Raise Turkeys
Before You Raise Turkeys – Terminologies and Interesting Facts You
Should Know
Ideally, before you raise turkeys, it is helpful that you know the
terminologies and interesting facts about turkeys so that you wouldn’t
be thrown off guard when you read any related materials about turkeys.
Raising turkeys on a small farm can be fun and profitable because they
can be rotated like any other cash crop on your property. If you have
a few acres that you could rotate pastured turkeys on, this could be a
good side business for the small farmer.
Here are some terminologies to broaden your horizon when you raise
turkeys:
Tom:
Adult male turkey
Hen:
Adult female turkey
Poult:
Young one of turkey
Snood or Dew bill:
The fleshy protuberance near the base of the beck
Caruncles:
The fleshy protuberance on the head and neck usually pink or red in
color which appear from about 5th
week of age
Dewlap:
A large flap skin seen immediately below the chin
Bread:
A tuft of hair attached to the skin of the upper chest region
Strut:
Mating behavior of male turkey
Shooting the red:
The development of caruncles and this is supposed to indicate the most
difficult time in the life of young turkey
Debeaking:
Poults should be debeaked to control feather picking and cannibalism.
Debeaking can be done at day old or 3-5 weeks of age. Remove the beak
at about one half the distance from nostril to the tip of the beak.
Desnooding:
Removal of the snood or dewbill is to prevent the head injuries from
picking and fighting. At the day old the snood can be removed by
shumbnail or finger pressure. At 3 weeks of age it can be cut off
close to the head with sharp
scissors.
Detoeing or toe clipping:
Clipping is done at day old by removing the tip of the toe just to the
inside of the outer most toe pad including the entire toenail.
When most people think of a turkey they think of
Thanksgiving dinner. While most who raise turkeys raise them for
eating, some keep turkeys as a pet. And some do both, keep some as a
pet while eating the others. There are many different breeds of
turkeys, however there are two varieties, domestic and wild. The wild
turkey lives and breeds in the wild and some are kept as pets. It can
fly and is said to be smarter than the domestic.
The domestic turkey are the type eaten on thanksgiving
and they cannot fly. The domestic and wild turkeys are physically
different. Domestic turkeys are much larger than the wild turkeys.
Wild turkeys have brown tipped tails, while the domestic is white. A
wild turkey is much faster than the domestic turkey. The fastest wild
turkey can run up to 35 mph, while a full grown domestic turkeys pace
is a slow walk (females are a little faster because they weigh less
than the male). Wild Turkeys have better eyesight and hearing than
domestic turkeys. Only male turkeys gobble, female turkeys make a
clucking sound but cannot gobble. Only the male turkey can fan his
tail feathers, females cannot.
The turkeys crop is
also called the craw. When turkeys feed they swallow lots of food
which is stored in their crop. They then go to a safe place to loaf
and process the food. Before you raise turkeys too, you need to know
that turkeys
don't have teeth, but they grind their food (even hard seeds and nuts
like acorns) in their second stomach, the gizzard. This is the
muscular stomach below the crop which is the glandular stomach. Look
for the gizzard in the giblet bag.
All commercial turkeys produced today are the white
broad breasted turkey breed. This breed was first used for commercial
turkey production in the late 1950’s. By the late 1960’s the majority
of the industry used this turkey breed.
The cost of
raising a turkey is affected by many
factors, including buildings, equipment, labor, feed costs, and
interest on loans. Feed costs amount to almost two thirds of the cost
of raising a turkey. Geographic location, degree of automation, and
size of the farm all contribute to differences in the costs of raising
turkeys.
Other Articles:
Raising Turkeys – 4 Reasons Why You Should Start
Breeding Turkeys at Home - What You Need to Know and the Procedures
How To Raise Turkeys – Common Mistakes and Problems to Avoid When
Raising Turkeys
Keeping Turkeys - A Beginner's Guide to Keeping Turkeys As Pets at
Home
Raising Turkeys - Is Keeping Turkeys With Chickens a Good Idea?
Raising Turkeys for Profit and Fun - Which Is The Best Way?
Rearing Turkey Organically - First Things First When Starting to Raise
Turkeys
Copyright © 2013 Andrew Grey
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