How long will BB B live?

[turkeyschicken]

I have 2 BBB Jakes and they are about 4 months old. I want to know if ill be able to breed this spring? I've heard that Broad Breasted turkeys don't live as long as heritage birds. so I would like to know soon! Any info will be appericiated!

 

[A.T. Hagan]

You'd have a lot better luck trying to breed Broad Breasted hens rather than toms. Easier to keep them small enough to get the job done.

But if you're determined to try this with toms then what you want to do is keep them on feed restriction and free range them as much as possible. Make them work for their meals and they'll keep the weight gain down hopefully enough to not outgrow their circulatory and skeletal systems and not so large that they cannot physically consummate the deal with their hens. You may need to looking into breeding saddles for the girls though.

 

[Oregon Blues]

They should live OK; they will just get really big. Breeding with the broad breasted birds is done by artificial insemination, so your birds might not be very skilled in the breeding aspect of life.

I don't think the bronze get nearly as big as the whites, and I don't know many people who try to keep their bread breasted birds as breeding stock.

If you have your heart set on breeding turkeys, I suggest that you eat those 2 and purchase some heritage birds.

If you are more interested in keeping them as pets, then you should do fine with them. It's easy to get attached to turkeys.

 

[turkeyschicken]

Thanks for the info! I had raised turkeys a couple years ago but they were wild Rio Grandes that I had hatched. The bronze are just a lil bit different. But I am thinking about raising some wild turkeys instead of bronze. I don't have anything against the bronze I would just like to release some of the birds I raise!

 

[Frosty]

If you plan to release birds that you raise, I would definately get wild turkeys. But before you do, check your state laws to see if it's legal for you to posess them without a permit and if it's legal to release. BB type turkeys are definately not a good candidate to release. In my experience, the bronze get bigger than the whites (but they were hatchery stock sold as Mammoth Bronze). They did look smaller due to their coloring so I was surprised at the weight when processed.

I held a pair over one year, then came to the conclusion that there was no way that I could do AI by myself (and the husband and kids had NO interest in helping). At about 18 months the tom processed at 36 pounds. While it may be possible for them to breed naturally, I don't think it's likely and would be really hard on the hens. Now I just have a few hens that I held over and am trying to cross with a white holland tom.

 

[KristinMarie]

I would just like to release some of the birds I raise!

You should NOT release any of the birds that you raise. I really wanted to do the same thing with quail until I really started reading and thinking about it. The wild turkeys in your area have adapted to your area. They have adapted according to the environment, climate, food sources, and most importantly, the diseases and parasites in your area. If you release birds from stock (meaning bred and raised in captivity and not having ANY of the adaptations needed to survive in the wild) you are introducing genes to the wild turkeys because they will more than likely mate. This destroys the gene pool and sets up the entire wild turkey flock in your area to be vulnerable to any diseases that they would normally be immune to. It could seriously wipe them all out if a bad disease is prone to or should happen to sweep through your area. That is why it is illegal to release captive bred fowl into the wild. Please reconsider.

 

[turkeyschicken]

Thanks for all the information and I will take it all into consideration!