 Thinking about raising your own turkeys for the dinner table? Well, there are some simple facts that you should know in order to have a successful experience in raising your home turkey flock. First of all, you need to know and understand biosecurity. Turkeys are susceptible to many of the same diseases that chickens get, but there are some diseases that chickens can give to turkeys. That is why it is recommended you separate different poultry species on your farm. Make sure you have permission to have poultry where you live. Check on the laws, codes, and ordinances for your homeowners association, city, or county to make sure that you can have poultry. Turkeys grow big, and they are not as quiet as chickens in some cases, so don't think you can hide them in your garage. Turkeys eat a lot, and feed can get expensive. Cutting corners on feed or trying to meal feed can stress your turkeys. Turkeys should never run out of feed. Turkeys not only eat a lot, but they need their space as they grow. We will talk about how much room you will need to give them in order for them to be happy. You will need to consider carefully if you have the space to get this job done. Most commercial strains of turkey are actually all slight variations on the broad breasted white turkey. Turkey hens commonly reach a live weight of around 30 pounds when they are 20 weeks old. Turkey toms can reach a weight of 55 pounds when they are 22 weeks old. If those sizes are too big for your oven, you can always have the option of harvesting your crop of turkeys at a younger age and lighter weight. You can do this by weighing a few of your turkeys every couple of weeks and writing down the weights. You should take an average of the turkey hen weights and keep them separate from the turkey tom weights, but only after you are fairly sure as to which birds are toms and which are hens. Otherwise, when the group of turkeys are young, you can track their weights as a whole group. Heritage breeds of turkeys are ones that have not been bred and selected for commercial production. There are several breeds to choose from including bourbon reds, bronze, royal palms, white Hollands, and black Spanish. Here's an example of a black Spanish that has been selected for somewhat faster growth, but it still remains a smaller turkey than the broad breasted white. Heritage breeds are not as efficient when it comes to taking the food that you feed them and turning it into meat. In one study, a comparison between bourbon red turkeys and broad breasted white turkeys on pasture was made. The birds were grown to 17 weeks of age and the average weight of the bourbon red turkeys was 10.6 pounds, while the broad breasted white turkeys grew to 30.2 pounds. That's a big difference. Heritage breed turkeys are capable of flight at a young age and can easily flap their way over a 4 foot fence and get themselves into trouble. You will need to trim the primary and secondary feathers off of one wing on each bird in order to make flight difficult for them. Keep these feathers trimmed even as they get older because their flight muscles will become stronger as they grow. Heritage turkeys can also roost in trees, so be sure to train your turkeys to come into the coop at night or you may find yourself giving the neighborhood predators fresh turkey to eat. You can start raising your commercial strains of turkey much earlier than heritage breeds. Start raising your heritage breeds of turkey in April or May. You can start raising your commercial strains of turkey in July or August as they grow much faster. Either way you should place your order for turkeys in spring because many male order hatcheries only hatch a limited number of turkey and no matter what strain you get there's a lot of competition for ordering them. You need to brood your polts in a warm dry spot where predators will not be able to harm them. Brood your polts on bedding such as pine shavings that are at least 3 inches deep. Keep them warm by using a heat source like a light or infrared heater. The polts will need to be kept at 95 degrees Fahrenheit for their first week of brooding. Each week thereafter you can decrease the temperature in the brooder by 5 degrees Fahrenheit until they are fully feathered or when the outside temperature matches your brooding temperature. If you let your turkeys outside when they are young then watch the weather so they do not become chilled or wet. The indoor space requirements vary on how old the turkeys are. You can give each turkey up to 1.5 square feet of floor space for each bird until they are 8 weeks or 2 months old. After that you will need to give them more space. From 8 weeks old until you are done raising them for market you will need to give each turkey 5 to 8 square feet of floor space. So plan ahead when you start to think about where you are going to raise your turkeys. Turkeys do not do well if they are overcrowded. Overcrowding can lead to stress disease in smaller than normal turkeys. You are not required to let your turkey have access to the out of doors in order to be successful in raising them. But if you should want them to have outdoor access then you will want to do so in the summer and fall months. Chickens and turkeys should never be raised together due to the risk of blackhead disease. In fact you should not raise turkeys on