The hens dressed out at 16.5 and 19 lbs. They look deceptively small in this photo. Remember, I can put over 40 chickens in this tub.
Tom was too big to fit in my plucker so we ended up handplucking most of him.
Here I am getting on the bathroom scale with him. My kitchen scale only goes up to 11 lb. That wasn't going to work! He topped the scales at 25.5lbs!
A job well done! Would I do turkeys again? I'm not sure. The poults cost me $10 each. It took about 4 months to raise them. I fed them along with the chickens, but I estimate they cost me about $60-$70 to feed. Plucking and cleaning them wasn't too hard. The large size shrink bags cost a little extra. So in the end, I made about $100 from the 3 birds.
These I did for a friend, but if I do it again, I'm going to have to charge more. And probably then nobody would want one when they look at a $100 price tag on their centerpiece for Thanksgiving Dinner.
Have y'all had experience with turkeys?
I was wondering if you had a chicken plucker! I couldn't imagine processing the amount of birds you do without one. Did you build your own plucker or buy it? I'm wanting to get some more meat birds, I think there will be a market for them with the China issue, but without a plucker forget it LOL!!!
ReplyDeleteI just got turkeys. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with them. They are a smaller breed. We'll see, right now I just like having them around.
That's a big turkey and you are soo tiny ☺
It is an EZ Plucker. I could not butcher as many chickens as I do without it! I highly recommend one. It was a big investment, but 2 batches of Cornish X paid it off.
DeleteGoing to look it up! How much do you get for your chickens? Isn't it per pound? Do you house your meaties separate from the laying flock? The last time I had meat birds they tried to mate with my other girls, it drove us batty! I think I would separate them this time.
DeleteMy meaties are ready to butcher at about 8 weeks so they aren't mature enough to start crowing or mating. I keep them in hoop house style tractors I made from using 2x6's for the frame, 1" PVC for the hoops, chicken wire, and a tarp. I have been charging $3.50lb. I really need to go up to $4.00 with the cost of feed up so much.
DeleteThat is a good size bird wow! I would be tempted to just skin them for my own use, they used to do spring gobblers that way.
ReplyDeleteThey were actually pretty easy to pluck. As easy as a Cornish X, actually. Now that goose was another story. The first one was so hard to pluck, I skinned the second.
DeleteThose guys are huge! Way better than my little 8 pounders. Yes, I have done turkeys and will never again. I had Bourbon Reds. They are a beautiful bird. But no more for me. They are nasty. And eat a LOT of feed. And you're right. You'd never get back what you have in them.
ReplyDeleteThese were Broad Breasted Bronze. I fed the three of them one 1-gallon feeder full of game bird crumble a day. They were nice birds and I miss the little calls and gobbles they made.
DeleteI kept them in a chicken tractor that usually houses 15-20 chickens. Since I only have 3 of these tractors, it made the 50 meat chickens we butchered in August a little crowded toward the end of their lives. That probably negatively affected their size.
They did make huge poops when they got big. Pretty gross, but that's where the tractor thing works for you. I think at $4.50-5 a pound, it would be worth it to do a few again.