We may think of backyard poultry as part of the modern trend toward urban agriculture. In fact, it’s anything but: most houses in Golden used to keep a few birds on hand, for both meat and eggs. Some families kept more than a few.
60 Years Ago
The November 4, 1966 Colorado Transcript described Mayford Peery’s turkey ranch at 502 Ford Street (map). The Peerys owned the Golden Mill and started small, raising six turkeys for personal consumption in 1945. That went well, so the next year they raised 100, then 600, then 1,000, and up from there. Some years were more profitable than others, depending on the market price.
The article described the cycle, beginning with receipt of the day-old “poults” (baby turkeys), which spent 4-1/2 weeks living indoors under heat lamps, followed by several months outdoors. Each bird ate a pound of food a day
At 21 weeks, they were ready for processing. This was done onsite by Mr. and Mrs. Peery and their employees–plucking, cleaning, eviscerating, and packaging.
The Peerys raised several other varieties of poultry–pheasants, quail, and partridges–but said that turkeys were the friendliest. In fact, they advised against talking to the turkeys. “Unless you want 5000 turkeys talking to you at once, don’t even open your mouth! If you do they’ll answer–and loud!”
