Turkeys

Place a request for turkeys for sale
$3/pound

We raise Broad Breasted Bronze turkeys for several years. These turkeys are a high-production hybrid turkey; though not as commercialized as the white counterparts. They grow fast and are tender and delicious, with a large breast (you might assume this from the breed name). They do not reproduce naturally; we buy poults.

Turkeys are sent to processor no later than early October and are immediately frozen. We can raise a limited number of turkeys for sale, by request, and an even more limited number can be purchased and left in our freezer for a few months.

Our turkeys get organic feed and garden scraps, and free range on acres of pasture; turkeys enjoy grazing on grass even more than the chickens do.

We have purchased our poults from Farwest Hatchery and from Ideal; see chicken page for my opinions about hatcheries.


Poults (turkey chicks) go through a awkward stage

For a couple of years we raised Narragansetts; we had a great opportunity to trade tomato plants for local turkey poults or eggs. These heritage turkeys did NOT want to go into the coop at night, and were fast and good at flying so they could elude us and roost out of our reach. Alas, not out of reach of the racoons. It's not much fun to chase fast moving turkeys around the field (we ultimately needed nets to catch them) and even less fun to come across the bodies.

Broad Breasted Bronze, on the other hand, are sedate, home-loving, curious and friendly and just overall have pleasant personalities.

Past Turkeys

Our first turkey, in 2004, was named Gravy. He was a fine, large, happy, tomato-loving guy, but we managed to do the deed on him - on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, you face the truth, and if you have that live turkey the next day, you've somehow failed the test. He was delicious. In honor of him and how much he loved tomatoes, and of all turkeykind, we always put sun-dried tomatoes in the turkey stuffing.



In 2006, we didn't get around to bringing the turkeys to the butcher, and they didn't stop growing when they got large enough (I thought they were "fluffy"). We ended up with turkeys that were 45 and 42 pounds dressed! It was like having ostriches in the freezer, they filled it up entirely, and we had to use a saw to cut them up so they would fit in the oven.


Our monster tom turkeys


last updated: 1/6/12