Rocky movie when he was chasing the chicken. I am really glad that no one was around with a movie camera that day.

The proper way to harvest the tail feathers is pretty difficult. Laura usually holds the birds (they trust her more) and I pull the feathers. A full tail usually contains 16-18 feathers. The two most frustrating things I have run into is stress marks on the feathers and busted off feathers. The stress marks have to do with environment, food, etc. and the busted feathers usually come from fighting in the yard. When it gets close to 3 months we hold our collective breaths and try to keep the birds from fighting.



We were unable to purchase hens for a few months because everybody was hoarding them for the breeding season last year so the boys fell in love with this rock in the barnyard. They would mount the rock the same as they would a hen and ?git ?er done? so to speak. That was classic.

As I write this article in December 2004, we have been raising these birds for just a little over a year. We have survived our first year and have learned a lot. While we did not go into this thinking it was going to be easy, it is still hard losing the birds. My grandfather was a farmer and always told me that lambs were born looking for a place to die. I would have to include turkeys in that statement. They are fine one minute and dead the next. Laura has an 11 year old daughter and she names all the birds which makes it kind of tough when you lose them. I don?t pay too much attention to their names so when Laura comes to work and tells me that ?Satin did this?, I always have to ask which bird that is.



We have found that we have to purchase babies prior to the hot months because they are probably not going to make it if we get them after May. It just gets too hot. We lost some poults and ducklings to Rat snakes but Laura relocated them and we put up moth balls around the chicken coop and roost to keep the snakes out. Disease is a constant battle. It seems that sinusitis and blackhead are the biggest worries we have around here. We read an article that said Cayenne pepper is good for blackhead so we include cayenne pepper in their feed as a proactive measure. If they start exhibiting signs of the disease we give them mega doses and that seems to work pretty good provided we catch it in time.

2005 brings a new excitement as we will be breeding the birds for the first time. We purchased a number of hens this summer in different varieties. We will probably breed the Narragansetts true due to the feathers and let mother nature take her course with the rest of them. We already have some orders from some co-workers for table birds for next year and we will fill those. I don?t know if anyone has read any of the recent articles about the Rare Heritage breeds of turkeys being utilized quite heavily for the holidays because the meat is ?better?. I have seen quite a few postings on the Rare Heritage bulletin board from folks who want to get in on the action. We will continue to harvest and send the feathers off. I hope that you have had the opportunity to purchase some of these feathers and are satisfied with the results. Enjoy the pictures and the feathers.

If you have any questions you can contact me at handsfly@charter.net