Time to Start on Thanksgiving Turkeys!

Believe it or not it is time to start producing Thanksgiving turkeys! The process is quite long:

1. Get the turkeys laying eggs - working them up to 14 hours of daylight
2. Collect enough eggs to hatch - at 2 days per egg per hen
3. Incubate the eggs for 28 days
4. Grow the turkeys for at least 6 months

As you can see, the timing is tight, but doable. We may need to push step #1 a bit. To get turkeys to lay eggs they need a t least 14 hours of daylight per day. Right now we have about 11. It is dangerous to increase or decrease more than an hour or two a week, as more can cause molting. We will go for the aggressive 2 hours per week increase to get things going as soon as possible.

The toms are already fertilizing the hens. We have witnessed it on several occasions, and the "favorite" hens are missing feathers on the back of their neck, where the tom grabs them to hold them still while mating. All good signs that the breeding flock is ready to reproduce.

Our plan is to rework the turkey coop into a stationary coop with thick bedding on the ground and a few roosts. This will allow us to lock in the hens each night but let them out during the daytime to get exercise and forage for food. There will be lights on a timer in the coop to add the proper amount of daylight. The toms will be allowed to stay outside on the roost at night to lessen the usage of bedding inside the coop.

If we can get all this set up this weekend, we could have eggs as early as within 2 weeks! We hope to incubate the first batch and let the moms hatch the second batch naturally.

Either way, we should have heritage pasture raised Narragansett turkeys for sale this Thanksgiving and Christmas!