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deermousie -> RE: Price of Turkeys? (gobble gobble gobble) (11/7/2009 11:54:27 PM)
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Turkeys are often loss leaders in stores and you could pick a smallish one up for $6-10 last year (L 3.5-6). And yeah, there's lots of chemicals and water in there.
Free-ranged birds (and I don't mean the ones crammed in broiler houses with a door in case they want to go outside, or crammed in pens outside) are more expensive, but if you have any open area, next year you can raise your own cheaper.
Really, 2-4 little poults in a cardboard box with a heat light in June, moving into a pen at six weeks and moving outside a week later, they can sleep in a dog crate at night. As long as the dog or neighbors' dogs don't kill them, you can raise your own. They are surprisingly affectionate birds and will come when you call them. They'll stick around home and not fly off, but they'll probably want to roost on the roof at night. You can hire someone to butcher them or take them to a butchering place, but it only takes 10 minutes to do the job yourself, except the plucking, which takes slightly less than forever. Invite a friend to help and you can talk.
You can buy gamebird food in 50# sacks at a feed store and provide water; they'll find their own grit in the ground. Sell the extra birds to your neighbors while the birds are alive and recoup a lot of your cost.
Yeah, seriously. [:)] But if you're in the city on small lots, they'll visit your neighbors...
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