ground that chickens have been raised on within the last 3 years because of the risk of blackhead disease as well as parasite and bacterial contamination. You will need to be picky as to the type of range or pasture that you raise your turkeys on. Use high quality grasses or even better raise them on clover. Move the feeders and waters around your range space so that your turkeys do not trample down the pasture grasses right around these spots. You will need to provide each turkey with at least 30 square feet of range or pasture per bird. When is it time to let your turkeys go outside? In the summer you can let them outdoors as early as 6 to 8 weeks old if they can get back into a shelter or roosting space in order to get out of the sun or bad weather. In the cooler months you will need to wait until they are 12 weeks old and then you may only be able to get them to stay outdoors during the warmest times of the day. You will also need to provide shade especially for the heavier breeds in the summer. You can provide roosting shelters but they are not required. Roosting shelters usually have a top to keep the sun off the birds but it is sloped to let rain collect at one side. Two by four inch boards laid flat should be placed 24 inches apart and should start 15 inches above the ground in order to let the turkeys easily hop on and off of them without injuring themselves. Give each turkey 10 to 12 inches of roosting space per bird. When it comes to growing turkeys you need to feed your birds a different and separate diet from the one you might feed a chicken. Turkeys have a much higher requirement for protein especially at a young age. You will feed a turkey or game bird starter diet that is 28% crude protein when they are young until they are about 6 to 8 weeks old. Then you will gradually switch them over to a turkey or game bird grower diet that is 21 to 22% crude protein until they are 16 weeks old. After 16 weeks old you will lower the crude protein in the diet until it is 16% and feed this until it is time to harvest your turkeys for market. Scratch grains alone are not a satisfactory diet for poultry including turkeys. These are cheap grains that do not have enough protein and have high levels of energy. They should only be used when you need to decrease your protein levels while maintaining high levels of energy such as in mature growing turkeys. If you choose to accurately calculate and then blend in scratch or whole grains then you will need to provide grit to aid in digestion. You can start with either a mash or crumble diet for the turkey starter. Crumbles are just pellets that have been crushed back down to a smaller size for smaller poultry. Crumbles followed by pellets are recommended for your grower and finisher turkey diets. You can stick with crumbles as your turkeys grow but pellets are just as easy to use. You can gradually switch your turkeys from a crumble to a pellet in order to have your turkeys consume their feed with greater efficiency. You should never ever let your turkeys run out of food or water. Turkeys are big and need enough space to get to the food you provide them. No matter what you need to have enough feeder space to let each turkey eat at the feeder all at the same time. When your turkeys are young as in up to four weeks old you will need to give each bird at least two inches of feeder space. When your turkeys are four to eight weeks old they will need four inches of feeder space. Lastly after the turkeys are older about eight weeks old you will need to allow them six inches of feeder space per bird. Putting a lip on the inner edge of the feeder helps to keep most of the feed in the feeder in case the turkeys try to bill out the feed. Billing out the feed means that they pull the feed out of the feeder and it lands on the ground where it is wasted. Fresh water should always be clean enough that you would want to drink it as well as your turkeys. When turkeys are young up to four weeks old each poult will need half an inch of water space. When they are four to eight weeks old they will need one inch of water space each. And when the turkeys are eight weeks and older they will each need one and a half inches of water space. Choose a water that is easy to clean and that can be raised in order to keep the turkeys feet and droppings out of the water. Unless you are breeding turkeys for show or as a hobby you will eventually be ready to market them. You can sell birds live or you can sell dressed carcasses. It is not hard to process turkeys but it does take time and a few pieces of equipment. You may choose to process your turkeys at home for your family to eat. However if you choose to process turkeys for sale you will first need to check the laws in your state regarding processing poultry meat for sale. You should first contact your county cooperative extension office to see if they can answer your question or point you in the right direction for an expert answer. You absolutely do not want to make someone sick after eating your turkeys because you made a mistake in processing. So be sure to follow the laws as well as the guidelines you get from the poultry experts in your state. Now you know the basics for getting started with your very own turkey flock. Hopefully this information will help you be successful in your turkey raising adventure.