# Self Sufficiency/Living off the Land or Off the Grid > Livestock and Animal Husbandry >  raising turkeys again

## hayshaker

i just bought 3 haritage breed turkeys on christmas eve 1 tom is a bronze breasted 1 hen is bronze breasted as well. and the 3rd a tom is a cross between a royal palm and some other light color breed with very exceptional looking feathers. i plan to get a bourbon red tom and another of the white kind.

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## hunter63

For eating or burglar alarms.....?.....LOL

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## hayshaker

mostly for thier  feathers the meat will be a byproduct.
now as burgurler alarms hmmm intresting.

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## hunter63

Not quite as noisy as guinea fowl, but close.

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## hayshaker

actully i can talk some turkey i speaky thier lingo.

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## hunter63

Yeah, I'm pretty good at, "Hey big boy, you want some of..... this?".....In turkey talk of course.
And  a few other calls....LOL

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## Wise Old Owl

OK you have some turkeys... what do you want to know... and you may stump me.

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## finallyME

Excellent!
I have postponed my chickens and rabbits for a while.  We want to move to bigger pastures, so I ditched all the extraneous animals until we do.  I only have had one turkey.  It was a bronze breasted hen.  Someone gave her to me when she was close to butchering.  It still amazes me that people get chickens and turkeys and rabbits just for pets and don't know what to do when the time comes.  And, somehow everyone in the neighbor knows that I will take care of it for them.

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## Rick

Neighbor: "Where's the chicken I gave you?"
FinallyMe: "(Burp) Ran away."
Neighbor: "That one too? You gotta get a bigger fence."

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## hunter63

Yeah....Tommy the turkey went to live on the farm.....
Yeah, that big farm in the sky.....
He was a good turkey.....

Yeah that's the ticket.

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## Fixit

My problem with poultry is I always end up with egg on my face .

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## hunter63

One job I had as a young man....turkey catcher for the big commercial farmers.....

That wasn't egg on my face........$.10 cents apiece.

You threw your clothes away after the season.....

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## finallyME

I usually tell them up front that if they give me their bird, that it won't be alive in 2 days.  It is surprising how many people are offended by that.  They want to give their animal away to a place that will let them roam free for the rest of their lives.  Give me a break! And, I never eat the 2 year old hens.  My leather boots are softer.  I skin them, gut them, and chop them up for the dog.  Dogs don't care how tough the meat is.

There is a local online classifieds website here in Utah that gets more traffic than craigslist.  I have gotten all my rabbits and dogs from this site.  It is funny to see people post a rabbit and say that they only want someone who isn't going to eat it or kill it.  If you can't take care of it anymore.....you have no say.  I had to stop taking my kids to go pick up the free rabbits, because they talk too much.  I also laugh when I go to the Human Society and see all those rabbits.  All I can think of is "free, healthy, dog food".  When I started keeping rabbits, I would go online to research how to take care of them.  There are a ton of crazy people who think rabbits are indoor pets.  And, according to them, there is a rabbit overpopulation problem, so you should always spay or neuter your rabbits.  My grandpa would tell me that they never had a rabbit overpopulation problem when he was young.  And, most of these people think it is okay to kill babies......better stop now before the blood pressure gets too high.

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## Rick

Well that's easy peasy. Just tell them you'll take care of the animal for the rest of its life. You don't have to mention that its life will only be two days. You tell the truth and get a meal. By the way, the dogs have been meaning to talk to you about the tough meat.

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## hunter63

We bought like a 100 chickens at .25 cent apiece....on the hoof..


So had to process them....they were like 2 year old laying hens that had quit laying.

Those gag rubber chickens we less tough, even the dogs wouldn't eat them.....had to toss them away, in the winter when they were frozen.

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