All Arrived Alive And Healthy
Ordered ten turkeys and 5 bantams. I was a little nervous because this was my first time with turkeys and I had read all over the internet that they are fragile in their first week of life. Nevertheless ten turkeys and six bantams. I only ordered 5 bantams but you sent me one extra just in case. Great, healthy birds.
Dan Texas May 2009 December 18, 2015
There Was An Issue With Hatch Date
We ordered Narragansett turkeys early in the year, but the day we were to pick them up we were informed that the eggs had not hatched as expected. The hatchery was so nice! They let us pick from other breeds and we wound up with 1 Blue Slate and the rest Red Bourbons. We did lose some along the way but the ones left are healthy, strong, and fun!
5
March 22, 2019
East Beaver Creek & Yonge Street
East Beaver Creek is home to the citys Town Hall along with the headquarters of several multinational corporations. This is one of the few areas in Richmond Hill that is very urban-like in its architectural development and overall layout. Yonge Street, as many know, is considered to be one of the largest streets in the world. A portion of this street runs directly through Richmond Hill, and is home to several old churches.
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Why Heritage Turkeys Are More Expensive Than Supermarket Birds
Industrial turkeys can get up to 40 lbs. in 19 weeks. Theyve literally destroyed the pituitary gland in the brain that tells the animal, Youre full, quit eating. So the industrial turkey never stops eating. My turkeys dont suffer from the morbid obesity gene mutation. My tom turkeys will get up to 24 lbs live weight in 24 weeks. It takes longer for them to grow.
Part of the reason they cost so much also is because of infrastructure. I pay two- to three-times more for processing, and five- to ten-times more for transportation. Its hard for an independent farmer to survive. We live in a country where the people make the plastic bags that you put the turkeys in make more money than the farm who raises them.
To Whom It May Concern

This morning i received all my chicks In a healthy vigorous state. For this I say Thank You!! Being in construction, I understand when things occur beyond our control, things are unseen and mistakes are made, When this occurs it is the followup that makes all of the difference to the customer. Well this followup has made all of the difference to me. This has made, in my eyes, Cackle Hatchery a superior company that I will certainly look to for my future orders. Once again. Thank You for a job that started off rocky but ended up well done!!!
Ryan Tennessee May 2013 November 27, 2015
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Welcome Back To Holiday Flavor
Our Heritage Black Turkey is a heritage breed, admitted to APA standard in 1874. It is one of the first to be developed from Native American stocks. In fact, it is believed to be the same breed the Pilgrims feasted on during their first Thanksgiving. This breed is well-suited for foraging, and we raise these special birds on pasture, on a small family farm in North Carolina. They are processed by hand in our own plant, and like all of our Heritage birds, they are air chilled to preserve flavor, tenderness, and perfect texture.
Its The Chance To Experience How Turkeys Should Really Taste
There are multiple things that change the flavor of the meat. One of them is the genetics that you choose to raise, and another is the animals access to exercise, in fact, a lot of my turkeys sleep in trees at night. That animals ability to maneuver and move changes them on a cellular level. That comes from genetics. The closer you get to its original ancestry, the better the meat is going to be in flavor, texture, aroma. If you have a factory turkey that can barely walk and is growing faster than normal, many of the nutritional things that happen in the muscle dont happen. Theyre not getting oxygen, theyre not getting mobility, theyre struggling to stay alive.
My turkeys are going to be deeper in color. The whiter the meat, the poorer the nutrition, because oxygen wasnt getting to the muscle. With my turkeys you get deep, rich, heavy flavor of dark meat and I talk to a lot of people who never liked dark meat until they ate my turkeys. Its dark because the animal can run, jump, and fly.
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Pros Cons And Facts About Raising Turkeys
If your homesteading situation is set up to a point at which you have the ability to raise turkeys, I highly encourage you to do so! Turkeys are amazing creatures, and though we began our Black Spanish turkey flock with the intention of filling our freezer each fall, I found that turkeys have wonderful personalities and make amazing pets as well.
In my opinion, with the exception of the space that raising turkeys requires, turkeys are easier to keep than chickens. They are docile, regal birds that move across the yard with a certain air of sophistication. They create tight family bonds and are fairly intelligent.
If youve raised chickens, then you have a good basis for raising turkeys. Like chickens, they need quality feed, fresh water, a secure living space and run, clean bedding, roosting poles, and ground-level nesting boxes.
Other than that, there are a few differences between chickens and turkeys. Below is a list of pros, cons and helpful facts to get you started on raising turkeys.
PROS
They are cleaner to keep than chickens
Our turkey pen is always cleaner than our chicken pen, and I believe this has to do with the fact that turkeys dont have that constant instinct to scratch. Our chickens dig through bedding throughout their waking hours and throw soiled bedding everywhere. When you feed turkeys, their food stays where you put it, the water stays bedding free and the droppings are not scattered like they are in our chicken pens.
