Heritage - Broad Breast crosses

[TurkeyTimes]

Wow, that is a lot of Royal Palms, but I bet they are beautiful! Your cross-bred birds from the BBB hen look really nice! Great that they are sex linked, that way you can put them on a different feeding program early depending on what you want to do with them, and whether they are male or female. With the BBB genes you might want to feed differently depending on whether or not you were going to keep them for breeding or not. Keep us posted on how they are doing. Meanwhile, back at the ranch here, I'll be trying to figure out if my birds are male or female. They are mutts, but nice looking mutts, except for the very speckled one (that is probably a Tom). Still haven't ordered from Porter's, want to wait to be sure I have the time to raise hatchlings. But, can't wait too long, or hatching season will be over. I am going to aim for the end of July. That way the weather will be cooling down a little by the time they have feathers.

Yeah I try and keep them on a controlled diet. It's really not too bad feed wise since they free range, the crosses are great foragers unlike full BB who are lazy and lethargic. Don't wait too long there won't be any left, my hens have pretty much stopped laying now, been pretty hot.

 

[BreanneRN]

Well, it's getting to be time to raise turkeys again, wondering about an update on your Royal Palm/BBB's? My turkeys turned out to be all female and adult appearance is pretty much generic hatchery BBB's. Found a Heritage Spanish Black Tom of the same age as them, he is about the same size as them except for weight. He is very lanky by comparison and maybe 10lbs max. They (the hens) are all at least 30lbs, maybe more. 10 months old now, so hope they start laying soon! Brought the boy home on Wednesday and finally hearing gobbling noises out there! We have had a very mild winter here in California, though we are down in the 60's for highs now.

 

[gluglu]

Very nice to see people trying to crossbreed the BB`s.It will be nice to share some experience. In past i tryed to do this too with some succes. Crossed a mottled black male(23lbs) with a BBB hen(27lbs) 3 year ago and resulted many nice healthy toms, i don`t know if i got hens(couldn`t marked all her eggs). From those toms one survived(of course the huggest one) with some grey on body and white pattern on tail. I crossbreed him with his mother and got a bigger male wich will have 1year in march this year. It weights arround 30lbs. The BBB died last summer at 2,5 years age i think hearthstroke or other failure(or maybe my father really wanted to eat it, i was away those days) In the picture you can see my molted black who`s still alive at 4 or 5 years age and his grandson.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/gallery/grandfather-and-grandson.7900133/

 

[TurkeyTimes]

I'll have to go and get some good pics of the cross hens, all 3 of them are totally different in appearance yet definitely BB cross. We ended up butchering all the toms for thanksgiving birds. 4 toms dressed out between 25-30lb at 7-8 months old. A lot more breast meat than the heritage's but definitely not quite full BB.

 

[TurkeyTimes]

Here's one of the toms that was 30 dressed

 

[BreanneRN]

Wow!! He is big and beautiful! Nice color, too. This was Royal Palm to BBBronze Hen? He looks almost kind of charcoal/blue/white. Tail is very striking! Hope I can get some like this... Found a 10 month Royal Palm Tom yesterday... Don't think I have seen anything quite like your Tom on the Porter's site, that tail is unique.

 

[BreanneRN]

Wow!! He is quite striking, big and beautiful! Unique coloring, too, looks charcoal/blue/white, don't think I have seen anything like that tail at the Porter's site! A very handsome bird! Thanks for posting that pic! Buying a nice 10 month old Royal Palm, will pickup tomorrow... Hope I can have some like this one. Going to put the black spanish with a supposed BB white I have, but she is small, maybe 20lbs, more like a Beltville I think. Very sweet bird. Not really all that big breasted, but more so than the heritage. It is probably a good thing, I think she will be better able to breed and maybe live longer.

 

[R2elk]

Wow!! He is big and beautiful! Nice color, too. This was Royal Palm to BBBronze Hen? He looks almost kind of charcoal/blue/white. Tail is very striking! Hope I can get some like this... Found a 10 month Royal Palm Tom yesterday... Don't think I have seen anything quite like your Tom on the Porter's site, that tail is unique.

A Royal Palm tom crossed with a BBB hen will create Narragansett Semi-Color Semi-Gray hens and Bronze Semi-Color Semi-Gray toms. There are no reference photos on Porter's for such a cross. Porter has in the past accepted images for turkeys that he does not have a reference photo for.

 

[gluglu]

Hello. Had to search a lot for the old pictures. My old BBB had 31 lbs not 27, found my notices.

 

[gluglu]