Is This A Turkey?

[JRNash]

Those are a great looking bird. So as long as my Cornish and healthy with good genetics, hatchlings out cross'S should not be a problem

Ralph has been at this a while,he makes it look easy. It can be done. It takes alot of work. IMO it's a numbers game. You will have failures,there is no getting around it,but with persistence it CAN be done.

 

[pauleberly]

Ralph has been at this a while,he makes it look easy. It can be done. It takes alot of work. IMO it's a numbers game. You will have failures,there is no getting around it,but with persistence it CAN be done.

Well and that's why I've been 50/50 on Cornish vs a different meat breed. I had thought about red rangers as well, because I've heard they are more successful

 

[duluthralphie]

Those are a great looking bird. So as long as my Cornish and healthy with good genetics, hatchlings out cross'S should not be a problem

You will get something at least for f1, it will be a start. I doubt you would find anything that crossed by itself to a regular LF Cornish will give you something like I have. I started with the commercial Cornish cross and changed the bird. I made it less of a eating machine, then added in a rainbow (which is a mix itself). then breed them back to themselves to get to this point, I think this is f4 here. One more generation and I should have what I want.

And I accidentally made an egg laying machine too. I get an egg a day. a large light brown to whitish egg. By large I mean huge! Larger than jumbo. A few weeks back I was hatching turkeys and I opened the incubator about a week before they were suppose to hatch and I already had a hatchling in it!

I was shocked, I could hear it as soon as I opened the door. I pulled out the tray and there was a turkey egg hatched a week early... This caused me to scratch my head a bit. I took the hatched egg shell out of the tray. Then got on my knees and reached back into the bottom of the incubator and thinking I was going to pull out some weird turkey, I pulled out a toad! Here I had thought the egg was a turkey egg. That's how big they are.

They are about the same color also. Apparently my wife screwed up and did not mark the egg. I mark all the eggs from my crosses with a T for Toad. I do not mark the turkey eggs from one breeding pair. I thought that was what the egg was when I put it in the incubator..

 

[duluthralphie]

Well and that's why I've been 50/50 on Cornish vs a different meat breed. I had thought about red rangers as well, because I've heard they are more successful

If you want to try a crossbreed that is more meaty than the Cornish, try to get ahold of some white Chanticlers and breed them to the rangers or rainbows. I am going to try that in the next couple years. I only own Partridge Chanticler now, but they are a huge fast growing bird. Mine are show birds/stock but I would like to get some whites to put into my mixes. ( I only mix for meat birds or for egg color otherwise I force each bird to breed true to SOPs. (if they have any, or what I think they should be).

My Chanticlers are not great breeders though. They are so fluffy in the butt, I have to keep trimming the feathers around the vents (on both male and female) otherwise the sperm can not get into the hen to do its job. BTW when my wife sees me trimming the chickens butt......She is merciless!! WITCH!!

 

[JRNash]

Ralph,I've wanted to get some white ones.They are a BEAUTIFUL bird

 

[JRNash]

Do your turkeys and chickens mix are do they have a separate pen

 

[duluthralphie]

Do your turkeys and chickens mix are do they have a separate pen

They are one bog flock. kind of.
The turkeys hang out together during the day.

Some hens go into the chicken coop at night.

The roosters and Tom are in the same pecking order.

The hens are not really

 

[JRNash]

My attempt at having geese AND chickens didn't work out.the geese were way to aggressive

 

[JRNash]

Didn't know if turkeys would act the same as the geese. I get a little crazy when something hurts my birds

 

[duluthralphie]

Didn't know if turkeys would act the same as the geese. I get a little crazy when something hurts my birds

The turkeys and chickens get along well together. Even the guineas are not overly mean. I occasional have to throw things at them though.