Double breasted meaning

[andrewhill]

So after googling "poultry double breasted" I still am not sure what it means besides larger breasts. Is there a sure fire way to know if a breed is double breasted besides size like shape or something?

I would like to start my own personal hybrids of bbw and midget white to end up with a smaller slower growing bird with around 70/30 white to dark meat like the bbw and bbb. Then spiral breed until they breed true.

I am not interested in named breeds as much as fitting my needs although I will keep some pure mw's separated because I like the idea of real small turkeys.

 

[Arielle]

Welcome to BYC!!

I have had turkeys for about 3 years now-- honestly I think you will find a bird that already exhists to suit your needs. As I recall the midget breeding: t hey were a combo that included BBW which originally came from the White Holland turkey.

BBW are ready for market very fast compared to a heritage type. AND very heavily muscled. This is the double breasted term that you have read about. I think it is a slang term. THe commercial birds have been carefully selected to grow very fast and have a very very large breast muscle.


THe heritage birds dont fill out until much older, so crossing them to BBW/BBBwill require some record keeping and a written selection plan. Like what age will you be selecting for?? In poultry some breeds will out grow another but at a later age. ALso there is a difference between frame and muscling-- be able to evaluate both.

Cross breeding extremes will result in offspring that are not uniform- It will take years to get where you are going, so hang in there and have your eye on the goal.


AMong the heritage breeds there are a huge variety. They might look alike, but they are not. ALso depending on the midgets you find, they have not been kept to a small size so you might be happy with trying a few MW before jumping into your project.

Good luck and have fun.

 

[andrewhill]

Thank you, I actually am starting with midget whites first I'm getting eggs from pawtraitart (I think that's how it's spelled) a member here and I'm going to add sandhill and s&s stock later.

 

[Arielle]

You have a good plan-- Happy holidays.

 

[andrewhill]

Thanks, I plan on recording things like growth rate and final size, and keeping multiple pens with each set of midgets and bbw being unrelated to the rest of the pens the first year.

The second year I will breed just the original midgets and the hybrids. From there just the hybrids. I'm thinking that 5 to 8 years should be enough time to get a true breeding strain as long as I'm strict with culling those without the desirable traits.

My biggest concern is that regardless of the midget blood the project will end up with birds that require AI due to the high amount of breast meat goal.