Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
BIRDS FOR THE BASTING
Keep in mind that c ommercial, broad-breasted turkeys raised for your table or for
bringing to market grow rapidly! If you get the poults too early, you will have
monster-sized turkeys you'll need to cut into chunks to get them in the oven on
Thanksgiving Day. These big boys dress out at more than 20 pounds (9 kg) at 20
weeks. A mid-July hatch easily provides you with a 16- to 20-pound (7.2-9 kg) bird
for a mid-November slaughter. If you get the poults early, you can always butcher
them and put them in the freezer. But be careful as you approach the dog days of sum-
mer; if you have birds that are quite large, they will suffer terribly in extreme heat.
Their respiration accelerates acutely as they try to cool their bodies.
Acquiring naturally mating, heritage-type poults, conversely, cannot be delayed!
Purchase these birds by the end of May if you wish to offer them for Thanksgiving,
and by the end of June for Christmas fare. These time frames will allow an appropri-
ate interval to develop a reasonable carcass weight, while keeping them from becom-
ing gargantuan.
To raise a bird large enough to feed a family of four or five, naturally mating,
heritage-type turkeys take between 24 and 28 weeks. Exceptions, of course, can and
do occur. Sometimes it pays to be patient when raising these traditional birds. We
have long found that birds from a June or July hatch are absolutely fabulous-tasting
when slaughtered in early spring for Easter dinner, or any other celebratory meal.
When properly packaged in a tightly sealed plastic bag or wrapped in butcher paper
after a layer of plastic wrap, they also can be frozen after butchering and pulled from
the freezer to grace your family get-togethers the following spring. When birds live
through winter they put on a layer of fat that makes them extremely flavorful. So-
metimes birds that have survived the winter are slightly tougher than those butchered
when young. If cooked slowly, however, they become the centerpiece of a mouthwa-
tering, tasty meal.
Heritage Flock Beginnings
Before you buy your heritage birds, do the research necessary to find the best place to
obtain your first birds. There are many more sources today than in recent years and you
can choose from smalltime breeders or commercial sources. Getting turkeys off to a
great start is key to their long-term health and survival. Turkeys do not do well if they are
chilled. Each time they are chilled it takes its toll, and if they are chilled too many times,
they will not make it. Perhaps the biggest challenge for shipped baby turkey poults is
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