best heritage turkey breed

[roanhorse]

What is your favorite heritage breed and why. I have the choice of Black, Narrgansett, Slate, Red, or Royal Palm. We used to have a pair of royal palms and the tom got very aggressive, are any of the other breeds less likely to become aggressive? Thanks

 

[bargain]

Well, I guess I have none of your choices, but I love our Pencilled Red Palms and Black Winged Bronze and Our Bourbon Reds - all originally from Porters heritage. We will be downsiizing to only one breed shortly to only Bourbon Reds.... We really love all those turkeys but must make a few changes on the farm of our poultry setups! Hope this helps. None of these birds has ever been aggressive and are very calm and sweet. Have fun choosing!

 

[Poupoulles]

best for eating? for looking at? for bug catching? for chasing off children?
I picked Narras since that is the only one I have eaten that I raised myself, but one day I will have Bourbon Reds, if I ever get into breeding for meat.

 

[roanhorse]

Multi purpose... but not chasing children! We plan to eat and to look at, also to clean up loose feed around the cow barn.

 

[ccrawf]

I have had Bourbon Reds, Spanish Black, Blue Slates and Narragansetts. The Slates were good, the Spanish Black was aggressive, and the Narragansett fight a lot and the Toms act like they don’t know what to do. I never had any of those problems with the Reds. So I’m not sure which exactly is the best breed.
And I’m not sure if there is really any difference in the taste of the bird, or an appreciative difference in the growth rate between breeds. Mostly what I see is the difference in the looks. From my experience the Bourbon Red is the breed for the back yard grower. And the one I'll go back to soon also.

 

[hobbychicken]

I raised blue slate, black Spanish and royal palms from day olds this year and I will have to say the blue slate are the hardiest of the three.