Natural Small Farmer Offers Home Raised Smoked Turkey, etc.
Birds and Berries of Oregon is a small family farm that raises a variety of poultry and blueberries.
The poultry we raise consists of Heritage Breed Turkeys for egg production, meat production and breeding pairs.
In addition, we raise standard meat turkeys, chickens for egg production, meat production and breeding stock, as well as ducks for breeding, egg production, and meat production.
Our signature smoked turkey and smoked duck are our most popular meat items we sell.
All of our birds are butchered at a family owned licensed facility and the smoked birds are processed at a local family owned small business.
We care for our plants and animals with nurturing love and quality feed. Our birds enjoy grazing on our green pastures.
We welcome all inquiries or advance orders for meat birds or specific breeding stock. Please feel free to email us at: birdsandberriesoregon@gmail.com
Small Farm Challenges
We have been operating our small poultry farm since 2011. We allow our birds to free range. Most of the chickens will return to the coop at night, but our ducks and turkeys sleep outside.
We have had attacks by foxes, owls, bald eagles, and cougars. Living out in the woods we expect some loss from predators, and for the most part we lose a bird here and there. We do not wish to kill the majestic birds or the hungry fox as they have never killed multiple birds.
The cougars on the other hand descimated our turkey flock last year. I lost 10 hens sitting on nests,(including a dozen or more eggs in each nest), and I had to sell a third of my flock, so that I could have enough room to lock up the remaining birds. I had to remove the food source so the large cats would stop hunting here.
It was a very difficult year for our farm. The year 2015 was supposed to be the year that our heritage breed turkey flock turned a profit for us. The cougars had other ideas. 🙂
This year we will try to rebuild our flock back to the original size and hope that cougars stay away. The community took many losses to the large cats last year. It is my hope that the animals were all removed from our community.
The year 2016 will be an amazing year!
Heritage Turkeys
America’s heritage turkeys were bred for fine flavor, beauty, and “thriftyness” or good yield of meat from the food provided. They needed to be hardy, self-reliant birds. They needed to be hardy, self-reliant birds. After all, they were sometimes herded to market in flocks. The Naragansett and Bourbon Red varieties are two beautiful representatives.
By the 1960s heritage turkeys had been driven from the market by the industrial Broad-Breasted White. By 1990 they were very near extinction. Today’s Broad-Breasted White turkeys cannot mate naturally. They don’t even walk well. Their narrow genetic base make them vulnerable to catastrophic disease. Their meat is dry and lacks flavor.
The American Livestock Breeds Conservancy has acted to preserve the traditional heritage varieties of turkey our grandparents enjoyed, but these varieties are still seriously threatened. Slow Food is working with ALBC to broaden awareness of these precious, traditional farm animals, and to stimulate demand for their delicious meat.