Stories From Neighboring Coops: Making Room for Turkeys in Maine

Lally Broch Farm is located in beautiful mid-coast Maine on a little over 4 acres of land in a very rural community. Sean and Sonja began “farming” about 5 years ago, though at the time, they merely thought they were going to keep a few backyard chickens as pets and for their eggs. They answered a “free for the taking” ad at their local co-op and became home to 5 lovely year-old Rhode Island Red hens.

And then…one thing led to another as it often does on when you have a few acres…and, according to Sonja, here’s what’s happened…

Besides cats, dogs, fish, pet rats, and an occasional gerbil or hedgehog, we had not kept livestock; Sean and I both grew up in fairly urban settings. My grandparents were farmers, though, with acres and acres of land and more than 10,000 chickens housed in their 3 storied barns. It was the life I always wanted to live.

Our adventure into farming began with a phone call from friends who kept a horse our eldest daughter had ridden since she was 7. Jasmine was being sold. Our daughter (now 15) obtained a part time job, and we all worked together to build shelter and fence some field. After that, Sean mentioned wanting chickens. Not long after the 5 Rhode Island Red hens came to live at our place, we saw a sign for “free hens” and we went to look. It was terrible! 80 plucked-bare hens and roosters confined to a filthy, 10 foot square, windowless room. I wanted to save them all, but we did not have room for that. We added 8 hens and worked on rehabilitating them.

Then, worried that Jasmine was lonely, we accepted the gift of a young goat buck as a companion for her. A year later, we decided Jedidiah (our buck) needed some ladies of his own to love and we found Rachel and Leah. A phone call from my sister and we agreed to take her prized, registered Lamancha doe and yearling, as well as her 2 registered Vietnamese Pot Belly pigs, Patches and Ebony.

We are often contacted by well-meaning people offering us free animals, but realistically, we are unable to take in every stray that needs a home. Our growth is planned.

Today, we keep about 100 chickens of various ages and breeds.

Photo from Lally Broch Farm

(We breed Black Copper Marans, Cochins, and Americaunas.) We have 3 China Buff Geese, which we breed. We keep 18 ducks and breed Mallards and Black Swedish ducklings. We keep a small herd of 13 dairy goats and breed Oberhausli and Lamanchas. We added fiber bunnies this year and will harvest angora fiber. Next year we will focus on developing our skill at producing fiber and add that to our farm before we add cashmere goats in 2015.

We also care for 2 pet bunnies, 3 dogs, and 6 cats. And, this year, we added 12 Bourbon Red Turkeys to the farm, as well.

This is Sean’s first experience with turkeys. My experience was almost as limited; my family raised turkeys for our table when I was about 13. Between then and now, neither of us tried it on our own.

The first thing we did when we thought about adding breeding turkeys to our farm was research. We read every article we could find about how to raise turkeys, what breeds were recommended, the difference between broad breasted white turkeys and heritage breeds, etc. Then, we visited farms that raised turkeys in large quantities. The folks at Wolfe’s Neck Farm were exceptionally helpful and informative.

Eventually, we decided that we wanted to raise Bourbon Reds.

Turkey poults on Lally Broch Farm

First, we wanted to make sure that the turkeys we were raising were able to naturally reproduce, retained their ability to fly, and would grow to a good size. Since we planned on raising our turkeys as naturally as possible, it was important to us that we begin with stock that had not been genetically manipulated through breeding. We also liked the idea of helping to preserve a line of turkey that had been endangered or is still on the American Livestock Breeds Conservancy “watch list”. Bourbon Reds are reported to grow to about 30 pounds for Toms and hens grow from 12 to 14 pounds. The Bourbon Red is ranked No. 2 on the Mother Earth News taste scale. We loved that they were reported to be very curious- we like poultry with personality. Since we plan to breed the turkeys and sell poults, it was important for the hens to be good sitters and mothers. Added to all of that was that we liked how they looked the best.

(This is one of the places we found a great comparison list of heritage breeds: http://www.motherearthnews.com/homesteading-and-livestock/heritage-turkey-breeds.aspx#ixzz2YD1wiUOQ)

We contacted a local farm- local being relative, in that this is Maine and she lives 2 hours away- and ordered 20 poults. Our plan is to keep the nicest tom and 5 best hens and sell the others to people who want to buy organic, naturally raised turkeys. We do not anticipate raising turkeys for other people in the future- just sell poults.

