I want to raise a turkey for auction at the yearly fair. How do i do this and how much does it cost?

Question

I have raised a pig in the past and now want to raise a turkey and a lamb. I am familiar with a lamb because my sister raised one last year. I want to know about raising a turkey. The fair is always late July and early Augest. When do i need to get one? How old should it be? How do i show it? Please if you know anything about this please tell me. This turkey will be sold in auction so it will probly get slaughtered which means i dont want any info on how to breed it. Thank you!

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Answer 1

It is too late to get a turkey poult for this years fair. I got 27 baby turkeys on July 1, 08.  They hatched out on June 30, 08.  I bought five different types of turkeys from Cackle Hatchery.  I got Giant Whites,  Royal Palm, Spanish Blacks, Bourbon Reds and Blue Slash.  The Giant Whites weigh about 5 lbs. The other four breeds are about 11/2 pounds each. You need to purchase baby turkeys this year for next year's fair. It will take them a year to get in good feather and fully grown. The problem I ran into was finding baby turkeys.

You have to buy 20 - 25 babies minimum. It looks like I will be lucky to get four hens out of 26 birds. The only way they sell them is is straight run. This means they supposedly sell them as they come out of the incubator. I always get more males than hens when I order chicks. I bought 20 baby polish chicks and only got 4 pullets. Then I ordered the turkeys and I will be lucky to get one hen of each breed. I don't mind the Giant Whites to be all toms because they were bought with the freezer in mind. The rest of the turkeys I bought were Heritage Turkeys.

I only have a 1/3 acre farm so I am limited in what I can keep. You will need to find a breeder to find just a couple of poults.