Crossing a Broad Breasted White Turkey Hen With a Auburn Heritage Tom

[turkeybreeder]

i would like to cross a broad breasted white turkey hen
with an auburn heritage tom, would the poults grow fast like
the hen and be ready for market sooner, and would they
grow to be the same size as commercial turkeys
how long can a broad breasted white hen live
thanks have a great day

 

[Tunastopper]

One example of a heritage turkeys crossed on a BBW is the Midget White. The BBW is fast to market weight do to very special hybrid breeding. Even if you breed two BBW turkeys through AI, they will not produce like the comercial turkeys.

 

[SaraF]

I'm afraid you wouldn't get the same results as a commerical turkey, by far. They have such constructed genes that focus on growth,growth growth, that one you breed in a color breed (whether it been a broad brested bronze or a heritage) it takes the focus on growth away, and you will not get one nearly as fast growing as the BBW.

The comination will be a comination growth of both the birds, probably a lot faster than normal hertiage birds, but also slightly slower than the BBW. The weight should also be a combination of both the breeds. But with the heritage breed in there, it will cap the weight sooner so you will have a healthy birds with less leg problems, and more protection agianst disease. Heritage breeds usual weight is 30-odd pounds as toms and 12-20 lbs hen depending on the breed, and a BBW toms can ge to 60 lbs if you continue to feed them high protein diets, but they get leg problems, and hens up to 35lbs.
Mixing the breeds will probably get you a nice 40-odd lb bird as toms, and 25 lb hens if you give them the market diet of high protein.

As far as your current hen, she wwill probably stop growing once she gets to an age. Mine stopped at about 35lbs. Just make sure you get her off the market diet and high protein and feed her anything from scratch grain to layer feed, as long as she isnt on that high protein she should be ok.
Hens do develop leg problems becuase of such as weight, so as soon as you can, dont let her get to my hens weight of 35. over the years, she developed leg problems, but all of them will, its in their breed to get too big. So as long as you take good care of her, and let her get exercise to keep those legs strong she should be good for many years. My hen finally died last Spring as the age of 6 years.

Good Luck!

 

[DaKid]

I too raise both BB White and BB Bronze turkeys , but I also raise an assortment of Heritage Breeds to.

I was thinking on keeping a pair of the BB Turkeys to breed next yr with some of my Heritage to see if I would get a larger bird than the heritage but smaller that the Broad Breasted at an early time ................


My Question would be ; is it best to breed BB Hen to H Tom or a BB Tom to a H. Hen

what would be better

 

[OmaBird]

Quote:
Do you know how to do AI? If not you need to breed a BB hen to a heritage tom. BB Toms can't do the deed naturaly. There is no problem with the hens.

 

[DaKid]

OmaBird

Do you know how to do AI? If not you need to breed a BB hen to a heritage tom. BB Toms can't do the deed naturaly. There is no problem with the hens.

nope I will doso research on it , but for now I'm looking at breeding a BB hen to a heritage tom.

I just though that a BB Tom being larger then to the heritage hen would not be a problem

but thanks for that inform.

Alan​

 

[Frosty]

Even if the BB tom *could* do the deed (and while rare, it has happened), you should still go with AI if you wanted to attempt it because the BB toms get massive and could do real damage to the hens. Even heritage toms can damage the hens pretty badly so some folks use saddles to protect the girls.

I have done a little research on AI, the info is hard to find and you have to wade through a million animal rights sites to find it. What I did find looked to me like it isn't a one person operation, and since I know that if I even thought about it my family would go into hiding...

 

[DaKid]

Thanks Ya'll I have breed and raise - Burbon Reds , Royal Palms , and some Bronze turkeys and a few other Heritage Breeds .
Most of my Heritage breeds are a 2 to 1 - which is 1 male to 2 females or plus and pen up in a run 10' by 15' runs or larger ------which give them plenty of room , this year alone from my Trio of each ........Burbon Reds and Royal Palms ........ I end up with some 50 plus baby turkeys which I've hatch out and as for my Bronze pair I end up with 18 baby turkeys ...................., I did cross some Red Burbons to a royal palm which I end up with some

I hoping to have some good luck this coming year 2011 , along with the other 3 breeds as stated above - some Blue Slates , Narragansett ,and Miget Whites or White Holland , and Chocolate Heritage , Golden Narragansett and a few other breeds I trying on working on ............



But I was trying a cross of Broard Breasted with a Heritage Breeds to come up with a good meat table bird vs an average table bird of my own ......even thou others have try this ,but it seems there is not alot of infor out there ............


With the BB TURKEYS it seem there lots of feeding and a short time period before they have leg problems ...............the Heritage take longer to grow an reach the size or weigth ...........so I would like to try like most of us do is get a good size bird in the middle of both from the BB Breeds and Heritage Breeds ..........................................WITH THE MIN COST AND TIME TO RASIE , which I not others have done be4 but just want to try this with my own breeds and see what I can come up with , which I'm sure other have don't already but the thing is there not alot of infor . about the reasults of others and what they have tryed to cross, to get the most out of the meat bird vs cost of feed vs table ready .............................................................................






alan

 

[turkeybreeder]

thank you everyone for your answers have a great day







Quote:

 

[LeadHead]

Several weeks ago I posted a somewhat related message asking about a BB cross with a Royal Palm, but didn't get much of a response. Have any of you tried breeding a Royal Palm tom to a BBB hen, and if so, what were the results in terms of weight, colors and overall success? I'm wanting to try this next spring with my little batch of birds in hopes of getting some poults that may have less leg problems, somewhat smaller size than the BB yet meatier than the Royal Palm. Is this a logical expectation?