Can broad breasted white turkeys be bred?

[farmingchef]

I was able to pick up a huge deal on 14 turkey poults. I grabbed 12 bb white 2 bb bronze and I have one hatchling red bourbon. Can I keep the hen bb white or bronze for next year to breed or cross with my "hopefully" Tom bourbon? If he's not a Tom is there a way to reproduce these turkeys or are they like the Cornish cross of turkeys?

 

[R2elk]

I was able to pick up a huge deal on 14 turkey poults. I grabbed 12 bb white 2 bb bronze and I have one hatchling red bourbon. Can I keep the hen bb white or bronze for next year to breed or cross with my "hopefully" Tom bourbon? If he's not a Tom is there a way to reproduce these turkeys or are they like the Cornish cross of turkeys?

BB turkey hens can be successfully fertilized by heritage turkey toms. There are also known cases of successful matings between BB hens and yearling BB toms. Those cases are rare and the BB varieties are commercially reproduced using artificial insemination. My cross of a Bourbon Red tom on a BBW hen produced a big beautiful bronze looking tom.

It is best to incubate the eggs rather than let the BB hen set them. The BB hens just can't be as dainty around the eggs as a heritage hen is. I have had BB hens unintentionally squash newly hatched babies.

 

[farmingchef]

Yes I plan on incubating and brooding myself. How is the meat ratio for the cross of the bb with heritage ? So the plan could work lol.

 

[R2elk]

Yes I plan on incubating and brooding myself. How is the meat ratio for the cross of the bb with heritage ? So the plan could work lol.

On the one that I raised, the body resembled a BB body much more than it did a heritage body and was nearly the same weight at the same age as the BBs I raised.