I’d like to share some of the differences in raising turkeys and chickens. Our experience with chickens is with the breed Plymouth Rock. We have had the barred, white, partridge, and silver penciled variants. We mostly have white and barred and they are intermixing so we are getting some neat new blends. In the turkey world years back we raised the Bourbon Red turkey, which is delicious and a good looking bird. However they were fairly challenging to manage. They loved to just go roost in the trees and adventure around. After they slept at our neighbor’s up in a tree we changed our tactics. We didn’t let them out every day, only let them out pretty hungry to go forage, and then bribed them back in with grains and feed early evening. We wanted to try a new type and now have the Narragansett breed. So far these have been very impressive. They are great foragers but don’t wander as far and so far stay out of the trees. We don’t have as many trees or trees so close, so it’s not comparing apples to apples here. They don’t fly as well as the Bourbons, which is great in our view. The Narragansett also put on weight quicker than the Bourbons. They both taste great in my view. The Bourbons were a little stronger being a little closer to the wild turkey taste with the Narragansett being a bit more mild but stronger than the typical grocery turkey.
With our turkeys right now we only have six females and one male that are a year old; four of the females have gone broody so far. We may have one more going broody, which would be five out of six. So far we have 13 turkey babies with one mom sitting on some right now, we’ll see how successful she is pretty soon. Not bad for their first year of breeding. Our plan is to keep no more than 12 females and 2 males as our breeding stock and eat up and gift all the excess. The hens have a live weight of about 14-18 lbs with the toms being 22-28 lbs (larger weight being full grown, many butcher at the lower weight for feed efficiencies). Hanging weight would be about 80% of that. They lay quite a few eggs in the spring and early summer but taper down mid summer and stop completely once they have gone broody and raised a batch of chicks. I’ve read you can get about 50-60 eggs a year from each hen each year and that seems about right. The eggs are pretty great, not very noticeably different from chicken when mixing in recipes for baking but some differences fried and hard boiled. They are larger than the largest chicken eggs I’ve seen but not too massive, maybe about the same as one large and one medium chicken egg combined. The shells are also very different, a lot thicker and the membrane inside holds it together so it’s more difficult to open the cracked egg (like my imagination of dinosaur eggs). Fried the whites are a little thicker and chewy in texture, and the yokes are creamier (more like duck eggs in my opinion). They aren’t really worth raising for eggs alone, but as a side product they are worth eating for sure.
The Plymouth Rock hens are said to lay 4-5 eggs a week or 200-280 eggs a year. I think ours are close to this but probably on the lower end. I’m guessing to get the higher range you’d need to keep them a little warmer and/or extend the light some in the winter. We don’t like to push our birds and just let them have a winter break. The hens weigh around 5.5-7.5 lbs and the roosters 7.5-9.5 lbs. They aren’t a lot of meat but not bad. We raise them primarily for eggs but use the excess (primarily roosters) for meat and broth. It takes two roosters to really give the family as much meat as they want for a meal with some leftovers. With one rooster there usually isn’t much of anything leftover. One of our children gets very ill anytime she has chicken and it’s gotten worse as she ages so we don’t try anymore. That is one of the big reasons we got turkeys and we are so glad we did. The turkeys are primarily for meat but give some eggs, the chickens are primarily for eggs but give some meat. The combination of the two is pretty great. I asked the kids what they would pick if they could pick just one, and they said turkeys. I don’t know what I’d pick; I’m glad we don’t have to.
There was a little wave a while back that people were saying that the USA has a “rape culture.” I’m not going to dig into that really, but man chickens sure have a rape culture. The poor hens. Right now we have about 18 full grown hens and three full grown roosters. We need to cull one of those dudes, the girls are being harassed too much. With the turkeys they have a completely different mating ritual. It’s not about chasing and attacking the women and forcing them to submit like chickens. In the turkey world, at least with the Narragansett breed, the toms put up a fancy display and the hens lay down in front of the tom to show she accepts his fanciness. When we had two toms they would both try and take turns and the guys would fight some but not too bad. But two toms were too many for only 6 hens so my wife watched them for a while and picked the better man to stay around. We appreciate their style though, the chickens are insane compared to the civilized turkey ways.
Another good thing about the turkeys is that all of the hens are good babysitters. They look after all the babies and treat them well. This is very unlike the chickens who couldn’t care less and even hurt babies that they didn’t raise. Something remarkable about the turkeys is we are getting close to 100% fertilization rate on the eggs. We normally get about 80% fertility rate on chicken eggs, this year is even lower – because we have too many roosters.
As a sustainable option I think both of these breeds are top notch. They both are good at raising their own young, the chickens are very good layers and decent for meat, the turkeys grow pretty quick to butcher weight and taste great, both are pretty docile and easy to take care of. Both are winter hardy, but some of the chickens have lost some of their combs to cold. Both are good at foraging; I’d say the turkeys are better. Both are fun to watch and the children have fun with them. I think both of these are a great beginner breed choice for chickens or turkeys if you’re looking to get turkeys or chickens.
Anyways thought it was about time to make another homestead post. My wife pays a bit more attention than I do, I always like the recent bird news. Lots of drama revolves around the chickens and turkeys. Right now they all share the same home, we are going to split them up and put the turkeys over in our sheep area and the chickens will stay in the cow area. We’ll likely put excess roosters over in the turkey area to give relief to the poor hens living in a brutal culture.
Resources:
https://livestockconservancy.org/plymouth-rock-chicken/
https://livestockconservancy.org/narragansett-turkey/
Many hatcheries will carry these breeds.