Theyre delicious!
CONS
FACTS
Heritage Turkey Breeds For The Homestead
Homesteaders looking to increase self-reliance and provide their own Thanksgiving meals are often interested in heritage breeds of turkey. There are a variety of different breeds to consider keeping and it can be confusing to choose just one! To help you decide if a heritage turkey breed or a broadbreasted hybrid is a better bird for you, check out my post, Broadbreasted vs Heritage Whats the Best Turkey for Your Homestead?
Ive raised both heritage turkey breeds and broadbreasted hybrids and there are pros and cons for each. Here are some of the reasons to choose heritage turkeys
- Heritage turkeys like to forage for a lot of their own grub, cleaning up pests around the homestead.
- They dont need as much feed as Broad Breasted turkeys. You will need to feed the breeding stock year-round, however.
- Heritage turkeys reproduce naturally while BB turkeys must be artificially inseminated.
If you decide that raising heritage turkey breeds is right for your homestead, youll want to choose the best breed for your needs. To help you with this task, Ive compiled the following list of the breeds commonly available as day-old poults through hatcheries in the United States. You may also find local breeders with a wider selection.
Characteristics are listed below to help narrow down your choice.
This post contains affiliate links or advertisements.
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Is There A Special Way To Prepare A Heritage Turkey
Theres not much difference in roasting temperature from the modern turkey, the temperature in the thigh should reach 165. But my old toms put on a huge amount of fat and your roasting pan will fill up. Thats where all the flavor is. We dont inject them or put any added flavoring. Ive been to a processing plant for supermarket turkeys and what they do is inject them. The turkey goes under a hood and about 500 tiny needles inject them with salt water to pre-baste them. We tell people you can brine our birds if they want, but they dont need all sorts of flavors injected to make it taste like something. You just need to roast it.
Happy With Our Replacements
We ordered Narragansett but there was an issue the day of pick-up, so the hatchery let us choose from other breeds. We got 1 blue Slate and the rest Red Bourbons. We have lost a couple along the way, but it is expected. Our remaining 2 Toms and 3 hens are getting big, but still fly like eagles haha. No fence will hold them. We love them! Thanksgiving is coming up, and this will be our first year to slaughter our own farm raised turkey, and its all thanks to cackle! Next year, we hope to allow the remaining Tom to breed with the hens. There is 1 blue Slate so it will be interesting to see what their poults look like lol.
5
Jon May 8, 2019
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Reviews For Bourbon Red Turkey
arndtcole2 June 8, 2022
I drove to cackle and picked up my turkeys in april. All are still alive, healthy and growing very fast. Theyre very inquisitive birds and do not shy away from me as other chickens and ducks do at their age. I hope they keep this friendly attitude as theyre going to be pets. Thank you very much for the quality birds.
Laurel Bowen May 19, 2021
I have used Cackle Hatchery for several years now and have always been impressed with the quality and vigor of the chickens and ducks. This year was my first foray into turkeys and the Bourbon Red arrived in great shape and are very vigorous. Thanks again, Cackle for your high standards and excellent service.
5
Squirrel June 24, 2020
Mill Pond & Heritage Estates

Mill Pond tends to have the highest density of nature trails and outdoor parks in the city, and ends up being the host of many of Richmond Hills annual festivals and events.Heritage Estates is also home to a few trails itself, and contains some of the oldest homes in the city, dating back all the way to the 1800s. This particular style of home tends to be attractive to older individuals who feel a certain nostalgia for this kind of house design.
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Why Should You Adopt
Dog adoption and cat adoption saves lives. Adopt a dog or adopt a cat and you’ll have a friend for life.
What is the difference between adopting a dog, adopting a cat, adopting a kitten or adopting a puppy versus getting dogs for sale, cats for sale, puppies for sale or kittens for sale from a dog breeder or a cat breeder?
When someone is breeding puppies or breeding kittens, they are creating new dogs and cats who need homes. Some people are interested in a very specific breed of dog, cat, puppy or kitten and they think the only way to find that specific breed is to buy a dog for sale or buy a cat for sale from a puppy breeder or a kitten breeder. Yet animal shelters are filled with dogs and cats who must find homes.
So rather than buying a dog or puppy for sale from a dog breeder or buying a cat or kitten for sale from a cat breeder, we encourage people to adopt a dog, adopt a cat, adopt a puppy or adopt a kitten at their local animal shelter, SPCA, humane society or pet rescue group.
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What Is A Heritage Breed Turkey
I kind of hate the word heritage but were stuck with it. The real name of these turkeys and what theyve been called for the last 150 years is Standard Bred. Domesticated turkeys have been around for a couple thousand years. Its a turkey capable of reproducing itself and still has all the natural behavioral patterns.
