With Thanksgiving just around the corner, along with the potential hatching of our incubated chicken eggs this weekend, Emma and I have been perusing our favorite hatchery, Murray McMurray, for ideas and inspiration on expanding our flock next spring. With all of the turkey talk going on, we naturally checked out their turkey selection (fun fact: Baby turkeys are known as poults), and boy did we get excited. It’s looking like next Thanksgiving we just may sit down to a feast of pasture raised heritage turkey!
One reason we were so impressed with turkeys as livestock is their size. As you probably are aware by now, having bought your Thanksgiving turkey already, they can reach considerable size. Dressed out, a turkey can be over 20 pounds, and easily 15. Compare this to a 4-5 pound broiler chicken and it’s pretty exciting.
A Bourbon Red Heritage Turkey
Turkeys are also native to North America, and as such are well adapted to our climate and habitats. Wild turkeys are very successful in our area, foraging among mature woodlands, old fields, crop fields, and pastures. I can see turkeys (fun fact: a group of turkeys is called a rafter) fitting in nicely in a restoration agriculture/silvopasture system grazing among fruit trees, sunchokes, and berries.
It takes about 4-5 months to produce an eating size turkey. Heritage breeds take longer, and put on weight slower, but they make up for it with their hardiness, ability to breed and raise young, and beautiful plumage. We’ll definitely go with heritage birds when we order poults next spring, but it will be hard deciding on which breeds to choose!!