Broadbreasted bred to heritage?

[AshleyFishy]

Would breeding a BB to a heritage breed create a meatier type turkey, that can still breed on their own?

 

[Celie]

I bred a BBW hen to a Holland white Tom, naturally successfully, but the offspring did not come out BB, they look and gained just like the Holland. I bred a BBW hen to a BBW young BBW Tom, restricting the tom's feed intake, so upon mating maturity he was still slender enough to breed naturally and the first 6 or so eggs were fertile and hatched(after that, he became too big breasted to mount the hen) with mixed results, one had a badly sunken chest, 3 grew normally, with large but not double breasted and 2 were double breasted. All had the shorter legs and larger feet and all were male. It was an interesting experiment, if you care to try it, but you have to really watch that your tom does not eat as much as they are bred to do. If left to their own liking, they will literally EAT THEMSELVES TO DEATH. By the way, he was on free range,so he got a lot of exercise and was kept for almost a year before he was mature enough to breed. It would be interesting to hear if anyone ever tried this?

 

[ramirezframing]

I did. The hen was an rp the tom was a bb. I got 4 babies before I lost the tom. 1 baby had a leg issue and didnt make it. Of the other three, 1 was a hen and two were toms. While I was away for a month I lost two to the bad heat wave this summer. The one remaining one is a tom. I had gotten a pure yr old rp tom for the hen. The cross tom is noticely bigger than the rp tom. The cross will not be a year old til early spring.

 

[Celie]

I did. The hen was an rp the tom was a bb. I got 4 babies before I lost the tom. 1 baby had a leg issue and didnt make it. Of the other three, 1 was a hen and two were toms. While I was away for a month I lost two to the bad heat wave this summer. The one remaining one is a tom. I had gotten a pure yr old rp tom for the hen. The cross tom is noticely bigger than the rp tom. The cross will not be a year old til early spring.

Please post then? I would be interested on how he looks as an adult !

 

[ramirezframing]

his dad was an off color bbb and when bred to the rp hen, 2 babies came out white/ grey two came off brown. Once the three got older two looked bronze and one was white based with shades of black and grey through out. the remaining one looks like a bronze. I'll have to get on the other computer later today to put up pics of them.

 

[ramirezframing]

the 3 with their "daddy" before I left in June of this year



the white with grey and black one



same one as above with the smaller brown one which was a hen







their true dad



again the ture dad who was around 40 lbs alive when I lost him. He was around 7 to 8 months old and was on a limited food plan to try to get him to stay alive. But he spun his hip out or broke it (I'll find out next month for sure)


I'll have to get updated pics of the one that is still alive