Tomorrow morning is Disassembly Day for 4 of our Tom turkeys.
We are keeping 2 Jennys and 1 Tom around for next year. The others are going in the freezer.
Given this is our first attempt at raising turkeys, here are a few thoughts on the process so far...
We raised two breeds: Bronze Heritage (the darker colored ones in the photo) and Narragansett (the gray ones in the photo). The Narragansetts are a little smaller and they are complete assholes! They went after the dogs, they went after us, they try to kill each other constantly. We will NOT be doing Narragansetts ever again! The Bronze turkeys are by FAR less hassle were pretty easy overall.
Raising them was easy once they got big enough to go into the pasture. Check their feed a couple times per week and their water daily and that was about it. Once they were in the pasture, they mostly ate bugs and whatever was growing, so even the feeding was not a big deal. They can reach the water in the stock tanks for the steer and donkey, so even if their water got low, it was not really a big deal.
Catching them to get them into cages today (so they do not eat for a day before butchering) was not fun at all. Herding turkeys is a hell of a lot harder than herding cattle! We finally worked out a system of herding them into the chicken yard (without the chickens of course). Then we could corner them and catch them. But even once you catch them the battle is only half done! The chicken yard is a couple hundred yards from the butchering area we set up and carrying them that far, they beat the shit out of both of us! Mrs Inor figured out the best way to carry them is to hug them close to your chest to keep their wings under control and cover their heads with your free hand. The other one of us grabbed their legs and kept them under control. If you leave their legs, they will completely shred you with their claws! In the middle of all this, they are shitting all over themselves (and you) constantly, so wearing old clothes is a MUST.
The Bronze turkeys could be put 2 in a cage and they were fine. We initially put the two Narragansett birds in the same cage and that proved to be a really bad idea! Mrs Inor went out a couple hours later and they were fighting to the death! One got pretty bloodied up but I think (hope) he will live until morning. We had to separate them into cages by themselves.
So unless the butchering turns out to be a real nightmare, we will raise them again. But definitely NOT the Narragansetts! Did I mention the Narragansetts are real assholes?
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