Rare Turkeys Thrive Outside

Rare Turkeys Thrive Outside LIVESTOCK Poultry Christina Allen doesn’t baby her rare breed Jersey Buff Turkeys By the time they’re 3 weeks old they’re released to roam her orchard Until then they’re confined to a nursery inside a protective aviary The nursery is where the flock’s nesting boxes are “If I have to be gone for the day I’ll keep them locked up in the aviary ” says Allen “They have grass and water there with plenty of room At least 95 percent of their food is from grazing on bugs and fallen fruit from the orchards They eat the bad ones as fast as we throw them to the ground and will also eat any they can reach on branches ” Allen an artist and children’s author and her husband Frank operate Allen Heirloom Homestead In addition to the turkeys and orchard they raise heritage chickens and sheep The Allens raise much of their own food make and sell handspun yarn soap and more at their on-farm store They also host pre-arranged tours of their farm Allen has written about her Jersey Buffs in particular Chip a young Tom that she nursed back to life He has since become a mascot for the farm and a popular draw for agri-tourists The aviary is 200 by 300 ft with game bird netting on the sides and over the top She uses 16-ft rebar with 4-in wide plastic caps to hold the netting up At the sides hardware cloth dug into the ground around the perimeter keeps out predators The side netting is attached to the hardware cloth with hog rings Allen says she has little problem getting the turkeys to return to the aviary She has them trained to respond to the tapping of a bamboo pole She initially picked Jersey Buffs to breed because they’re endangered She says they’re good mothers and are rated as one of the best tasting heritage breeds “I figured if it didn’t work out to breed them we could always eat them ” says Allen “They’re light colored and dress out beautifully ” Allen says the mothers do a lot of co-parenting often with 2 mothers setting on the same nest of eggs They’re also prolific hatching out a brood and raising them for a month before repeating as often as 4 times in a year “Each hen can lay up to 60 eggs a year ” says Allen Allen started with a few birds and has built her breeding flock to 9 hens and 3 toms The birds have rich reddish-buff body feathers with white to light buff tail and wing feathers Hens will reach about 14 lbs and older toms will reach 28 lbs Each year she sells about 50 turkeys for meat processing them on her farm herself Allen her husband and her Jersey Buff turkeys were recently featured in The Dinner a documentary available online Check out a preview of the movie at http://thedinnermovie com/preview/ Contact: FARM SHOW Followup Christina Allen 18988 Point Lookout Rd Lexington Park Md 20653 ph 301 862-3421; corncribstudio@gmail com; www corncribstudio com

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