Can I breed a white turkey meat hen?

[Petite]

Hi, I got 18 toms this year as meat birds for christmas. Weve kept chickens but this is first year with turkeys and ive totally loved every minute! Thing is, as we got them as day old poults it turns out one of them is a hen. They are as far as I know the most common white turkey you can get, im in Ireland and when ordering them they were 2e each and the breed had a number after it. I am going to raise turkeys again for sure but was wandering would it be possible to breed the hen I have with a pedigree breed as I know I couldnt keep any of the toms I have to breed with because they get too big and A.I would be the only way. Id like to know would it be possible to keep her could she even live that long as she was bred to be a meat bird, it would be next spring before she would lay is that correct. Also as she is a meat bird is there any chance that she would go broody? But really would like to know could she be bred with and if do what bteed would you recommend. Thanx a mil.

 

[Celie]

I think you are talking about a Broad Breasted hybrid turkey if it is usually AI. Well it depends. I raised BB Whites, not knowing about the AI thing, until most were harvested. At the point when I found this out, They were half way to reproduction age! I restricted their diet and kept 2 hens and a tom. When the hens started laying eggs, I noticed the tom trying to do his job and started incubate the eggs. Most of the first dozed or so hatched, before the tom became too big breasted to do his job. After that I got a large heritage breed and put him over the BB hen and they mated naturally and the hens laid fertile eggs, no problem! I did not let her try to hatch any on her own, because I feared she was too heavy to set the eggs, and I have a very good incubator. So if you keep her and do not want to use an incubator, you might want to get a tom plus another hen, that way the Heritage hen can incubate both her eggs and the BB turkey's eggs. I hope this will help you and Good Luck.

 

[Oregon Blues]

Sure. Get her a heritage breed of tom and she will lay fertile eggs for you. She might be heavy enough to break the eggs. Plan on using an incubator, but I think if she decides to go broody, you might let her try to hatch a few by herself just to see what happens.

I have a broad breasted white hen right now who is awaiting her Thanksgiving debut. In the meantime, every third day, she lays me a pretty speckled egg. I went out and bought her a tom, hoping to hatch some of those eggs, but apparently he is too young to be interested. Too bad. I was hoping to see if she would pass on the gene for the extra thick breast.

 

[Petite]

Thankyou so much! Cant wait to get a tom and see how it all works out! Will let you know how I get on