Having more than one breed?

[shinysatins]

If I were to have midget white turkeys and also a pair of full sized turkeys, would they crossbreed,or would they stick with their own kind?

Shiny

 

[frank53061]

I dont see why if you had a full size Tom that they could cross breed.
Any cross breeding like that would be like Christmas waiting to see what the results would be.

 

[kidarcy]

go mounties

 

[frank53061]

Hay you must be from my area who would have thought yep thats my old High School class of 1980.
Do you have turkeys also.....Just to keep on subject here LOL.

 

[Oregon Blues]

The only way to keep them pure is to pen them separately.

In addition, I would worry that the midget white tom would be injured or killed by the much bigger heavier tom. Toms will struggle to see who can be the flock boss and a 12 pound Midget White wouldn't stand a chance against a 28 pound tom, even if the intention was just to see who was stronger and not to actually kill each other.

 

[Celie]

My heritage White Holland toms are competing, now, for who gets to be Alpha male, as they are growing up. Since they were almost all hatched at different times this year, spring through summer, it isn't much competition as the larger ones usually rule, at least until the younger ones catch up. Every once and a while, while free ranging, a Rooster will approach a young tom and want to fight, being the chickens have been around longer. Roosters, being what they are, will even try to mate with one of the turkey hens. (Let them try that with a 30# turkey! She just has to stand up and he will fall to the ground and walk around embarrassed, LOL. When a Rooster picks a fight with a younger turkey, it doesn't last long at all, before another turkey or two join in to put the rooster in his place PDQ! You could have this sort of thing, with the midget and standard size birds, I suppose.
I would think, it would be darn near impossible, for a midget male to mate with a 30 pound Holland or a 40 pound Holland tom to mate with a midget hen. 12# with 30# or 40#with 10# either way would not, in my opinion, match up. I do agree with Oregon Blue though, the midget turkeys could get badly hurt, or in the least get their egos really bruised!LOL

 

[shinysatins]

Thanks, it sounds like it's not a great idea. I hadn't thought of the age difference thing. If I want to add a couple more midget whites from an unrelated flock, would it be better to try to find some now rather than later? Mine are about a month old now.