Flocks of turkeys

Picture: some of my beautiful boys on 11-14-2008

Covered in this post:

When to get baby turkeys delivered
What to put on the shipping label

What kind of poult should you choose?
Handling when they arrive to reduce mortality

This is my third year raising turkeys for the holidays. Having raised lots of chickens, I consider turkeys, especially large numbers of turkeys, to be much more difficult to raise. They seem to be much more delicate than chickens -- out of the box mortality from the hatcheries has been 50%. Since I really didn't have any chance to care for them, I'm pretty sure it's not something that I've done, but I've found that by taking special care of the poults I can reduce the subsequent mortality significantly.

Get them delivered earlier in the week:

This part is aimed at people who are going to buy a lot of poults. Like 10 or 20 or more. I buy 300 or so a year.

First, confirm the delivery date with your hatchery. Try not to get poults delivered on thursday or friday if at all possible. The worst possible thing that can happen is that they sit in the post office over the weekend. The extra day or two will kill some of your birds. Choose a hatchery that is close enough to you to get the poults quickly -- and also to keep yoru business local. I agressively support local businesses for all sorts of reasons; ecology, efficiency, cost, and most of all because I'm in the buy-local business, so I've got to practice what I preach.

Have the shipping label marked "call on delivery" and have your cell phone number on the shipping label. In the event that they arrive on a weekend, you want to go down to the post office distribution center and get them. Yes, they will call you at 5am on sunday. Yes, you really do want to go get your poults RIGHT THEN. Heritage poults are expensive -- $9-$12 each. Losing 3 of them hurts. losing 15 of them is a big hit. Sleep with the phone next to your head.

This is aimed at people buying less than 5 turkeys:

The best way to buy small quantities of turkeys is at your local feed store. Call them and ask when they'll have turkeys in, and don't go pick yours up for a day or two after that delivery. The feed stores typically sell poults at their cost, or near it, and you want the feed store to absorb the shipping mortality -- so buy delaying your purchase you're making sure you get past that hurdle.

What kind of turkey should you pick?

Heritage breeds and "standard" breeds and "broad breasted" breeds are all about the same when they're poults. that is, they're the same weight, and have the same basic issues. You'll see poults that range from $2 to $15. I raise heritage because I can collect and incubate the eggs. They fly, I don't have to do feed restriction, and they don't get too big for customers ovens. So for me, they're easier to deal with. I will raise a small number (like 20) of the broad breasted for folks that must have a 25lb turkey. The heritage breeds I choose max out at about 20lbs dressed weight, with the average (hens and toms) being 16lbs.

What kind of turkey should I pick?

If you must have a bird that is over 25lbs dressed weight: broad breasted turkey

If you want a bird that is a little bigger than heritage, but doesn't get as big as broad breasted, "improved" or "standard"

If you want a bird that is rare, endangered and basically what people would eat 50-100 years ago, you want a heritage

If you want a bird that will lay fertile eggs that you can hatch, you want a heritage or standard turkey.

If you want to increase the chance that the hens will sit on the eggs, you want a heritage. I've found them to be more broody than standard turkeys.

Broad breasted cannot mate naturally, they have to be artificially inseminated, and don't do very well when they are more than a year old. They get very big and have leg and back problems. Standard or heritage birds will easily live 4-5 productive years as laying hens.

You know when your poults are arriving. How do you care for them?

Look, everyone has some idea of how to best care for poults. I'm trying to make a profit, and it kills me to lose even one poult. So this may be overkill, but it's what I do to save as many poults as I can.

I raise my turkeys in tubs. 30 gallon tupperware, with a feeder and a waterer placed in them on a bed of chips. I do this to make cleaning easy - transfer poults to new tub, dump old tub and rinse, repeat. I put 15 poults in each tub.

each tub has its own 200 watt infrared heat lamp. I use a thermometer to make sure that the temperature of the chips under the center of the lamp is 102 degrees, and that the lamp is aimed at the center of the bin. I turn the lamp on and get the chips hot for the poults the day before they arrive. The poults will regulate their own heat by moving in closer to the light, or away from it. You want to watch to make sure that no poult is off in the corner, or gets wet. Elevate your waterer a few inches if you need to. drafts are fatal -- that's why i use tubs. No drafts.

I put a layer of newspaper over the chips for the first two days. Yes, I'm risking the poults spradling (having their legs slip out and get deformed, usually fatal) but I've found few cases of spraddle and the newspaper prevents the poults from eating a a wood chip. If they do it will block their stomach and they're done for.

I feed the chicks chick starter and crumbled hard boiled eggs. I put marbles (buy a bag at your local dollar store) into their feed and water dish -- both so they cannot lay in the water, and so the feed and water is shiny. They will peck at shiny. you want them to peck at the feed and water.

