It’s been a month since we brought our first batch of turkeys home for the season and I just realized that I have yet to introduce them to you!
(I’ll blame this oversight on Spring Fever, which seems to have completely muddied my brain with visions of kids and ducklings and sprouts and planning for planting!)
Our turkey purchases were a bit more complicated this year than last in that the place we usually get our poultry from didn’t get their order due to a “very bad” happening at the Hatchery. I don’t know what happened, just that everyone at the feed store was shaking their heads and saying “very bad” over and over. When I asked if they thought future/scheduled orders would be coming in on time, no one knew for sure.
Given this uncertainty, we decided to head to another feed store closer to home to purchase a few baby turkeys just to be sure we’d have some! However, when we got there, they only had a lot of “Hatchery Choice” birds…which means you get what you get and no one really knows what breed they are until they grow up and show true.
We came home that day with a few brown babies and a few very light yellow babies, not knowing for sure what they were, but happy to have a few fluff balls to raise for Thanksgiving.
A week later, upon visiting my favorite feed store again (I can’t help myself this time of year), I was happily met with a very limited selection of turkeys, but a (labelled) selection none-the-less!
And so we came home with a few more fluff balls, this time knowing that they are Broad Breasted Bronzes and Artisan Golds!
The Artisan Gold is a rare breed that is small in size and slow growing. It has black feathers, unique colouring in the face and feet, long black legs, and a pronounced beak. The Artisan Gold thrives in a free-range or custom environment where it can express natural tendencies such as roaming and roosting. The Artisan Gold offers a robust, gamey taste that is exotically different from traditional turkeys currently in the market. With its unique and uncommon characteristics, the Artisan Gold is a standout on any farm or dinner table.
The Artisan Gold is reminiscent of a more traditional era, with old-world traditions and artisan values. With heritage tracing back to the Landes, Aquitaine region of France, the Artisan Gold is from a country renowned for its dedication to taste, uncompromising quality, and high standards.
(To note…I keep seeing Artisan and Artisian as spellings, but I think that Artisan is the correct spelling after all.)
Now, as we’ve watched our original few grow a bit, we’re certain there are two Broad Breasted Bronzes, but are still trying to figure out for sure what the other three might be. However, after posting the question to social media (Instagram and Facebook), I’m thinking they are probably Broad Breasted Whites!
So, as it stands right now, we have two Artisan Gold Turkeys, three Broad Breasted Bronze Turkeys, and three Broad Breasted White (?) Turkeys… which is, honestly, more than we planned to raise this year, but simply could not be helped 😉
Also, as can be seen in the picture below, E is still adapting to our ever-growing poultry situation. While she is definitely excited about them and wants to hold them and play with them, she gets a little scared by their flightiness and so generally tends to keep her distance.
There you have it, an official introduction 🙂
xoxo,
M
Oooh Turkeys! They are not so popular in Australia, in as much as you can get some intensively farmed yuckies all year round, but when we’d like a nice organic free range eating turkey ( in our winter June/July/August ) there isn’t any, and come our hot summer, Xmas time, you can get them at exorbitant prices :/ so I thought maybe I’d grow my own!
But I get mixed messages about blackhead disease ( we dont get a deep freeze where I live to kill off the pathogens in the soil ). I’d want my turkeys to free range as much as the chooks, but I’m wary of raising a mixed flock. Melissa, do yours mix? Your turkeys and chooks? Ive also heard they like to fly and roost up high. I’d rather get a heritage breed instead of a dumb meat bird, so does it work to clip their wings?
Sorry for all the questions 🙂
Hi Linda! Wonderful questions!!! Solely based on our experience last year (our first year raising turkeys), I can’t recommend it enough! We have a couple in the freezer now since, similar to what you said, outside of thanksgiving time, it’s nearly impossible to find turkey in the grocery store! Now, while I liked raising heritage and the broad breasted bronzes (BBBs), honestly, heritage are a big fat pain! They really are still *wild! They don’t like to go into the coop, they were constantly flying up on the roof and over the fence line, and didn’t take commands well. We lost three heritage birds *because they don’t like to find shelter… So predators found them before we started insisting on them all going indoors for the night. We never clipped their wings, though, which may have helped if we could have gotten ahold of them. Our BBBs were much more docile and followed in line with my clapping and direction wherever I wanted them to go. I *loved our BBBs much more than I anticipated and didn’t find them dumb at all (though I’d heard they were dumb). I found them to be very sweet and curious and mellow 🙂 Also! Our turkeys and chickens share the same coop, though adjacent roosting and runs, separated just by chicken wire. They all free ranged together and we never had a problem with them being out together. Hope that helps!
Oooh see now I’m excited again lol maybe we can do it here on our block?! I will be watching your posts over the year to see how these turkeys pan out 🙂 maybe come spring I’ll be raising a few of my own! Thanks for answering my questions Melissa 🙂
You’re welcome! Let me know if any others come up 🙂
They are so cute! I never thought I’d say that about turkeys. Even in their cuteness, they are odd looking creatures. 🙂
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Oh yes, hey are so very odd looking! Especially when they get bigger and have those funny faces and necks!