Our original plan was to start raising pigs this year. The idea is, we will continue to raise a beef every two years and raise 2 pigs on the years we are not raising a beef. That is still what we are ultimately going to do. But when I broke my ankle last winter, that queered the idea of building a pig shack this year, so now we are going to wait to get the pigs until the spring of 2024. (This year's beef will be coming in about a month.)
So... Having an extra year until we start the pigs, Mrs Inor thinks we should try raising some turkeys next spring. I am not opposed to the idea, but we really have not done any kind of planning or research on what is involved. Historically, we have always taken quite a bit of time before we try raising a new food source to figure out what we need to know and gather together all the proper equipment to do it right. But, what the hell - nothing ventured, nothing gained.
What we are thinking thus far...
We do not want to keep them in the chicken shack for a couple reasons. One, the chicken shack is pretty full already, especially in the spring and fall when have a batch of meat chickens going. Two, there are some diseases the turkeys can give the chickens and visa-versa.
We are thinking we can just put them in the pasture with the beef and the donkeys (hopefully without any new fencing). I'm sure the donkeys will be assholes to them for the first few weeks they are there just because the donkeys are assholes to everybody that is new to "their" pasture. But once we get past the first couple weeks, the donkeys will hopefully settle in and start to care for them the same as they do when we get a new beef.
They will probably need some kind of shelter, but I do not think it needs to be much. Maybe just a roof and a couple walls with an open door to get out of the rain and the wind during monsoon season with some roosts? I'm thinking I can just build a shelter on the back side of a pig shack? (Keep the pig area separate from the turkey area, but still make them part of the same structure.)
I am not sure how feeding them will work, but Mrs Inor seems to have some ideas on that. We feed turkey feed to the meat chickens now and it is expensive. So I would rather the donkeys and the steer not be able to get into it. But I do not think that problem is insurmountable. (The upside is, 5-6 turkeys per year plus two batches of meat chickens per year, we will need enough turkey feed per year that I can start buying it in bulk and save about 30%.)
If any of you all have raised turkeys, any advice would be greatly appreciated.
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