Bronze turkey variation

[longranger]

Obviously there is quite a bit of variability in the "bronze" heritage turkeys nationwide. Are some of te named varieties like Kardosh and Wishard truly superior or are you equally likely to get a superior population by selecting the best from hatcheries?

Second question is there an objective way to differentiate a thick heritage bronze from a relatively petite broad breasted and does it matter for breeding?

 

[Steve_of_sandspoultry]

The strains are local varieties from what I have seen. I have seen Wishards and Standard Bronze side by side and there wasn't any night and day difference. The Kardosh I don't know. The big thing to remember about a hatchery is they are in business to ship birds, they get eggs from whoever can supply them, hatch and ship as quick as they can so that's what you get. Somebody that breeds them year after year is going to have better quality than a hatchery ever will.

I'm not a fan of mixing BB and heritage turkeys so I'll pass on that.

Steve in NC

 

[longranger]

I would not intentionally mix BB with heritage stock. My concern is getting strong attractive healthy birds that meet the APA standards that I can use as breeders.

Also several "heritage bronze" birds I have seen come available locally over a period of months were clearly BB or a heritage/BB hybrid. Just too wide and heavy. Nice honest people but they really did not know what they had. Probably just repeating what they had been told when they made their purchases.