As I put each poult into the bin I dip its beak into the water. I do this for every single poult. I then tap the waterer with my finger. Poults will come over and interpret a tapping noise as something they should be interested in. I'll then tap the feeder. I use the red plastic feeders. they're easy to clean and cheap.

Summary: Newspaper over chips first 2 days. Hottest part at 102 degrees. Crumbled hard boiled eggs to supplement chick starter. marbles in feed and water to make it shiny. Dry and warm at all times. Dip poults beaks in water when they arrive, tap on food and water once all poults are in the tub or brooder.

The big picture

The beginning
I'm starting this blog as a way to document a farming neophytes venture into a small, for-profit farming venture. I've started and operated other businesses, but never anything related to agriculture or animal husbandry, so I'm expecting more-than-the-usual amounts of difficulties.

The goal
I'd like to own land in the country, to provide a balance for my mostly-city life. Most of the work that I do is cerebral, so I seek out projects that I can do with my hands and see tangible results for. It's an emotional need to see what I create and enjoy its use, and it's manifested itself in my life in a continuing love of remodeling, construction, carpentry, welding and cooking. The goal of this venture is to combine both of these interests, and a small, working farm seemed like a good choice.

Money
I don't think that any business venture (and the farm is one of those) is really complete without a discussion of money. In this case I wanted to own the most land that was suitable for my purpose, for the least amount of money. Operations of the farm have to pencil out as potentially making a profit. There has to be enough profit to be able to hire a part-time employee eventually. In doing the math I assumed I'd need a tractor, a barn, and implements for the tractor - post hole auger, ditcher, chipper/shredder, etc. So I set my overall budget for land, buildings and equipment at $100k.

Guidelines for farm products
First, I dont' want to do any sort of farming that I would be ashamed to have someone look at. No battery cages, the least amount of confinement possible for the animals, the most natural environment for the animals, and each animal should be able to do what it would normally do.

Second, there should be defined periods when you're dealing with customers, but nothing that requires staffing a retail store full-time, to keep the overhead down. So seasonal staffing, yes. But full-time staffing, no, unless required by the crop being produced. An example of this might be turkeys; buy them in march/april, raise them until early november. Not much customer contact until late october, all of the birds sold by thanksgiving, one month of retail activity. The goal is to enjoy the rural life and product, not to run a retail operation.
Third, when a crop or animal is picked, work on all of the variations of that crop or animal. So if you pick chickens, think pigeons. If you have chickens and pigeons, think turkeys. If you've got turkeys, thinkg guinea fowl. Work on a diversified set of income producers to spread the risk of failure out. Because I expect to fail. And I want to use the same facilities as many times as I can to save capital.

Fourth, no crop or animal should be selected unless it pencils out as a product that will make a profit after all costs are figured, and that there is a ready market for. Items that a large number of people are growing should be approached with caution. Items that noone is growing locally that are bought locally should be carefully scrutinized.

Fifth, start small, grow large. Each animal or crop should be done with a test crop or unit of animal. After a year of working through the issues related to that crop a careful review of the results will determine if another year of that crop is to be undertaken.

Amount of land needed
I've already got a house that I'm happy with. Initially, I'm planning on commuting to the farm every day, or every other day as needed. As a result, any parcel of land that includes 3 acres of clean pasture and an acre of other space for buildings and silos will work for me initially. It would be better if there were room to expand later -- so parcels that adjoin other land that can be leased or purchased later are more desirable. 

Land location
As close to the retail market as I can afford, as close to a major highway as I can afford. Optimally near a freeway offramp within 20 miles of Seattle, with the potential for signs that can be seen from the freeway and/or the ability to draw UPick customers from a major metro area. Reduces the time to market , allows customers to pick up items from the farm, and allows minimally staffed (upick) crops.

Local food.

Hi
Most of my work experience is as either a software engineer or a trainer teaching software engineers. After working for a couple of fledgeling software companies (and having my paycheck bounce a few times) I got a job at Microsoft, and spent most of 10 years there, supporting, writing, and then teaching windows programming.
I've always wanted to operate my own business, and left microsoft to found the first of what became three different companies. This farming venture is my third startup, but a little different than the previous 2.
I'm an avid whitewater boater, rafts mostly, and have guided for the last 20 years on a variety of rivers. In 2006 I spent 2 summer months rowing different groups of people down the grand canyon, marking my 6th and 7th trips down that beautiful gorge. I've also boated in canada, alaska, africa and on most of the rivers in washington and idaho.
I love to snowboard and travel. I'm partial to intelligent women with long hair, airedales and stuff that uses diesel fuel. I just find heavy equipment fascinating,