Broad Breasted Bronze vs Giant Whites... for meat

[Chickee's Mom]

Hi, my two hens are laying eggs, I get two every second day.
The BBB are in with all my chickens, and get along just fine, actually help keep the barn warmer

The 2 Nicholas white are in a large pen with the extra roosters that I have.

I bought mine from a lady and she had bought them from Rochester as poults. They were about six months old when I got them.

The eggs are quite large, and we have eaten them and they are good.

I have heard so much about these breeds not being able to raise there own poults, because of breeding etc. Mine are breeding just fine

And so my goal is to have them raise there own.

Nice meeting you on here Caroline, ????? anytime.
Vivian

 

[newbiecaroline]

Vivian thats great news! nice to meet you too

I can expect them to get along with other new ones too then.....excellent!
So does this mean you have fertilized eggs? You must be very excited about that.....Hope to hear more good news from you!!
How big will you allow the BB to get before butchering?
I hope to have 25lbs for our get togethers. Never can find that size in stores!
I can't wait to taste BB I'm so intrigued by all these good reports.
I've heard they are much better natured than white turkeys, having grandchildren around I liked to hear that!
Hows the weather in Lacombe, its almost tropical here at 0 -plus 5 lol
Have pics??
Caroline

 

[Chickee's Mom]

Weather is great, windy but warm. Yesterday it was +11. Sure took our snow down.

I have tons of pics but can't get them to work on here, not sure why, I think my camera takes too big of a picture.

Are you on Canadianeggswappers2 ??
Or you could email me and I could send you some. I can get them to work on email for dial up just fine.

I was just hoping to butcher turkeys in the fall before thanksgiving, no matter what the size! The hen we cooked for Christmas was 24, just perfect for the whole family and some leftovers.

 

[Chickee's Mom]

Caroline I sent you a pm

 

[newbiecaroline]

I sent you one too lol

 

[newbiecaroline]

dont have the pm yet

did you get mine?

 

[Poultryraiser]

Hi,
Last year I orderd 15 bronz breasted
From murrymcmurry hatchery
And I sold some too.
But the turkeys all cleaned and dressed out was 48 pounds wouldent hardly fit in the oven in fact it didn't
we had to cook it out in a pit.

 

[snewman]

Just a quick question about keeping the turkeys in with chickens...is this ok? I'd like to be able to do that, but keep reading about blackhead and that the two species shouldn't be kept together. If you haven't had problems, maybe it can be ok?

 

[greyfields]

The giant whites are indeed the Cornish Crosses of the turkey world. A farmer near me does about 300 pastured turkeys per Thanksgiving. I don't think the polts even arrive until July or August. They are simply way too big if he gets them any sooner which makes the economics unfeasible.

I get my geese processed in the week before Thanksgiving. It just astonishes me how many people bring in 50+ lb turkeys. The processors just shake their heads and have to dispatch them on the ground, since there is no way to bleed them or use a cone. I think they get out of hand in size very quickly.

 

[cello2econ]

Hi, we're raising 9 BBB alongside 6 Red Bourbons. I'm keeping track of their weight and they are outpacing the Myers weight chart by about 25% so I have no problem believing that the Toms get to 50 lbs if you let them. Mine are 8 weeks old now and have an average weight of 7.4 lbs.

I was happy to hear that people here have had success breeding them. We were thinking of keeping a hen and breeding it to a Red Bourbon male, but now maybe we'll keep a BBB Tom as well and see if it turns out.