broad breasted bronze turkeys - can they breed?

[Harp Turkey Ranch]

has anybody had broad breasted bronze turkeys that DID reproduce naturally?

They can breed it is just that it is not efficient and the tom will crush/kill more hens then he would get bred and fertilized. You can successfully bred a BB back to a heritage tom and she will lay and the eggs will hatch, she will not lay as many as a heritage and she will not be able to sit on the nest as she will crush the eggs, more likely then not. But yes they can bred and it can be done just not very efficient.

I would not mind a hatchery at all if I could find one that has poults and silkies and EE's available to ship together.......that's the trick! That, and them not charging $10 a poult like some places!

After shipping 10 dollars is the norm price to have shipped. It will pretty hard for you to find a hatchery that will hjave them much cheaper after shipping.

just can't find anybody that has them available right now (and I want about a dozen turkey poults and to add a few chickens to the order too - EE's and silkie pullets).

Get a hold of Gene at Lazy 54 he has Wishard bronze right now and he ships across the US, he even has chickens what kinds ??
http://www.lazy54farm.com/​

 

[sandspoultry]

Quote:
Should soon Miss, ours are just starting now. I put 3 eggs in the 'bator tonight. The "bullseye" said fertile so we shall see.

Steve

 

[MissPrissy]

My bronzes are the sweetest friendliest turkeys I have ever raised.

 

[sandspoultry]

We like them, they are friendly aren't they? not as curious as some breeds we have. And they are huge! Even the hens are waist high on me. I hand feed them whole corn in the afternoon so they all come running when you open the gate, it makes Sharon nervous.

. I keep telling her they shouldn't eat much if they attack.

Steve in NC

 

[hinkjc]

They can breed it is just that it is not efficient and the tom will crush/kill more hens then he would get bred and fertilized. You can successfully bred a BB back to a heritage tom and she will lay and the eggs will hatch, she will not lay as many as a heritage and she will not be able to sit on the nest as she will crush the eggs, more likely then not. But yes they can bred and it can be done just not very efficient.

According to all of the literature I have read they cannot breed. Even hatcheries that sell them state so in their ads. There is a huge turkey farm that breeds broad breasted whites here and they do not "breed", they have to be artificially inseminated to get any poults to hatch and stay in business.

Broad breasted turkeys were developed to be butchered by 16 weeks, so they typically are not even alive long enough to breed.

I used to raise BBB and had a wild eastern tom over a broad breasted hen for almost 3 years. They never produced a single fertile egg and he 'bred' her daily. And she laid just as well as the wild eastern hens..on a daily basis.​

 

[MissPrissy]

I have 1 BBB hen left from Thanksgiving. Her name is Big Momma. She loves to free range. We have to lift her down the stairs out of the barn as I fear she will break a leg. Every day she is happy and moving and eating. I love her. I can't bring myself to do the deed.

 

[Harp Turkey Ranch]

According to all of the literature I have read they cannot breed. Even hatcheries that sell them state so in their ads. There is a huge turkey farm that breeds broad breasted whites here and they do not "breed", they have to be artificially inseminated to get any poults to hatch and stay in business.

Yes they AI the hens because if they were to "breed" the hatchery probably would go out of business as they are not efficient at it and the risk of killing the hens are too great. AI is the only way to guarantee that they will have fertile eggs with out killing hens.Of course they are going to tell you they can't breed naturally. If they told you they could and the tom killed all your hens then they could be sued or just plain go out of business. Here is some information from the ALBC that even states that it NEARLY eliminates their ability.

These were crossed with larger, faster growing US stocks and the resulting bird, the Broad Breasted, became the commercial variety of choice. Further selection improved meat production, especially that of breast meat, growth rate, and other performance qualities. At the same time, changes in conformation (especially the shortening of the legs and the keel) nearly eliminated their ability to mate naturally. For this reason, most Broad Breasted turkeys have been artificially inseminated since the 1960s.

Broad breasted turkeys were developed to be butchered by 16 weeks, so they typically are not even alive long enough to breed.

I think you need to go to that hatchery or to a breeding farm or look it up and actually see those monsters. They will have toms that weigh in at 60-100lbs. That is because they are close to a year or so old. At 16 weeks there would be no way that a hen would even start laying ???The BB hens will start lay from the 30th week of age and its production period is 24 weeks from the point of lay. And they use every day of it !!!

I used to raise BBB and had a wild eastern tom over a broad breasted hen for almost 3 years. They never produced a single fertile egg and he 'bred' her daily. And she laid just as well as the wild eastern hens..on a daily basis.

Well then it must have been the tom was not fertile or something wrong with the hens ??? My friend last year had a few BB that he bought from a feed store and ate the toms. I gave him a standard bronze and he put him in with three BBW hens and they all laid and I hatched the eggs out myself. They were running high 90's on fertility. Each hen only laid around 30-40 eggs though. One actually died on number 35. So out of the three hens I hatched out around 90 eggs. So it can be done !!!
As far as you saying she laid the same as the wild, I have a hard time believing that one. A wild can lay around 100 eggs in a season, if you know what you are doing. So there is no way a BB hen can produce those kinds of numbers in a back yard set up, with out help. Commercially under optimal conditions - proper feeding,heating,climate and artificial lightening management BB hens can lay as much as 60-100 eggs annually.​

 

[sandspoultry]

Quote:
We had one BBW hen like that when we raised them, she was a runt and didn't get processed for Thanksgiving. She almost made it a year before her leg gave out. It was sad, she was the last one we had and the last BB type we ever will have.

Steve

 

[hinkjc]

Harp, you don't have to get so defensive and argumentative. I was simply stating my experience and knowledge of the broad breasted varieties. The BBB toms we raised didn't make it past 6 months before their legs gave out, so I cannot imagine one breeding anything. Our hen lived to almost 3 years before her legs gave out and from my understanding that is not typical either.

Yes, my wild eastern tom is fertile. I have produced many poults from him breeding wild eastern hens. He could not breed Jenny, our BBB hen because she was too fat. I watched them try to breed. In my experience, BBB are too large to breed naturally. Heck they can barely walk, let alone breed by laying age.

I will not debate your experience, since I was not there to see it. Don't debate mine. Thank you.

 

[bkvail]

thanks everybody for your opinions and experiences! I think I will stick to standard sized one's when I can get them. I saw some broad-breasted locally for $10 each - but will pass on them. I want to be able to hatch a clutch of eggs each year so I don't have to deal with finding them each year! I have to pick up rabbit feed today, so I'll ask if I can order standard bronze through my feed store (someone locally told me I could, so I hope so!)