How to choose?

[ixnay]

I have 5 Bourbon Reds, 3 toms and 2 hens. I would like to try breeding them, however, seems like I have 2 toms too many. Does anyone have any suggestions about how to choose the best male to keep? They're still maturing, so ideal breed characteristics are not quite in evidence yet, but I'm thinking it would be nice to have turkey for Christmas (they were hatched about 6/27/10).

TIA,

Nan

 

[SED]

I would personally keep two toms (one for a spare) and process the third. I would wait until processing day and choose the one that would have the least desriable traits of the three at that time.

 

[Tunastopper]

Have you looked at the ALBC new manual for Selecting Your Best Turkeys for Breeding?

http://albc-usa.org/EducationalResources/master_breeder_turkeys.html

 

[longranger]

Usually by 6 months 1 out of the 3 will have undesirable traits you do not want to put into your next generation. Just pray it is not your sweetest tom.

 

[A.T. Hagan]

Just as soon as you're down to just one tom it'll die for sure. Keep two and eat the third.

 

[Tunastopper]

It depends on your goal. Are they all unrelated? Is your goal is to raise more breeders or do you plan to eat all the turkeys that you raise? I keep quite a few turkeys for breeding. If you inbreed your turkeys get smaller rather than bigger and the fertility will drop. A few things you can do. You can have two breeding pens, with one hen each. You can keep records what tom and hen you used in each breeding pen. You can also have just one pen and alternate toms. You might find one tom is a better breeder or better producer. One might have poults that mature faster than the others. One might be a dud.

 

[Steve_of_sandspoultry]

A.T. Hagan :

Just as soon as you're down to just one tom it'll die for sure. Keep two and eat the third.

I agree 100%, always keep a back up. If you are just raising them for meat go by size and grow out rates for your breeders, if you are going to show them you are going to want to keep them until they fully grow out.

Steve​

 

[ixnay]

Thanks for the advice, folks. Turns out one of the jakes has a twisted wing (maybe the one who was pecked on the underside of his wing as a poult? They sure do try to die, don't they?), so he's likely to be Christmas Suppah! The other two display and snort at me whenever I go in the yard, but have never been aggressive except to each other. So: two females, two males, and I'm hoping for babies in the spring. Not planning to show, but I do enjoy the eating!

 

[longranger]

With good fertility 2 hens will lay enough eggs to make you sick of turkey if you are successfull hatching most of them.

 

[Steve_of_sandspoultry]

Quote:
How can you ever get sick of turkey? lol

Steve