Hi, I'm late to this thread a bit but I'd love to share my experience with Narragansett turkeys.
I got one male poult and one female poult in June of last year from an independent breeder. They were the offspring of a Narragansett hen and an Oregon gray tom (a supposedly 'extinct' heritage variety but the genes to create them are out there). I got them for my own enjoyment without a specific use in mind for them. I chose to keep them with my chicken flock which you will probably read that you are not supposed to do that because of the risk of an avian disease called blackhead. However, I have not heard of anyone in MA encountering this and the breeder has rasied generations of poults from different species that live together. I would check with local USDA and vets on this before raising with chickens.
The other issue to consider is chicken aggression against vulnerable poults. I raised my poults in a subdivision I created in the run until they were strong, and my hens didn't bother them much since they are pretty old.
Once mature my Tom was mostly a stellar gentleman as all Toms should be. They should be bright, alert, and responsive when you approach the run and gobble once or twice at your presence. He strutted displayed often for his turkey wife who did not reciprocate with mating
. I speak in past tense for him since he became thanksgiving. I wasn't planning on making him food at first but he was perfectly 28 weeks of age at the time.
He was delicious. I had never eaten anything other than supermarket turkey and it was quite different. Forget any conceptions about turkey being dry because he was juicy and flavorful, quite fat too like almost duck levels of fat. LOTS of dark meat. so dark it was red and akin to moist pork tenderloin. But plenty of white meat too. He was 19lbs after processing. I still have his feet in the freezer. He would have made a great breeder; not aggressive to any of my birds and was pretty quiet.
My hen has not laid any eggs yet but its said to take them awhile to start laying. She gets along well with chickens. I was worried she would get lonely, but she cuddles up with my hens and shows no lethargy or depression.
This spring I want to consider doing a bird swap to have a Tom live with my flock for a bit and get a few poults outte my hen.
Hope this helps! Turkeys are a joy and very entertaining, cute, and a pleasure to own.
