Our Poultry

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We raise chickens and turkeys. Some are hatched here on our farm and some we purchase as day-old chicks from Murray McMurray. We now only feed the chicks organic feed from CVK Farms and give them a vitamin supplement in their water - no medication or antibiotics. CVK is located in the thumb area of Michigan. They were certified but dropped the certification due to new inspection and fee requirements. Our layers go out and range freely during the day and are in their coop, safe from predators, at night. When the garden is in production, they have large areas outside to roam and during the late fall through early spring, they have free access to the woods, our yard, etc.

Eggs are available on a limited basis for $4/dozen.

Hens in the front orchard. As soon as we put up some new chicken wire, they'll have free access to the orchard. They spend 10 months of the year here and the hard winter in the small barn.

The backyard flock. These girls (and 2 guys) sleep and lay their eggs in the small barn.

Our turkeys are housed in a moveable turkey pen which is rotated every three days around the farm. When we're able to watch them, we let them out for a few hours at a time and they fly around and check things out. They get quite a bit of exercise and the meat is more dense for it.

This is the turkey tractor - we'll build a few more this year.

We raise both heritage breed turkeys and the commercial breed variety. The reason is that it is less-costly to raise the larger birds and we recognize that not everyone can pay $7/lb for turkey meat. The larger turkeys convert food more efficiently - i.e. they gain weight quickly with the same amount of food. The other reason is that the larger birds are great for turkey burger. If you have a meat grinder, you might consider buying a Giant White and grinding your own burger. It will be organic and you'll know what you're getting and how it has been processed.

Here are a few links re. heritage breeds. If demand is great, maybe we'll increase the # of heritage turkeys that we raise next year and raise fewer conventional.

American Livestock Breeds Conservancy
Heritage Breed Turkeys

Our turkey poults arrived April 17, 2010 from McMurray. Of 45, 44 have made it to 4 days old and counting. They're cute. As of April 24, 15 are pre-sold. The pricing is as follows: $7/lb for white Hollands, $4.50/lb for Naragansetts, $3.25/lb for Broad Breasted Bronze and $3/lb for Giant Whites. They'll be ready for purchase for Thanksgiving. If you'd like a fresh, local, organically raised turkey that's raised with love, reserve one now. A deposit of $10/bird will hold a bird. Here's a recap on the turkey options:

Type	Price/lb	Weight	Comments
White Holland	$7.00	7 - 15 lbs	This bird is listed as a threatened species. This is a heritage breed turkey that is all white. They're very tasty but small. They eat about as much as the larger turkeys so they're more expensive to raise. A hen will dress out between 7 - 10 lbs. and a tom will dress out between 12 and 15 lbs.
Naragansett **	$4.50	12 - 22 lbs.	This bird is also listed as a threatened species. This is another heritage breed and is beautiful. The hens dress out between 12 - 15 lbs. and the toms between 20 - 25 lbs. We kept a tom and two hens a few years ago and they laid eggs. We were able to successfully hatch 3 of 9 poults in an incubator. We might safe a few and hope that the hens will do the work next spring.
Broad Breasted Bronze	$3.25	15 - 25 lbs.	This bird is listed as a breed under study by the ALBC. There is debate as to whether the strain we have can breed naturally. They grow large and are tasty. Despite this, the breed has fallen out of favor over the White Giants because they don't gain weight as quickly. This is a large and beautiful bird which grows quickly and will provide a large meal for any gathering.
Giant White	$3.00	25 - 45 lbs.	This is the broad breasted bronze white bird that you'd most likely find in a store. Ours will be raised outside so they'll have more exercise and access to grass and bugs. If they get too big, they may be processed earlier than the other breeds and delivered before Thanksgiving. We like this breed for turkey burger.

The Naragansetts are now all pre-sold (as of April 22, 2010).

Naragansett turkeys that we hatched 2 years ago. About 1/2 way to market weight.

White Holland turkeys out for a stroll - around September, 2009.