What We Decided to Do With the Abandoned Duck Yard

In my last blog post, I showed you our new duck yard and told you why it was abandoned. In this blog post, I’m going to show you what we decided to do with it. It’s going to be the future home of . . .

Those are four, 2-week-old Jersey Buff turkey poults. Dan has wanted turkeys ever since we first got chickens, but the conversation never got beyond where to put them. When he was saying building the duck yard was a waste of time, I suggested turkeys. We looked at our choices on craigslist and chose these.

Information on the breed isn’t consistent from website to website. Apparently, the modern Buff turkey was developed in the 1940s; the original strain having been neglected to near extinction after it was used to develop the popular Bourbon Red. The original strain of Buff turkeys was accepted into the American Poultry Association’s Standard of Perfection in 1874, but the modern strain isn’t recognized. It is recognized by the Livestock Conservancy as a heritage breed, however, being listed on their watch list.

So, what makes it a heritage breed? According to the Livestock Conservancy, a heritage turkey can mate naturally, has a long outdoor productive lifespan, and a slow growth rate. These are exactly the traits that make heritage breeds perfect for homesteading.

Our new poults are still young enough to need a regular light bulb on, to keep warm. Once they finish feathering out, we’ll relocate them to a small area in the duck yard turkey yard, and expand is as they grow. Hopefully, we’ve got at least one male and one female in the lot! Straight run ought to mean 50/50, but in our experience, it usually seems to favor males.

So, at long last, we have turkeys! Rather providential, and very welcome.