Tag Archives: turkeys

Time to talk turkey

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I need to take care of a little business

I’m pleased to say this year’s turkeys are all growing and looking well, there is a mix of Bourbon Reds, Narragansett, and Royal Palms. These will be processed as an state inspected facility and available approximately November 20.

Air Chilled

The turkeys will be air chilled — not cooled in a water bath — these will be outstanding turkeys this year, unlike any store-bought Thanksgiving you have tasted.

Your reservation lets me know how many birds to plan for and who is interested. An order secures your delivery date and quantity. Final prices are based on dressed weight. I’ll try to guide nature to come as close to your desired weight as possible. But this is natural growing process, not factory controlled.

About our growing season

I’m not a commercial grower, I don’t have stock year around, but instead, raise a small number of birds each year and let their pasture and pens “rest” during the balance of the year. This helps keep diseases in check and gives their foraging pasture time to recover.

Chickens

The chickens are a Freedom Ranger chicken from French breeding stock, originally bred for France’s Label Rouge qualities. These chickens grow well, have nice white meat and dark meat to please all. A few each year top 7 pounds and a few finish closer to 3.5. If you have a preference, let me know

Raised free-range, in closed pen at night to protect from predation, birds fed supplemental feed from all plant (non animal) sources

Reservations accepted Beginning January 1, 2011
Delivery: October – November 2011
Payment (Balance due on delivery)
Sold Fresh (pick up only) or frozen (limited delivery area and times)

Chicken : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : $3.00 per pound (Approximately 5 pounds each) (some smaller, some larger)

At the request of some customers, I am sizing a few more birds this year in the 3 – 3..5 pound range, its the same great chicken, just less of it.

Dates Available:
October 4 (limited), 11 (SOLD OUT), 18, 25
November 1, 8, 15 (limited)

Turkeys

These are heritage breed birds, not the hybridized, broad-breasted sold in the grocery store. Typically these are Royal Palm, Narragansett, and Bourbon Red breed. Hens run smaller, toms dress under 20 pounds.

Raised free-range, in closed pen at night to protect from predation, birds fed supplemental feed from all plant (non animal) sources

Reservations accepted Beginning January 1, 2011
Delivery: November (Thanksgiving week) or December 20, 2011
Payment (Half due in June, balance due on delivery)
Sold Fresh (pick up only) or frozen (limited delivery area and times)

Turkey : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : $4.00 per pound (Approximately 9 – 20 pounds each)

Available:
November 2o 5 remain
December 20

Ducks (Ducks are sold out for 2011) contact me

These are Pekin (white feathered) ducks, raised for meat. This duck cleans easily and presents well if serving whole. Necks removed unless requested otherwise

Raised free-range, typically spend most of day on two ponds during day and in closed pen at night to protect from predation, birds fed supplemental feed.

Reservations accepted Beginning January 1, 2011
Delivery: November (Thanksgiving week) or December 20, 2011
Payment (Half due in June, balance due on delivery)
Sold Fresh (pick up only) or frozen (limited delivery area and times)

Duck : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : $4.00 per pound (Approximately 5 pounds each)

Available:
November 2o (Very limited)
December 20

Please let me know about the poultry you would like to buy for this season.

*(denotes required field)

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As God as my witness, I thought turkeys could fly…

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The scene was bucolic, pastoral, and very much small farm.

The turkeys in their barn pen, enjoying daylight and free access to pasture

I have written about building poultry pens in the 1940′s barn, converting what was left of stalls into poultry wire enclosed pens for the meat chickens, the turkeys, and a separate brooding room.  The brooding room is now home to 6 ducks and two geese.  The turkeys moved into their pen a week or so ago.

But yesterday, I mowed the pasture and set up the electric poultry netting fence as a perimeter for the birds to be safe (safer) from predators.  AT night, they can be secured in the barn pens.

Turkeys are interesting birds.  It’s not un common to read reports on the internet of them flying out of their fenced pens and into nearby trees to roost for the night, or to fly over a fence, only to then sqawk to be let back inside the confines with their turkey kin.  So as I opened the door to let them explore, I was prepared for nearly anything.

