Rearing Turkeys for Christmas

Jess_B

Hello

I know some of you have chichens but I was wondering if anyone has reared a turkey for thier Christmas dinner?

If you have please could you tell me where you got them from and how easy or hard they are to look after?

Many thanks

Jess

FBThree

Oh this reminds me when we lived in Nigeria when I was 10 years old, the whole country was struck with a fowl pest and people couldn't buy turkeys for Xmas. The day before a friend popped over to say that they'd been given 2 and did we want one. Dad had to go and catch it in their garden, and then he and the cook/steward had to kill it. He tried to knock it out by giving it a dram of whisky but I think that was more for him. It took me over twenty years before I could eat turkey again!

Hapless_2

Yeah, don't let them get wet or cold! I spent hours drying a live one with a hairdryer when I was a kid, and the s*d still pegged it!

Try goose instead.

LandyAndy

Turkey. The world's most over rated meat. Have roast beef for your Christmas dinner. Probably not a good idea to try raising the cow yourself though.:rotfl:

angelavdavis

I had a boyfriend who used to raise turkeys for some extra cash. He said it was really easy (he also raised peacocks as they are apparently very trendy for the table :eek: ). I found this site and this site when I googled that have a bit of info.

Thre is also a forum on the uk turkey club site:

http://www.turkeyclub.org.uk/forum/read.asp?f=1&i=2099&t=2097

LandyAndy

There is a good reason why things that are no good and promise more than they deliver are called 'turkeys'

ViksB

We have a smallholding and have a few sheep, pigs and chickens. The year before last we tried to raise some Turkeys. Everyone warned us against it as they said Turkeys have a death wish.
We started with 6 and ended up with 2 very tasty but relatively very expensive birds.
Geese are much easier, although are very difficult to pluck, but are worth the effort -
Meat Chickens are also good and we are probably going to get a few of these this year.
Turkeys really do have a death wish.

Good Luck