*gobble gobble

You may remember in early spring we had a curious little package to be delivered to our door via the postal service that held 15 sweet little heritage breed turkeys. To date, we have over 50 feathered friends living in our barn yard (chickens and turkeys combined).

The turkeys have been cared for in a separate area up until just this week. We have a brooding area for raising all of our new flock as they make their way to the farm.  Mixing the turkey poults with the full sized chickens could have been a bloody experience, so it is wise to integrate them when they are large enough to fend for themselves.  When I mixed them this past week, I was still not really sure they were ready.  Oh boy, they have NO problem at all defending an area they call their own.  The chickens we all put in their place rather quickly and that is the end of that.  They are cohabiting nicely in the large open yard which affords them free ranging from dusk til dawn. 

As you might imagine, the pecking order has to take place in the turkey world just like it does in the chicken world.  Heckle, our broad breasted turkey, turned pet, is their example in many things- no doubt.  When he gobbles, they gobble. He is often displaying his feathers and leads them by example in this as well.  This morning when we went out to feed the animals, there were 5 of the little toms displaying their feathers and strutting around like Heckle. 

The majority of our birds are Spanish Blacks, but we fortunately ended up with a tom and a hen from each of these heritage breeds: Spanish Black, Narragansett, and Eastern Wild.  There are of course no guarantees that you will get mates, but as you can imagine we are thrilled that we will have a pair from each of these breeds to raise turkeys in the spring.

We have 15 young turkeys, 4 that are currently spoken for  by way of verbal commitment awaiting deposit and some still up for grabs.  Of course there will be certain ones set aside for breeding but we will be raising many of them for butchering for the 2012 holiday season.  Those that we do not sell will go into the freezer for our families consumption over the coming year. Let me just say that smoked turkey is quite tasty!  Our customers will be walking away with a dressed turkey, giblets, the feet and as many tail feathers as we are able to pull. We take pride in being able to raise a wholesome choice of meat for the dinner table to those who can benefit from it. 

Our rafter of turkeys brings great joy to my dear husband. I would have never imagined in a million years that he would enjoy farm life so much not to mention the raising of turkeys and chickens, but he does!