Howdy

Homesteading & Country Living Forum

Help Support Homesteading & Country Living Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
RedDogRodeo

RedDogRodeo

New Friend
Neighbor
Joined
Aug 26, 2023
Messages
4
Location
USA
Hello! I was recently blessed to buy a rural home on 5 acres. I have some experience with goats, rabbits, and chickens - and a short stint with a bottle calf - but I'm currently focused on learning all I can about raising a Jersey heifer for milk and calves. My other focus is meat rabbits, a handful of which I currently own and am also interested in learning more about. I've been considering turkeys, too, in the future, but hey - one thing at a time, right? Said no homesteader ever.
 
Welcome from Eastern Missouri. Good to have you with us. :welcome:
 
Greetings from the west end of Lake Superior..

My limited experience with meat rabbits was with some New Zealand and Chinchilla... This worked well enough resulting in many quarts of plain and smoked cubed boneless meat that went well in many recipes..

As turkeys go, it seemed they were easier to buy in season more cheaply than raise.. My favorite being a homemade ...Tiger... smoked sausage... Equal parts goose, rabbit, turkey meat.. Ground, spiced with a breakfast sausage mix, smoked to well done internal temp.. Eaten as a sausage, cheese, cracker, hot tea type snack..
 
Tim, thanks for your input! I'm a big fan of NZ rabbits - they're hardy, adaptable and proficient breeders. And I'll definitely look into that with turkeys; I've been deliberating it quite a bit since it seems they require a lot more effort and planning than your typical backyard chickens. That sounds delicious, though... now you're making me hungry!
 
And I'll definitely look into that with turkeys; I've been deliberating it quite a bit since it seems they require a lot more effort and planning than your typical backyard chickens
= = =
Reading this again I failed to mention the fact predators where I raised chickens, geese and such were a big issue.. That being dealing with 2 varieties of bears, on down the predator chain to ermine weasel... Actually loosing more foul to ermine than any other animal..
Your location may be more conducive to a bigger variety of birds...
 
Hello and Welcome from S.W. Oregon. You've come to a great place for info from people that are living what they preach. We raised turkeys back in the 80's, sold one tom that weighed 45 pounds, dressed out, the woman that bought it had to borrow her mother-in-law's oven because it wouldn't fit in hers. Now days, we have so many wild turkeys around, if we wanted turkey, I'd go that route. I've heard that they are tough but I also know that long low temp cooking can take the toughness out of some of the toughest birds we've had over the years.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Neb
Tim, definitely have some predators here but not to that caliber! As long as you can outsmart the foxes and 'yotes; the black bears mostly keep to themselves.

Viking, a 45lb turkey sounds like a Thanksgiving legend. I'm thoroughly impressed! You're not going to find a bird that size in the Walmart freezers. I feel like hunting would be a good route; I've nearly hit some with my car on the early morning commute so I know they're fairly prevalent in the area - a slow cooker and some patience would do wonders on tough game. I do know some people raise turkeys around here as well, so it may be worth looking into whether there's a profit to be made.
 
Welcome from Kansas. We raise a few turkeys, and it's not so hard. Heritage breeds...we have 16 of them at the moment. The big boys you're talking about in weight are probably meat turkeys...like a double breasted white turkey. Those are needing to be killed when they hit weight.
 
I never liked raising meat birds, bad genetics lead to all kinds of health problems, we raise bronze turkeys, vey close to what wild turkeys look like. We fed them a wild bird type feed, closer to what wild turkeys would have in their diets, that Hugh turkey we raised was in very good health when I slaughtered him, the turkeys we raised were very friendly, it was fun to raise them, the only thing we had to watch was that the hens were flyers and I had to keep their flight feathers trimmed to keep them fenced in.
 
Welcome from Alaska! Apologies for being late with the welcome.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest posts

Back
Top