Since we are on the kick of raising our own food anyways, why not raise turkeys too? We placed an order back in February from another local farm that keeps Narragansett and Blue Slate hens with a Narragansett tom. As a result, we have some pure Narragansetts and some crossed birds. This morning, Anna picked up the 14 poults (10 are a couple of days old and 4 are a week old).
We have been researching raising turkeys and plan to try and give them as much grass access as possible with our portable electric fence, however grain will be a big part of their diet. My research has a lot of conflicting information about what we should expect for weight at harvest time. Some people report 8-16lbs (hen/tom) while other have 16-25lbs averages. All I know is, we have about 22 weeks until harvest right before Thanksgiving, and I will have a better idea of our results in November.
The biggest gamble for us is setting the price for the birds now. We prefer to have an incentive for people to make an reasonable advance deposit on the turkeys to offset feed/raising costs, and that only works if I set a price now. We know that Ekonk Hill Turkey Farm sold heritage turkeys in 2011 for $8.99/lb.
You may reserve a Sawyer Family Farm turkey for $40 which will lock in a price of $8/lb at harvest. I am only offering 8 birds available for deposit (and 1 is already paid for, leaving 7 left). The remaining birds will be retained by us for our own freezer or as breeding stock. It also allows for possible loss along the way (turkeys generally have a higher mortality rate than chickens). If there are any birds left available in November, they will be sold at a higher price than those reserved in advance.
What if you don’t want a bird that will be 22lbs at $8/lb? I will be monitoring the growth of the birds along the way. If you want a particular size bird, and don’t mind having it harvested early to go in your freezer until Thanksgiving, we can do that too!
If you are interested in placing a deposit on a turkey, please Email with the number of turkeys you would like, and any rough size preference (10-15lb, 15-20lb, etc) and I will send you an invoice via PayPal.