Heritage - Broad Breast crosses

[TurkeyTimes]

Parents? I think that is way way too dark for a golden narri. Looks more like a fallfire or red phoenix to me

 

[BreanneRN]

Parents are a complete unknown... I believe the people raising them were buying them as poults, raising them to 2 weeks or longer, then selling them. Older they were, the more they cost. They claimed to have the parents of all these birds, but I saw no adult turkeys at all there. They had poults about 2 weeks apart in age in about 5 groupings. They claimed the parents were out "free ranging", but there were no signs anywhere, no feeding areas, pens etc. (no mess, feathers). So in a way, they were kind of scammers... Possibly, they order from Porters and then resell them... I got 6 but one died. I have 5 left. They are definite Heritage birds, I got a black one (Black Spanish), a probable Royal Palm, one that just looks gray with no patterning, and these 2 in the pic that appear to have some dilution factor, maybe a blue/gray/slate parent, I don't know. Picture taken in the shade, so they look darker than they are. The one pictured looks "light bronze", kind of a taffy/caramel color. I love the patterning. The other one is similarly colored without much of the patterning that the other one has. I drove 100 miles to get them and the poults looked healthy and they had a great variety, so I went ahead and bought them. There is nothing but BB's for sale in the area I live in. I did not want as many turkeys as I would have had to buy if I ordered from Porter's, so this worked for me. Still, it is hard to really know what exactly you have at the end of the day... Those people had just about every color of poult in the rainbow, which is why I think they were buying them from Porters... Where else would you get that many colors all in one place? I was also going to buy some Bourbon/Narragansett crosses from someone else, but they only had 2 poults and one was a straight Bourbon red, so I passed on those.

 

[TurkeyTimes]

The one on the left looks like a blue red bronze and the other maybe a fallfire? Can you get close clear pics of wings and fan?

 

[BreanneRN]

Took some more pics, they aren't exactly all that great, but taking "selfie" while holding struggling turkey a little challenging... Anyway, have some others, but going to post this one, while I work on getting the others on here (I'm not the best at tech stuff, well, that might be an understatement, add really not the best)...

 

[BreanneRN]

Here are some more... I hope...

 

[BreanneRN]

I am thinking these are Bronze based birds rather than Black Winged Bronze based which might account for the slight difference in coloring from some of Porter's listed colors. Blue/Red/Bronze is regular bronze based and think that one is most likely right. The other one might be what Fallfire or Red Phoenix would be if it were bronze based rather than black winged bronze base. Anyway, this one is kind of pretty, and most likely has a red gene in there somewhere, which is what I was trying to get without having to have a Bourbon Red around, so I'm reasonably happy. I am thinking this one might be a male, but a little too soon to tell. I have always loved the coloring of barn owls so it would be nice to find a turkey kind of that color... He would need a lot more white to be barn owl colored though. I'll take some more pics when he matures and starts to fan his tail, since I think he might be a male. The Blue/Red/Bronze one is 2 or 3 weeks older and I think that one is female. Hoping all the rest are female...

 

[bald Rooster]

I used this yearling Tom to breed my 3 hens, two were heritage and one was a BB.My heritage seem much bigger then the BB. I think I have 5 jakes and 5 hens left.Plus my older ones.( I sold about 60 babies and a few young turkeys) Anyway is there a way I can tell the BB mix from my heritage ?

 

[BreanneRN]

I used this yearling Tom to breed my 3 hens, two were heritage and one was a BB.My heritage seem much bigger then the BB. I think I have 5 jakes and 5 hens left.( I sold about 60 babies and a few young turkeys) plus my original ones. Anyway I can tell the BB mix from my heritage ?
View attachment 1537861 View attachment 1537862

Wow, they are big and beautiful! I'm no expert, but I would look for a heavier built meaty bird to be the BB cross. Is your yearling Tom a Heritage or a cross? How much are they weighing as yearlings and the amount of weight gain in 6 months? You could also look to colors, if the heritage hens were other than bronze. The crossbred would most likely be bronze like both parents.

 

[bald Rooster]

Wow, they are big and beautiful! I'm no expert, but I would look for a heavier built meaty bird to be the BB cross. Is your yearling Tom a Heritage or a cross? How much are they weighing as yearlings and the amount of weight gain in 6 months? You could also look to colors, if the heritage hens were other than bronze. The crossbred would most likely be bronze like both parents.

He is a heritage I had one hen out of 3 that was a bb.Im not positive but I believe I have 4 or 5 poults and five Jakes.Maybe 6 as I have a late chick I think is a tom.I have only butchered one Heritage Tom last year he was about 9 months old and dressed out at 33 pounds. Did not fit our stove.I won't let them get that big,If I plan on cooking them!

 

[HeritageHenNut]

I realize this is an old thread but I will trying my hand at crossing some BB hens under one of my home raised heritage toms. I got a beautiful White boy out of my Bronze mutts (Lady I got them from had a Chocolate Tom over a whack of different pure heritage hens), and he's miles bigger than his siblings. I think he'll be big enough to get the job done. ;-)