Adopted 2 White Turkey "Hens"- First timer

[R2elk]

I fear I have the White Broad Breasted turkeys, for meat. Are they like the Chicken Broilers, where they are going to die if I don't process them? I just googled white turkeys and found the closest turkey picture that resembled what I have, and that is what they look like.

But they lay a beige speckled egg, not white, so I am a little confused, because when I looked up that breed it said it lays white eggs!

So she wants to mate, hmmm, ok I need to get her a boyfriend then. Poor girl. Whenever we rub under their beak and neck their neck turns red. It changes color like a chameleon! Its interesting. And they make different noises, like popping in a high pitch when going to lay, or at least one does, and one is more vocal and outgoing than the other, the one that isn't so outgoing or vocal is the one that likes to laydown when you go to pet her or enter the pen!

Maybe the wild turkeys on our property will come around and mate with them?

Broad breasted white turkeys lay a speckled egg just like all the other turkeys that I have had.

The broad breasted turkey hens can be naturally bred by a heritage tom. The broad breasted toms for the most part don't do very well naturally breeding and the commercial breeders use artificial insemination to breed them.

The broad breasted turkeys I had went broody just like any heritage turkeys I have raised. The main difference is that the broad breasted varieties can't move their feet as delicately as do the heritage turkeys and are prone to stepping on and smashing newly hatched poults.

An alternative to posting images would be to post the weight of your individual turkeys. Get on a bathroom scale with and without a turkey and subtract your weight from the one with the turkey. A broad breasted turkey will weigh substantially more than a heritage turkey of the same age.

If they are broad breasted turkeys, free ranging them can greatly extend the length of their lives.

I don't know the laws of the state where you live but my state laws say that any offspring produced from the mating of a wild turkey with a domestic turkey are also wild turkeys and as such belong to the state since the state claims ownership of all wild game animals. Here a permit from the State G&F Dept. is required to have and keep wild turkeys and would also be required to keep the offspring of a wild turkey and a domestic turkey. Check your local laws before hoping the wild turkeys breed your hens.

Good luck.

 

[FaerieChicken]

Thank you for that info, I didn't realize that any poults hatched could be considered state property if my hens ended up mating with the wild turkeys that roam our property. I will definately check into that. I wonder how that would work, would I have to pay the state to keep them, or do I have to set them free, but then they would not know where to go! Such a strange case.

Also I do not have a scale, but I can tell you that they do have a funny little waddle, also they seem to get around ok. One has a deformed foot, I assume it could have been corrected when it was younger but it wasn't.

I am working on getting pictures so I can upload them for you to see them, I do not have anything to compare them to, as in another turkey. Would I put them next to say a patio chair or perhaps a car? They do seem pretty big, I have 2 large dogs, and they are about as big/tall as them!

It was so cute last night but scary at the same time, one of the hens decided she wanted to go up the hill side and hide in a bush, although she is white, she was ****** hard to see, until I heard her and then I saw her moving. So i sent my dog up the hill to flush her out, but once she stood up and left out of the bush, instead of continuing to send the hen down the hillside, my dog decided to bring me her egg instead, thus the hen returned to her bush and lay in her "nest". I ended up having to go up there afterall to convince her to come down, as my dog thought she did a great job and was just so proud of herself for having got the egg for me and had no interest in going back up for the turkey. It could have turned out to go badly, she could have ended up not cooperating and stayed in the bush! Or I could not have found her at all and she could have been grabbed by a fox or other nightly creature!

This is definately an experience, as my chickens do not venture off to lay, nor do they seem to feel the need to not return to the enclosure in the eves!

 

[Maeser]

Yes, wild turkeys will mate with domestic hen turkeys. Friends used to have a purebred Bourbon Red flock. Then the wild turkeys discovered the domestic hens. Now they have a pretty scraggley looking flock. Breeding with wild turkeys definately was not an improvement in their case.

 

[FaerieChicken]

I just found out that we have the Broad Breasted White turkey's and will not be able to breed them! They will become holiday dinner here soon. One has started to become dominant, I am not sure if that is the right thing to call it, but she has started making all sorts of noise and faning out her feathers and then the other comes and hides by us, the dominant one that goes into display mode starts to peck at the head of the other that is hiding around us. The other day, my 8 year old daughter though it was cute that the turkey was faning out and making noise, she was in a squated position with the more docile turkey and loving it, when the other one came over to her, my daughter then started making the same noises back at the dominant turkey and she started to bob n weave her head at the turkey while petting the docile one, then she said "Gobble, Gobble, Gobble", well it didn't like it and pecked her in the nose!

Now my daughter doesn't like her at all, and says she is a mean turkey and can't wait to eat her, and doesn't want to eat the friendly one.

I don't know what happend, I just thought it was because of the red car, the red pajama bottoms and other red things we noticed they are attracted to that make them noisy.

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

Mine are noisy when ever someone comes by their pen that they don't know. I would certainly start with the more aggressive one for eating, sounds like it's a Tom. Your daughter was acting like a turkey who wants to fight, so she's lucky she only got pecked and not jumped on. Turkeys can become confused as to who is a part of their flock and who isn't, this is why I don't get too chummy with mine so they know I'm not one of them.

 

[FaerieChicken]

No, not a Tom! They both lay eggs! Maybe just confused, lol. But since we found out that they ae meat birds we will definately be processing them. I am not sure if we will be venturing out into turkey raising in the future, I had thought of it though, thinking maybe a Royal Palm and a Bourbon Red!

I will be sure to remind my daughter not to act so much like a turkey while in the presence of real turkeys! LOL

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

Hens do flash color to show emotions, your daughter is speaking turkey without even knowing it. She better watch what she says.

 

[FaerieChicken]

Hens do flash color to show emotions, your daughter is speaking turkey without even knowing it. She better watch what she says.

LOL she is Bi-Lingual

I wonder if when she is older if she can put that on her resume HA HA HA

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

I suppose she could say she speaks Turkish, hopefully no one will ask her to do it, Gooble gooble,

 

[Sabz]

Hi there From what you say (hiding in the bush) I get they are free?

Do you clip their wing feathers? I have a single turkey in a chicken flock. As of now she didn't fly anywhere, but she is getting to 3 months now and I'm afraid that with age, she'll try to runaway (flyaway) more and more..