Other Poultry
So…you’ve gotten the chicken bug and now you want to go whole hog and totally mix some animal metaphors. There’s a huge variety of poultry types and breeds out there, but after chickens your choices pretty much narrow down to this:
- Turkeys
- Ducks/Geese
- Other
Folks whose favorite species got stuck in “Other” can write me nastygrams if they like. I’ve had Guinea Fowl for a year now and even people who have lived in the country and even raised chickens continually ask me what they are. Thus, they are “Other” to most people.
Turkeys are pretty easy. Feed ‘em some high protein turkey starter and you can raise them in with the chickens. I raised two turkeys in with my 5 chickens and they fit in so well that the rooster kept giving them the business (as it were). Turkeys take longer than chickens to hit their full weight, so make sure you don’t order them 6 weeks before Thanksgiving thinking they’ll fatten up like a Cornish Rock broiler. The other thing to remember is that they don’t have an Off switch. If you want a 13lb. turkey for Thanksgiving you’ll need to slaughter it fairly early. Both my females topped out around 21 – 22 lbs table weight. The males get to be the size of Greyhound Buses – over 30 lbs.
The amazing thing about commercial turkeys is that they are genetically deformed freaks. They have been bred to be so breast heavy that the male turkey can’t do his job. Think about that. Now think about how many turkeys we eat at Thanksgiving in the U.S. Now think about the hapless schmo at the turkey plant who has to run around with an eyedropper. Ugh. On second thought, don’t think about that. In fact, try to wipe that image out of your mind entirely. If you want to keep your birds more than a season, get a breed that can reproduce naturally. Bourbon Reds are a good meaty breed that can reproduce au natural.
Ducks and Geese are a little different. For one thing, they do best with some kind of water available. Even a small kids’ wading pool that they can clean up in, poop in, and then drink, if the ducklings I have right now are any indication. Like chickens, ducks can be raised for eggs or meat. Geese are mostly for meat. Big ducks and geese have a reputation for being “aggressive”. This is because they are so fat they can’t fly away, so they get more anxious about defending themselves. Keep this in mind. I’ll try to edit this after my Pekins mature.
Other is that great grab bag of birds that includes Guinea Fowl (supposedly low maintenance birds that eat alot of ticks), pheasants (like show chickens, I think the idea here is to breed the most outrageous feature possible), quail, etc. If you raise these breeds, have a great time. I’m sure you can eat these guys, but they are mostly raised by folks who want to show them or hunt them or just love the crazy colors.
Guinea Fowl are insanely loud. Really. City people: They are the rural equivalent of a really loud car alarm. Rural people: They are like people from Chicago. Ducks are a bit stinky so far, but insanely cute. They wet their food so they make a gigantic mess in the brooder walking between the feeder and the waterer. I’m going through 3x as much water for about 10 ducks as for 20+ turkey poults.
In any case, best of luck trying to forget that eyedropper thing.