Photo Credit: American Livestock Breeds Conservancy

We read EVERYWHERE that turkeys are difficult to raise. One website wrote about the difficulty in raising turkeys, “if turkeys are not cared for properly, they will look for ways to die.” I can honestly say that has not been our experience. We try to keep things simple. In our experience if you provide fresh food, clean water, and clean housing available all the time you are most of the way home.

Housing turkeys with chickens or other poultry is a controversial choice. There are those that believe housing them together might give some kind of immunity to Marek’s to the chicks they are housed with. Others believe that since chickens can transmit Blackhead disease to turkeys, it is not suitable. Additionally, it is important to consider that turkeys are much larger than chickens and will outgrow them in short order. For us, we do house the chicks with newly hatched turkey poults in the same brooder. We have discovered that they grow at close to the same rate until they are ready to go outside. We do not have Blackhead disease in our area and I have not had to face this issue. I do not keep both breeds together after their initial brooding time. I feed them different food for one thing. For another, in our experience, animals of different breeds often cannibalize the eggs of other breeds and sometimes, their young- that loss would be heart breaking AND cost prohibitive.

We raise all our animals as closely as we can to their natural habitat. For the day old chicks, they started in a brooder with a heat lamp which mimicked their Mom’s warmth until their feathers grew in. We introduced them to the food and water containers immediately and let them pick their way around.

Turkey Poult–Lally Broch Farm

When they were ready to move outside, they had a 3 foot square coop to themselves and an attached yard. We’d used this set up for chicks over the years and are used to having to move the yard daily for fresh grass. Ten turkey poults did FAR LESS damage to the grass. It was nearly a week before there was any noticeable wear on it. They do eliminate waste more than chickens, but it is more solid and easy to clean up comparatively.

Their final coop is a 8 foot tall, 4 foot square tower for them to roost in. We will clip flight feathers as a precaution (like we do the mallards) once they are old enough. Their 400 square foot yard is secured from predators by a wire covered 6 foot tall fenced run. We actually have 2 runs available for them, so we can rotate when one is trampled or eaten down.

It seems the hardest part for me, so far, of raising turkeys is falling in love with them. Our turkeys looked very much like chicks, but acted much differently. For one thing, they were very docile and did not scatter when a hand reached in for maintenance. And, when I held them in my hands, they would tremble, almost like they were purring. Even returning them to the brooder, they were not quick to jump down off my hand. How was I ever going to let some of them be sold for someone’s dinner??? It was very early days when we decided that Sean would be in charge of taking them to their final destination.

I hope you’ve enjoyed reading about the growth of Lally Broch Farm in Maine, and their experiences, in particular, with choosing to raise Bourbon Red Turkeys.

I had one more question for Sonja, “Will you be having turkey for Thanksgiving dinner?”

No. We will enjoy family gatherings that will feature turkey on the menu- just not our turkeys!

Summer day at Lally Broch Farm

If you would like to read more about the animals and adventures on Lally Broch Farm, you can visit them HERE.

If you’d like to tell how starting out with “a few hens” has led to more and more animals on your own farm–and possibly be featured in a future post, leave a comment below.

3 Comments

Anonymous

9 years ago

(Reply)

I’m glad your turkey raising went so well. I have raised ducks and chickens my whole life (I’m….well….over 50) but never turkeys. Dad always told me that at least half would die. I still bought 15 turkey poults this spring, a mix of some Narragansett, some Blue Slate, some Bourbon Red, one Royal Palm. I set up a brooder, complete with thermometer to be sure of temperature. I cleaned the brooder/coop with apple cider vinegar and a deep layer of fresh sand on the floor. I dipped each beak into the water and the food. I had two older (2 week old) turkeys in the mix that (according to the breeder) were supposed to show the others how to eat if they didn’t know. I lost 3 the second day, another about a week after that. They are now 6 weeks old and I thought I was home free but found another one dead yesterday. I now have one Royal Palm and a mix of Narragansett and Slate, all the Reds died along with two Narragansett and the other Royal Palm. (sigh) And I haven’t even let them out of the coop into the yard yet!

We will have turkey on the table this fall for the various family members then I doubt I will ever raise turkeys again, having lost 1/3 of the flock. It’s just not cost effective when raising them simply for the family table.

ozarkhomesteader

9 years ago

(Reply)

I dream of adding turkeys Thank you for telling how you got started!

Backyard Chicken Lady

9 years ago

(Reply)

What a great article. I see myself headed down the same path…starting with just a few chickens and turning in to a full fledge farm one day. It is just too easy to say yes to another chicken, or adding a goat or two, or three, haha. I love reading about how your farm came to be 🙂