Homegrown TURKEYS are Terrific
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GETTING STARTED
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The easiest and least expensive way to get started with turkeys is to buy day-old turkeys in the spring. (Baby turkeys are called poults.) Before your birds arrive you will want to set up a brooder area. At Locust Grove Farm we brood our poults in a children's wading pool - yep, that's right. We line it with about 1 inch of wood shavings and hang one or two infrared heat lamps to keep the birds warm. It is very important to keep your birds warm and dry, and the round design of the pool will keep the birds from piling in a corner and smothering each other. The temperature at floor level for the first week should be between 90 and 100 degrees; after the first week raise the lamps to reduce the floor temperature by 5 degrees each week.
You will also need one feeder and waterer for every 25 birds. We start our turkeys on Purina Game Bird Starter, which contains 30 percent protein. After a week or so, remove the wading pool and give the birds a larger area to roam; an 8-by 8 space will work well for the next three weeks or so. Soon your birds will start perching on the top of the waterer or on the window sills: They're telling you that they're ready to roost. You'll need to mount a small (l- or 2-inch round) branch 1 foot off the floor.
If temperatures are above 75 degrees, birds 6 weeks and older can start to go outside for a while each day. If it is rainy and cold, keep them confined. By eight weeks, your birds will be ready to go on pasture. If you allow your birds free access to the outdoors, you may find they don't want to go back in at night unless you make them.
FIELD OPERATIONS
A better plan is to build a moveable roost assembly, such as the one described at left, and let your turkeys live outside on range, in a large fenced pen. Range is a short-grass pasture (4- to 6-inches long), and turkeys will do well on most any range, but I prefer a mixture of Kentucky bluegrass and medium red clover. If possible, choose a site without trees. Turkeys love to fly up into trees, and if the trees are inside the pen, manure will build up to unacceptable levels under them.
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