For those of you who have been thinking about rearing turkey at home, you might be interested to read about all of the benefits it involves.
An unusual looking bird, yet one whose unconventional beauty will start to grow on you over time! They are also a real joy to watch and will bring many rewards without much hard work on your part.
One of the major benefits of raising them at home is having farm-fresh turkey for the holiday's most appetizing meals.
Not to forget that they also do a great job of guarding your home and land from unwanted pests! It will be an anticipating time leading up to your first home reared turkey roast and you will certainly notice the difference in taste from commercialized birds.
There is a sense of pride too that you haven't had to rely on others to put the most mouthwatering dish on the table.
Those that have already taken the leap into rearing turkey at home, will tell you enthusiastically how they would never go back to buying them from the frozen department of the supermarket.
How many turkey you plan to raise might depend on the size of your family or how often you eat poultry dishes.
Through taking care of the bird yourself, you can guarantee that it has had the best life possible and that the conditions of its environment were ideal for its health and happiness.
You can control what the bird eats and how much they eat to ensure that at the end of the day - you have the best quality of turkey to put on the table.
If you have never tried home-reared or organically farmed turkey before - you really will have a pleasant surprise.
Of course, rearing turkey is not always a case of them ending up on the dinner table - with many doing a superb job of keeping pests at bay and foraging.
With the right knowledge on the various types of turkey, you can determine which will be better for various purposes.
Bourbon reds for example, are medium size and generally preferred as use in pest control at home.
It might even be in your interest to eventually sell your home reared turkey, in which case you will want a breed that grows fast and of a good weight and fat ratio (with the fat having the most flavor).
Rearing turkey will be an enjoyable experience and you will come to love and respect these intelligent and handsome looking birds.
They will have a soft spot for you too - they are amazingly fond of their human acquaintances.
It is a good point to make that these birds will get lonely and depressed if they are not visited regularly in the day.
Even if you just pop out to spend some leisurely time with them twice during the day it is enough to keep them in good spirits! When you know some of the horrid truths of rearing turkey commercially, it will further motivate you to start raising them on your own land.
They receive and are fed on arsenic chemicals to improve their growth - unnaturally manipulating the form of this beautiful bird.
What else? Tranquilizers to prevent so many dying from the chemical feed.
It is a vicious way to treat a living animal and by raising them at home you can give them a happier and healthier life.