Pheasants, even at 4 weeks old, fly when released from their brooder box into the fly pen.  Some walk, some stay inside, but many take to the air.  The turkeys were slow to explore, preferring the known safety of their barn, but as they began to step out side, one of them took flight, down the length of the pen, over the fence and into the thick brush east of the barn.

Slowly, I backed out of the barn, walked around the barn and electrified fence, and began moving through the shoulder high weeds and brush in search of the eloped thanksgiving dinner.  To be honest, I had visions of each turkey “flying the coop” and taking both my  initial investment and future earnings with them as they took off for refuge in the habitat.

Electric poultry netting protects the birds from ground predators

What I found, when I found it, was a turkey who looked just as amazed that it could fly as I was.  I easily collected it out of the brush and returned it to the others in the pen.

All of which brought to mind the old television sitcom WKRP in Cincinnati.  If you don’t know the show, it featured Gordon Jump (later he became the Maytag Repairman in commercials) as a suit wearing radio station manager and a collection of misfits who worked at the radio station.  In one episode, they hatched a Thanksgiving promotion that included dropping live turkeys from a helicopter at a shopping center.  The radio news man, Les Nessman, reported on the ensuing carnage  of live turkeys crashing to the ground to their death and smashing car windshields and equated it to the Hindenburg disaster.

During the closing credits, the disheveled station manager Jump enters the office with all gathered around and utters probably the funniest poultry line in the history of television.

Building a turkey pen in the barn

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I’ve been working since early spring on the barn.  The barn, built in the late ’30s or early ’40s has not been used for livestock for at least 20 years, maybe longer.  And before that, I don’t think it was mucked out, so the stalls and floors are covering a dry compost soil.  Over time, the original pens have lost their design function.

The east face of the original barn, built by Art Andrew, with modifications over the decades.

On the east side, there are three person-height doors, and on the west, there are two.  The center door connects to a walkway that bisects the barn.  At some point in time, the sliding barn door on the lean to on the east wall was cut out to make an opening for the Farmall 706 tractor.  I’ve put up a temporary wall to block the weather.

In the photo, the left door leads to the new turkey pen.

You can tell from the photo this is a very weathered barn with a significant list.  Nothing in the barn is square.  So designing new supports for walls, a door, and the framing for the chicken wire was done with some measuring and a lot of estimating.  This is crude construction at it’s best…or worst.

A quick frame from scrap 2"x 6" lumber closes a passage in the barn to complete the pen.

I made a frame for an old screen door,  This gives access to the turkeys from the inside of the barn for feed and water.  The screen was out of the door, and I stapled 1 inch poultry netting to the face of the frame.

I cut the poultry netting long at the top and the bottom to leave a sweep to help deter small animals from burrowing or gnawing on the door frame.

The 1 inch poultry netting ( chicken wire) is 48 inch wide.  I strung a 2 ” x 6″ horizontal between the existing posts in the barn, then stapled the poultry netting to the ceiling and mid  frame 2 “x 6″.

Finally, I burred some poultry wire in the ground around the perimeter to help deter any digging predators and rabbits.

The installed door.

The turkeys in their new home.

Time to talk turkey

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Heritage turkeys are experiencing a renaissance on the small farm, buoyed by interest in local food, and media articles like this Thanksgiving New York Times article:

“It’s a hot item,” said Bill Niman, a prominent advocate for sustainable agriculture who this year jumped into the so-called heritage turkey market — older breeds of birds that had all but disappeared until championed by preservationists and foodies.

He raised 2,500 birds for Thanksgiving and “sold every bird.”

As I plan the bird cycles for Two Mile for this season, I’ll be adding a handful of heritage turkeys  to the planning.



Turkeys raised in a commercial farm, because of genetics and controlled conditions, may be ready for market in 14 – 18 weeks.  Heritage breeds, often raised on pasture, take 28 weeks.  For November turkey harvest, young turkey poults need to be here at Two Mile by the end of May.

Time to go shopping.

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