Turkeys

What would Christmas or Thanksgiving be without a turkey, and how proud would you be if the bird on your family’s table were raised by your own hand?

Turkeys aren’t good layers, giving only a couple eggs per week, so they aren’t raised for egg production. It’s for this reason that turkey eggs are so expensive—there’s not much supply. But for meat, they supply a great amount per bird.

In fact, monstrous modern breeds, like the now-common Broad Breasted White, grow so large they can’t reproduce without assistance. Farming and breeding these behemoths is not a task for the faint of heart, so I recommend buying a good heritage breed or less gigantic commercial breed that will reproduce naturally instead. Heritage breeds like the Bronze turkey do well in most climates.

Turkeys are great foragers and make good backyard animals, but they aren’t very intelligent.