I’ve got quite a few baby turkeys that hatched in my back yard running around. We shall see if that’s any more economical than buying hatchery poults. Hopefully I can sell enough to make my effective poult cost go to zero.
If I bought my feed in bulk I could get it down to $50 per bird. More like $60-65 in the smaller quantities I’m stuck with. Plus $15/poult shipped from a hatchery, and some miscellaneous stuff like wood chips for the brooder, electricity for heat lamps, processing equipment rental, and averaging losses due to predators and turkeys just being death magnets, and before we even discuss land costs and things like fencing $100/bird is about right. At $7/lb I’m breaking even on a 14lb bird.