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Pastured Turkey: Stage Three

8/25/2012

3 Comments

 
Picture
As you're probably aware by now, we're selling Thanksgiving Dinner Baskets this year, the centerpiece of which is what we think are some of the most humanely treated heritage turkeys in the greater Seattle area. We started back in May with Stage 1: Brooding the turkeys under heat lamps in a rat proof barn stall. We moved to Stage 2 at 8 weeks: Daily pasture moves in 4 turkey tractors. Now, 6 and a half weeks later, we've moved to Stage 3. They've outgrown their 10ft x 5ft  turkey tractors and need more space to take dust baths, forage for food, and exhibit their other essential turkey behaviors. As you can see in the photo above, we've opened the doors on the tractors and make an enclosed ring with electrified poultry netting. This should keep the turkeys in--but more importantly--the predators out. Here's a video one day after moving to stage three of a bunch of content turkeys.
And another video of some classic turkey dust bathing. They fluff their feathers in dirt to get small particles onto their skin. This helps with insect/parasite control.
So far so good! No problems to report. The logistics of moving the flock to a new paddock are going to be a little more complicated than I originally thought (although I bought two nets, I didn't quite grasp the geometry involved). I will keep you posted.
3 Comments
Sarah W
8/27/2012 08:21:59 am

Hey there! Love what you guys are doing!! I'm curious, are the turkeys only going to be sold via the baskets? Or can we maybe reserve a few birds?
Also, can we come for slaughter day? I'm a neophite in the farming realm, but very curious and eager to learn (willing to help too, if someone shows me how). :)

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Jeff
8/27/2012 08:46:04 am

Thanks Sarah! As of now, we're not separating the turkeys from the veggies. We have a plan and we're sticking to it--for now at least. As we get closer to Thanksgiving, we'll reassess once we know what are veggie yields look like. You're welcome to come observe on slaughter day, but you should be forewarned that it's going to be a very busy, focused couple of days and I won't have an extra time to show you around.

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Jeff
8/27/2012 08:47:29 am

Lots of typos in that reply. I promise I have more than a fifth grade education!

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