Not A Good Year For Turkey Brooding

The first couple of years here at Pleasant Hill was mainly devoted to cleaning up the house and property. The house needed some immediate attention(roof, falling portico, asbestos clean-up). Outside was a disaster. Old cars, boats and years of broken down farm machinery was plentiful and dotting the landscape. Old fencing and overgrown everything made us feel very claustrophobic. As we chipped away at the fields, I took advantage of this time to research what we should farm in these fields. I asked around, "What is needed here in Culpeper?" I asked that question to the owner of a local meats store in town. "Lamb and Turkey", Julie said without hesitation. I wasn't interested in sheep. I don't want to deal with shearing and sheep are famous for having zero personality. Not appealing. Turkeys, however, seem interesting. We already had Guinea Hens and a handful of egg layers. I think I could get into turkeys. I have always had a fascination with birds.

So the research began...

I would ask my fellow farmer friends and acquaintances about turkeys. Julie had stated that she never has enough turkeys. She sells out every year for Thanksgiving. You work your tail off during the holiday, but then you're done. Another gal said "no way" would she ever do turkeys again. The brooding was too difficult. She would lose too many at the beginning. Not worth it!

Further research proved that both of these women were correct. People really do seek out the perfect farm-raised, pasture-raised, lovingly and well-cared-for-raised Thanksgiving turkey. The most important guest at our country's most beloved dinner.

The brooding stage did stop many from trying or continuing turkeys. Unlike chickens, turkey poults are very fragile. The first six to eight weeks can be touch-and-go, but after that the chance of survival greatly increases. Some people think turkeys are just too stupid, drowning themselves in the rain. Personally, I have never been a witness to this but apparently some think it's true.

Four years ago we decided to give turkeys a try. I only ordered fifteen of the Mammoth Bronze and they all passed through brooding with flying colors. I LOVED them. I loved their soulful eyes and I loved the chirping sound they made. I loved how the Toms really did assume they were the good looking boys on the block and I loved how they ran as they got monstrous on their legs. I remember the day we took them to a local guy to have them processed. We managed to find three huge dog crates for transport. We were to grab them and place them in the crate. Scott was preparing for a full morning's work of tackling these giant turkeys and with all his might, force them into the crate. Well...it went more like this... I knelt down in front of the crates as my turkeys curiously came over to me to see what was going on. I gently wrapped my arms around the first huge bird and placed him carefully into the first crate. The turkeys continued to swarm around me being ever so curious. I grabbed the second, the third, until they were all snug in the crates. Probably took no more than five or ten minutes. Scott stood there, kind of out of breath, thinking it was going to be more of a "this will take a man to conquer this feat!" ordeal.
"Wow, Rhonda, you made it look so easy!"

"Well, honey, that's because they LOVE me!"

Brooding for us has never been a problem. We may lose a few, but for the most part they make it to the end. Predators are more of a challenge...and a certain female boxer who cost us $700.00 in turkeys one year right before Thanksgiving(sadly, Phoebe passed away last fall from kidney failure). She had a good time that night!

This year has been a different story. It all started with the first batch of seventy-five Heritage turkeys. They started failing the second day we had them. It appeared they would start bleeding around the back end and then get pecked. We were thinking something was wrong with this batch from day one. We lost sixty percent and thankfully the hatchery replaced the whole order. The other batches seemed to be better but we were still losing poults at a steady pace.

Now it seems pile-up is to blame for losing so many. They will pile up on top of each other and the ones underneath will suffocate. We have them in a trailer to transition from the brooder to the pasture. We have heat lamps and small roosts in there, hoping that roosting will deter them from piling up. The other day we lost five. Scott spent some time to rearrange lamps and roosts and to make things better for them. He was truly depressed the next morning when he discovered we lost seventeen. All from pile up. The weather has been very chilly but the heat lamps should take care of that problem. Very frustrating!

Luckily, this morning there were zero losses. We'll just continue to baby and pamper them until they get strong enough to be in the great outdoors. You wouldn't think so, but turkeys are a great deal of work.