After doing extensive research, the following steps best describes how to raise Heritage Breed Turkeys. My steps included: brooding turkeys, keep them growing, finishing and how to sell the turkey.
Brooding Turkeys:
Baby turkeys are called poults. If you can, order your poults from an instate hatchery. The less distance and time involved in transporting the poults, the better their condition will be on arrival.
Be prepared before the poults arrive. Turkey poults are more difficult to get started correctly than baby chicks. They need a warm temperature of 100° F. two inches above the floor. Don't guess, keep a thermometer down with the poults for the first two to three weeks. Watch the poults for the best indication of how you need to adjust the temperature. Cold poults will huddle together, even smothering the ones unlucky enough to be on the bottom. If they are too hot they will get as far away from the light as possible and lay out panting, acting listless. Poults that are comfortable will move around peeping quietly or sleeping peacefully. You can drop the temperature five degrees each week.
Use wood shavings for turkey litter. Do not use sawdust, as the poults may eat it and have digestive troubles. Do not place newspapers on top of the litter. Sliding on the paper can cause pulled tendons in the legs of young poults. It's best never to clean out the litter completely; simply remove wet or caked litter while periodically adding some dry shavings.
A red infrared heat lamp is ideal for brooding poults. Mount it in a porcelain socket attached to a heavy extension cord and hung by a chain, not just the cord. Suspend the bulb at least 18" above the floor and take pains to avoid contact with flammable materials. It's a good idea to hang a regular light bulb a few feet above the feed and water so the poults can see better for the first two to three days, as their vision is poor right after hatching.
You may need to special-order a turkey starter feed ahead of time. Some feed companies don't handle any turkey feed - chick starter is a poor substitute. Other companies will get it for you only on special orders. If you're planning to raise 10 or more poults, buy a 100-pound bag of turkey starter that contains medication to prevent coccidiosis, a common intestinal disease. Turkeys should develop immunity to coccidiosis while eating medicated starter feed. Spend some time with the poults for the first hour you have them to be sure they find the feed and water. It sometimes helps to dip their beaks in the water. Once turkey poults do start eating and drinking well, they usually grow without difficulty from then on. Twice a week sprinkle grit over the mash so that the poults can digest their food properly. Watch for pasting up, an ailment in which the droppings stick to the backside of the bird and it cannot eliminate. If this happens gently clean the droppings of with some mineral oil or warm water.
Make sure there is plenty of fresh, clean water at all times. The water should be about body temperature to guard against the turkeys getting a chill. Use a small one-gallon chick waterer. Open dishes or pans aren't good, since poults may fall in, get chilled and die.
Don't leave open pails or boxes on the floor. Poults are very curious and have been known to jump into such a container - one on top of another. There should be nothing in the room with the poults besides the feed, water and heat. You can use a roost but it's not necessary. Poults sometimes start to pick on each other badly enough to cause bleeding or even death. To prevent this, you may want to cut off one-half of the upper beak at 10 days of age with a dog toenail clipper. Trim beaks on a cool day, if possible.
After about four weeks the birds can go outside to an enclosed and protected area as long as the temperature stays above 70 degrees. Continue making sure that they have fresh water at all times and feed is plentiful.
Keep Them Growing:
Please Note: Blackhead disease may show up anywhere. Because chickens are highly resistant to this disease, blackhead can spread to turkeys from chicken manure. If the turkeys have no protection against this disease, they may all die. Be sure to check the fine print on the feed tag to see if the feed is medicated for blackhead. A bird six weeks of age or older that dies rather suddenly or after looking droopy for one to two days should be cut open for a look at the liver. A liver with white or yellow spots is a sure sign of this disease. Raise turkeys separately from chickens and avoid walking from chicken pens into turkey pens. There are other diseases besides blackhead that could be spread from chickens to turkeys.
When the turkeys reach eight to ten weeks of age, you should start using a turkey growing ration that contains a preventive medication for blackhead disease. Keep a container full of broiler grit or course sand / fine gravel the turkeys can eat whenever they wish. The turkey will also need greens and other foods added to its diet.
Grass or pasture fed poultry allows the birds to free range in a large pen, often electrified to keep out predators, or in large, movable, bottomless cages called chicken tractors. Either method allows the birds to eat a natural diet of living grasses and plants, bugs, and even mice and snakes. The grass fed poultry will need to get supplemental grain and mash daily for optimum health.
If you have a garden, you'll find that turkeys enjoy eating lettuce leaves, overripe tomatoes or sweet corn, summer squash and some other items. Although modern turkey rations provide very well-balanced diets, your turkeys will welcome a few fresh vegetables from time to time.
Once you have stopped using heat for your turkeys, you do not need any more artificial light. The normal daylight of summer and fall is enough for good growth. Turkeys nearing maturity in late fall can stand freezing temperatures without any trouble. Be sure, however, to provide them with plenty of clean, unfrozen drinking water every day.
As the poults grow taller and their necks get longer, raise the feeders and waterers off the floor or graduate the birds to larger equipment. The edge of the feeder trough should be at the level of the turkey's back. This will help keep the feed and water clean. Do not fill the feeders so full that feed is wasted on the floor. Feed makes very expensive litter. You will find you need rugged feeders and waterers that aren't easily spilled. Turkeys are large, very strong animals.
Finishing:
Growing rations should be fed until the turkeys are within 3-4 weeks of slaughter. Use unmedicated finishing rations for the remaining weeks. Most turkeys reach their mature size in six months. During that time, you can plan on the toms eating nearly 100 pounds each and the hens nearly 60 pounds each. If you have wondered about discerning sex of your birds, the toms will fluff out their feathers and start strutting at an early age. They gobble much more loudly than the quieter hens. Toms will also develop much more red skin or wattles on the front of their necks. After four months of age, the toms will be much larger than the hen turkeys.
For the very best quality meat the scratch grains should be at least 70% corn by week 20. You will know that the turkey is ready for butchering when the pinfeathers have disappeared and there is a fine layer of fat covering the body. You will not be able to see the purplish color of the muscle under the skin but the skin will be pale yellow or white underneath. Continue to allow the bird to be on fresh grass pasture throughout the finishing process until the last 18 hours. During the last 18 hours before butchering the bird should be separated, and given plenty of fresh clean water but no food.
If you plan to dry-pick the birds, be sure to stun them by sticking the brain through the cleft in the roof of the mouth or by a sharp blow on top of the head before bleeding them thoroughly. If you use hot water to loosen the feathers, the temperature should be 1400 F. Dip the bird for 30-45 seconds, then pluck rapidly. After plucking, singe the hair off with a blow torch or alcohol flame. Cut off the legs at the hock joints. Remove the head, then remove the neck from the backside, leaving the neck skin attached to the bird. Remove crop and neck tubes. Then, cut out the oil gland, cut around the vent and remove the insides. Save the heart, gizzard, liver and neck.
How to Sell the Turkey:
You can take the turkey to the butcher and have it killed and cleaned, and have your customer pick it up there in neat freezer bags, or you can sell the turkey live for less money and allow the customer to decide what to do about the butchering. In most areas it is not legal to butcher the animal yourself for sales purposes because of health regulations so check carefully with your local government.
As people try your birds and are rendered speechless by the tender, amazingly tasty meat that you have produced your business will grow by leaps and bounds. The Internet is a great place to sell livestock or promote your homestead's products because it is everywhere, all the time.