Even if you buy a turkey thats supposedly organic and free-range and all that stuff, the parents of those turkeys are still in horrible conditions. In fact, in the production of turkeys today, a male turkey never sees a female turkey in its entire life. All turkeys sold at grocery stores are manmade, dead-end animals. They cannot reproduce themselves. Theyre only here because of a factory farm and mans intervention. It makes no difference if theyre organic, free-range, all-natural, or whatever you want to call it. So even if youre buying from a local farmer who says the bird runs around in a pasture, 90 percent of those farmers are still buying them from the same place Butterball does. Theyre still artificial turkeys made through artificial insemination. They have been genetically engineered to grow faster. Weve gotten terribly far from the natural, normal animal.
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Turkey Breeds Ive Raised On My Homestead
Ive raised Narragansetts and Black Slate turkeys, as well as the Broad Breasted White and Bronze turkeys that are commonly raised for Thanksgiving. Ive had good experiences with most of these, although the Black Slate tom was aggressive.
Ive also butchered all of these breeds and have found that the broadbreasted turkeys are my favorite for dressing out. Ive read some reports of people who have successfully bred the broadbreasted hybrids before the toms reached full size. Id like to try this someday.
The Narragansetts were my favorite heritage breed for a small homestead because they got along well with my other birds. They were docile to raise and the hens go broody. In the future, I hope to raise the Midget White breed.
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Raising Heritage Turkey Breeds
Heritage turkeys may be kept year-round as breeding stock to raise your own meat birds each year. They tend to lay just a few eggs over a short period in the spring. You may take the eggs and put them under a broody chicken hen or in an incubator to encourage turkey hens to continue laying.
Heritage turkeys are more likely to fly short distances to escape pens, so give them extra space and clip the flight feathers on one wing to help contain them.
In general, turkeys need a higher protein feed than chickens, so make sure you can provide the proper feed before you order poults.
They can also have some disease issues. Check with your local Agricultural Extension Office to see if Blackhead disease is prevalent in your area.
For a more thorough look at what turkeys need, check out my post How to Raise Turkeys.
Planning to process the birds yourself? Ive got a post for that tooHow to Butcher a Turkey!
As an Amazon Associate, I earn a commission from qualifying purchases.
For more detailed information about heritage turkeys, visit The Livestock Conservancy. They give an in-depth history of each breed.
Xenia Stavrinides Has Been Featured On Cbs News Healthwatch
No matter what you call it say it corn, soy, wheat, “local grains” or, “organic grains” , “sprouted grains” or, “ancient grains” they are all problematic for various well known reasons. Some contain gluten. Gluten is responsible for triggering allergic reactions in people who suffer from gluten sensitivity and, celiac. Most grains contain high content of deadly molds such as mycotoxins and, these are known to cause many health problems including, but not limited to organ failure, blood disorders, leaky gut and, cancer.
The agricultural industry tears down thousands of acres of rain forests to grow these grains. Another problem is that these grains are treated with ionizing radiation in an attempt to control the sheer amounts of deadly molds. None of this should be included in the words “sustainable or organic”.
Many Americans experience allergies to common grains such as corn, soy, wheat and gluten and we have always believed that our Gold-Standard is due to our incredibly unique way of farming and ranching which is devoid of grains including rice. Rice is rich in inorganic arsenic and that does not sit well with us either.
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What Makes Our Turkeys Special
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We raise Standard Bronze turkeys, one of the oldest breeds in America
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Standard Bronze turkeys are recognized by Slow Food in their Ark of Taste, a catalogue designed to preserve at-risk foods that are sustainably produced, unique in taste, and part of a distinct ecoregion.
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We breed, hatch, raise and process our turkeys right here on the farm.
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Our turkeys spend most of their lives on fresh pasture expressing their “turkey-ness”foraging for insects, running, flying, sunbathing or resting in the shade.
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Our birds are not altered in any wayno beak trimming or wing clipping.
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We supplement their foraging with nonGMO grain freshly ground from a small, local mill.
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We do not use any antibiotics or growth hormones. We use only natural means to prevent parasites and improve immunityapple cider vinegar, garlic, cayenne pepper and vitamin E oil.
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The Livestock Conservancy lists the Standard Bronze as “threatened.” Ironically we must eat these birds to save themif they are not economically viable they will fade into extinction. We’re doing our partwill you help us?
Only $10.00/lb
Michelin star Chef and Co-owner of Blue Hill in Manhattan and Blue Hill at Stone Barns, winner of six James Beard Awards, and named Best Chef in America
Mother Jones May/June 2003
One of our Toms strutting his stuff