Whew, those sure are some downright beautiful creatures! I'm extremely afraid that's what my wife is going to be like when our three Bronze get around to slaughter size, that they're way too gorgeous to go on the table. I've pretty much accepted that I have to get a shipment of heritage Bronze either this coming fall or spring and keep one or two around. I'm thinking a tom and a hen for breeding purposes every year, but we'll see. I'm not sure the feed expense is worth having a breeding pair. I only plan on processing about six a year, but would it be worth it to sell the rest?
It's hard to believe he gets up and down from a 3-foot high roost regardless of arthritis. He looks so large!
Yes it is sad but the Mottled Blacks have to go. I've been struggling with this bloodline for years. On again off again problems with pendulous crops. The final straw came this year, when ALL the Royal Palm hens I raised last year from this pair had crop problems after the heat hit. (Mottled Blacks produce 25% Royal Palm color). They drink too much in the heat to try to stay cool, and there is a genetic weakness in the ligaments holding the crop in place, so it sags and does not return to normal position. After a while, the food they ingest cannot pass through and just sits there and goes rancid. They can literally starve to death with a full crop. Breeding brother to sister certainly exacerbated the problem. The parents are fine, but the genetic weakness is there. So they are really only good for pets. I'm not even sure an outcross would be enough so that is why I said they will be butchered. Unfortunately with this problem, you don't know it is there until the first full summer as adults which means you have put all that time and feed money into raising them for a year plus, only to have to cull them. That is what happened to the Royal Palm hens.
This can happen in chickens, too, but I think it is much less common than turkeys. The SOP even says a pendulous crop is a DQ for turkeys.
Did you get the broad-breasted Bronze or the heritage standard Bronze? Because if broad-breasted, just brace yourself to butcher regardless of how beautiful. Those broad-breasted turkeys are the turkey equivalent of Cornish cross. They get too big and their little hearts can't keep up. If they don't go lame first, they die young of heart failure. Not good features if you want to keep a bird around long term for a pet.
I have not kept records, but my gut feeling is, after eating an enormous amount of food the first year while growing, my turkeys eat less than the chickens on a maintenance diet. Especially this time of year. They hardly eat anything. In the wintertime, that will change. Just like chickens, you do this because you love the birds, not to make money. So if you enjoy the turkeys, by all means keep a pair for breeding. Some will hatch and raise the poults themselves. Just like all animals, there are some that are better parents. Sometimes even the toms will sit on the eggs and protect the young. They are the exception, but some of them do. Turkeys are way more interesting than most people know.
