BREEDING FOR PRODUCTION...EGGS AND OR MEAT.

[stryker]

They have grown a bit. I really like that color.

 

[neopolitancrazy]

And it seems that the barring in the two girls is much less pronounced than in their brothers.

In sex-linked barring, the girls only have one "dose" of the barring gene, while males can have one or 2 "doses."
Angela

 

[dfr1973]

Just thought I'd post up what our Thanksgiving capon looked like here. Not bad for a 10 month old hatchery cull.

Next year's capons will look better! I don't have a weight for him, as my postal scale only goes to five pounds, and I keep forgetting to look for a larger kitchen scale when I'm out. (I hate shopping anywhere this time of year.)

 

[TNBielefelder]

Just thought I'd post up what our Thanksgiving capon looked like here. Not bad for a 10 month old hatchery cull. Next year's capons will look better! I don't have a weight for him, as my postal scale only goes to five pounds, and I keep forgetting to look for a larger kitchen scale when I'm out. (I hate shopping anywhere this time of year.)

very nice

 

[dfr1973]

very nice

Thanks

He was quite tasty, as well. Hubby smoked him one hour for flavor, then we finished him in the crock pot.

 

[speney]

Hi so I have a few questions but let me start from the beginning. It's 5 am thanksgiving morning I go to my mems house to help put the 25lb turkey in the oven. We are very excited waited all day for this turkey. We get it out carve it up sit down at the table and dig in I look at my mem after we both taste the turkey and she says to me that's it ur raising turkeys for next thanksgiving. We have never tasted anything so bad in all our turkey years I swear you could taste the steroids and hormones. So I'm on a hunt for are turkey for next year I know I will be raising at least 5 turkeys I'm just not sure what breed how long it will take to raise it to table size how much it will take in feed ( It will be free range just as my meat and laying hens) and I would prefer not to have white feathered turkeys. I thought this would be the best place to ask any input would be greatly appreciated thank you.

 

[bnjrob]

Hi so I have a few questions but let me start from the beginning. It's 5 am thanksgiving morning I go to my mems house to help put the 25lb turkey in the oven. We are very excited waited all day for this turkey. We get it out carve it up sit down at the table and dig in I look at my mem after we both taste the turkey and she says to me that's it ur raising turkeys for next thanksgiving. We have never tasted anything so bad in all our turkey years I swear you could taste the steroids and hormones. So I'm on a hunt for are turkey for next year I know I will be raising at least 5 turkeys I'm just not sure what breed how long it will take to raise it to table size how much it will take in feed ( It will be free range just as my meat and laying hens) and I would prefer not to have white feathered turkeys. I thought this would be the best place to ask any input would be greatly appreciated thank you.

Unless you plan to breed to the Standard of Perfection, you can pretty much go to any hatchery site that sells turkeys and buy whatever turkey they have that suits your fancy appearance-wise. If you get one that has *broad breasted* in the name, that is going to be the commercial turkey more like what you would buy from the store - meant to gain more weight, especially in the breast. These will grow/gain weight faster, but because of their large breasts, they can't mate correctly, so you would be buying new ones each year instead of keeping your own self-sustaining flock.

As far as table size - table size is what you decide it is. Some people prefer smaller and some larger. There are small turkey varieties that were bred specifically to cater to people that wanted smaller turkeys for their table. If you don't raise commercial birds, then you will need to change your expectations of what is table size and the proportions of meat that you are going to get. You're not going to get large amounts of breast meat in a non-commercial, broad-breasted bird. With a non-commercial turkey, you will have a higher amount of bone compared to meat, because the turkeys are still meant to be turkeys and be able to run and fly, unlike their broad-breasted commercial counterparts that are bred to have more meat than bone. Some sources cite that a *heritage* turkey is considered market sized at 28 weeks. This is not a hard and fast rule and while people who breed turkeys generally try to have their flock be a consistent weight at the same time, there is no set weight for being market-sized. For most folks, the appeal of a *heritage* turkey is the flavor and more humane living conditions, not size of carcass.

Turkeys eat a LOT. Much more than chickens. They can forage but most info out there gives an estimate of them foraging for less than half of their nutritional needs, foraging only in the 20-30% range of their food needs. What you put into them is what you get out of them. If you want to save on feed and try to have them forage for most of their food, you're not going to have as much meat on them as you would if they had free-choice feed available all the time. Turkeys require a higher protein feed than chickens, and more of it.

To give you an idea, this year we butchered a 6 month old male Narragansett turkey for Thanksgiving. He dressed out at just shy of 11 lbs. There was breast meat but not as much breast meat as you will find on a broad-breasted commercial variety. There were smaller areas of meat in different places than what you find on a commercial turkey - meat on the back and wings and other places, to enable to the turkey to run and fly (something that commercial broad-breasted turkeys don't do). It was more difficult to get the meat off the legs due to the large amount of connective tissue holding those muscles into place so the turkey could actually use them. But the taste was terrific. As we expected, there was more bone than meat on the carcass.

The most recent edition of Storey's Guide to Raising Turkeys is written by Don Schrider, who raises standard-bred turkeys. It's a good place to start to give you info on getting and raising turkeys.

 

[hellbender]

If I were going to deal with turkeys, it would be the Bourbon Reds. Some folks say they won't breed naturally but I know for a fact that they will and as far as turkey meat goes, it has the best flavor that I've ever eaten of all that I've tried.

My dad raised them for years...that's how I KNOW they will breed naturally.

 

[gjensen]

I am sure that some have put good large toms over broad breasted hens.

 

[bnjrob]

If I were going to deal with turkeys, it would be the Bourbon Reds. Some folks say they won't breed naturally but I know for a fact that they will and as far as turkey meat goes, it has the best flavor that I've ever eaten of all that I've tried.

My dad raised them for years...that's how I KNOW they will breed naturally.

Bourbon Reds have been in the SOP for 100+ years - can't imagine why someone would say they can't breed naturally. Maybe they mixed them up with the Broad-breasted Bronze turkey.

Hmmm, I see that some hatcheries are claiming that the broad breasted bronze and broad breasted white turkeys are recognized by the APA. Guess they thought that because there are white and bronze turkeys in the SOP, that they could claim that even the broad-breasted commercial turkeys are the same thing. Seems a bit disingenuous to me, but then hatcheries are in business to make a buck, not to tell the truth.