Turkey Tuesday: Blast from Turkeys’ Past

 

My husband’s family began raising turkeys in 1959.  Fifty years later, we built our personal farm in 2009.  I think it’s fascinating to see what has changed and what has stayed the same.

Feb. 67: The turkeys were brown. 

Now: Our poults are yellow, and white as adults.

August 68 – the whole family working in the brooder. 

Now - We still use cardboard rings to keep the poults close to the heat source, and we often do chores as a family, too!  The stoves are still very similar and you can see the feeders that would be lowered when the turkeys got bigger.

 

June 1969-  Grandpa’s turkeys were “on range.”  For the first few weeks, they raised them in a shed, and then moved them out.  They started 1,000 birds at a time, and only raised two flocks per year.   They hoped to get all the turkeys to market before the first snow.

Now-  We raise our turkeys in climate controlled barns.  They are heated in the winter, and we do our best to cool them in the summer.  We raise almost 6 flocks of 20,000 per year.

Here are some more old pictures, just for fun.

Grandpa Bob and his horse, Peg

Bob, 1949

Bart’s Dad, Dave on the wagon, and his uncle Brent in the window

The original house on Grandpa Bob’s farm.  This is where my screen door came from. 

Summer 1974 on Grandpa’s farm