Saying Good Bye to Our Turkeys

... is never easy for me. This was our second year of raising turkeys for food and both times we grew close to them. They are so social and fun. 

Our turkeys have a big enough pen to sleep in and spend minimum time in (usually just waiting till we make our way outside to let them out). And then they roam the backyard all day. They do minimal damage - we only have to get rid of their poop. They don't dig like chickens do. After about 6 months, they seem to grow way big for their own good. We fed them organic chicken feed (layer) and then they ate whatever they wanted around the yard. When we weighed them, after everything was done, they came out to be 41 pounds each. Say what? Last year the turkey was "only" 26.2 pounds. 

Turkeys in our tiny backyard

Wow, I can't believe how big these boys got! We got our first turkeys last year in May and we raised them with success! Our Thanksgiving turkey weighed 26.2 lbs so we called him "The Marathon Turkey". He fed all our guests and we made many more dinners - pierogi, meat balls, and soup.

This is our second attempt and so far it has been going very good. My husband built them new home and they are loving just roaming our tiny backyard, finding spots to rest and chill. They also love getting in the middle of whatever we do...

I scoot down to weed and in few minutes I turn around and there they are, right in my face ;-) Here the kids are trying to blow up Diet coke and Mentos for science and the turkeys are right here in the middle of the chaos. 

And here they are trying to take over our meat birds' food. They won over the whole batch so I had to chase them off and give them their own bucket of food.

I have to say that it will be difficult to say good bye to these two but as always I am glad to know that they were loved and cared for in a great way and that we know where our meat comes from.