I need some turkey knowledge, please...

[Mary-Jane]

A little history, we purchased turkey poults in May, said to be 2 weeks old standard bronze poults. My tom, "Tommy" is now 7 months and weighs in at 53 lbs, his girls, "Diva" and "Baby Girl" 30 lbs each. From what I have read these turkeys are more than likely broad breasted not standard.

My question...we LOVE our big babies and are concerned about possible issues because of their size. Has anyone successfully had these type breed and hatch poults on their own? Is there anything we can do to help prevent problems because of their weight?

They sweeties are pets and we want to be sure to do all we can to keep them happy and healthy.

Thanks in advance for sharing your knowledge! We are new to turkeys and would appreciate you help If I can figure out how to post a pic I will!

 

[oldtimeway]

Definately broad breasted by their size. Problem coming from that is that big birds like that have difficulty mating. Those broad breast birds, dark and white used in the poultry industy are artificially insemenated. They will still make good pets but you won't get poults of your own, and of course you can always do with them what they were bred for.

 

[Mary-Jane]

Old time way, thank you for your response. We were hoping for poults, but we will just be happy with our trio. We are rather attached to these big birds so they will live out their lives here at The Old Five Notch Farm

 

[ivan3]

Try to keep them doing more foraging than feasting at the feeder. The hens can be successfully bred with heritage toms (our neighbor got two broods from their Bourbon tom and BBB hen. She made it three years (killed by a raccoon - not by structural collapse owing to wt. - though she did waddle when she walked).

 

[Mary-Jane]

Ivan3, thank you for the post. They have a large pen (25 x 75) and they get several hours of supervised free range time daily. We supplement fresh greens to give a variety of foods too. We are feeding Purina's Layena thinking the lower protein (16%) than turkey ration (20%) will help....any suggestions? I would love to let them, and all our poultry, free range totally, but with all the predators including coyotes they wouldn't last long.

I had thought of getting a true standard bronze tom so we could have poults, but I don't think our big man would be happy with another tom around :-(

Live and learn! We purchased them from a small, local feed store who was, apparently misinformed about the breed. When the turkeys go to the big turkey heaven in the sky we will have another breed. We are really interested in the various heritage breeds...there are some beautiful breeds out there! Until then, we'll just keep loving our big birds! Thanks again