Broad-breasted Bronze / Royal Palm cross?

[LeadHead]

I should be getting my first turkeys this week, some BBB's. My plan is to keep a couple hens (and a tom from another source) over the winter for breeding purposes, but not necessarily for resale, so keeping the breed pure is not a concern of mine. I also do not necessarily want 50 lb toms when they're grown out, and have located a local person selling a 1 year old Royal Palm tom that they'd sell for $10 (they have 2, 1 too many). Understanding that the RP's are not a meat-producer breed yet the BBB's are very heavy, what do some of you folks think about this combination? My preference is to stay away from the white breeds as they are not appealing to me. There does not seem to be too many turkey breeders locally to give me a broad selection of breeds.

Thanks in advance.

 

[Thomasturkey]

The Midget Whites are a mixed breed that came from a cross of BBW on a Royal Palm. If your lucky you might get a colored version similar to them in body shape in a few generation. One of my projects is a colored mini turkey. I am selecting for longer legs and keel on my toms, since the BB turkeys are short legged.

 

[Jmiller429]

as a side note, if you try to breed the BBBtoms to BBBhens, you probably arent going to be successful. Generally by the time breeding season rolls around these birds are entirely too large to breed naturally and must be artificially inseminated. Perhaps standard bronze would better suit your needs?

 

[LeadHead]

Yep, I'm aware of that fact; thus the reason for the Royal Palm tom. Are you saying that the BBB hens will be unbreedable as well? It was my understanding that it's more of a "tom" problem than anything, am I wrong? My question was more geared towards wondering what to expect weight-wise from such a combination (RP tom & a BBB hen). I was hoping to keep some heavier body mass while *maybe* making it easier on the birds' health.

 

[Noellereagan]

Watching. Doing same thing.

 

[R2elk]

Watching. Doing same thing.

The date of this thread is Apr. 5, 2011, yours is the only response since then.

 

[Noellereagan]

The date of this thread is Apr. 5, 2011, yours is the only response since then.

Yes. I noticed that after the fact. I probably should’ve checked that first.