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lbs. at sixteen weeks. Needless to say, those hoping for a 20 lb. turkey did not get it.
We ended up giving several people two turkeys.
In year five, in an effort to ensure big turkeys, we started the poults a full month
earlier. This was also the first year we provided an entirely separate brooder and pas-
ture for the turkeys. The batch thrived and thrived and thrived. They aggressively
consumed all the pasture we had for them and bulked up on the feed as well. By the
last month we were feeding them practically nothing but whole oats and grass in an
effort to slow their growth. These behemoths dressed out to an average weight of 25
lbs. in nineteen weeks. This was not the happy medium we were looking for.
However, nobody could complain about small turkeys.
Catching Cold
The next year, year six, we thought we held all the cards. We received our poults on
July 3, we had a good handle on the feed ration, the facilities were all separate from
the chickens, and the weather was ideal. But we did not expect the sniffle. One of our
barnyard chickens probably had the sniffles. This chicken probably sneezed near the
turkey brooder. Since the brooder is separate, but not on the opposite end of the farm,
the newly arrived, immunodeficient turkey poults caught that sniffle. They took the
sniffle very seriously and started dropping like flies. Their heads swelled up, their
eyes watered and they sneezed constantly. I quickly began treating with fresh greens,
sod, and homeopathy. I wasn't immediately concerned with an impending disaster. I
always only presell half the turkeys, and well over half were still relatively healthy. I
banked on recovery and proceeded with caution.
As the days progressed, so did the loss of poults. We contacted Cornell and had a
necropsy done on two birds. The diagnosis was quick and straightforward: sinusitis.
But turkeys can be wimps, and this was a perfect example of how fast a simple sinus
infection can sweep through a flock. So to cut my losses I moved the flock to the oth-
er end of the farm. I set up a horse trailer as an impromptu brooder and began treat-
ing the sick turkeys with a number of different herbal and homeopathic remedies.
The doctor at Cornell did not foresee that the use of antibiotics would dramatically
help the already sick birds, so I struck out on my own.
That year we completely cancelled turkey sales, holding the few surviving birds for
friends and family.
What We Have Learned
Track your poult order . One of the first challenges we faced was getting turkey
poults when we wanted them. Many hatcheries stop hatching in June, and we don't
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