Is this the end of my BBB couple?

[sidsmama]

I'm very concerned about my pair of broad breasted bronze turkeys, Christmas and Thanksgiving. We initially got them to eat, but somehow they have wrapped around my heart strings and we decided to keep them. They were born in Feb/March. The tom has started limping really bad and just continues to get worse, he has even quit gobbling. He mostly just lays down and only move if necessary. Our female just walks around the hard making her little chirp noises. Lately, she has begun just laying down or standing with her wings pulled down. When we pick her up to put her in the pen, she continues to keep the same pose. Is this behavior normal, or is it because she has become too plump? Is it time to send our pair to the great buffet in the sky? Any insight would be greatly appreciate! Thanks.

 

[bubbalou]

Well with the experience I've had with BB turkeys is that they get so big they can't walk anymore and either starve or dehydrate cause their muscles in their legs can't hold them and I've got the standard bronze heritage right now and I have a jake with a broken leg and they are bout 45-50lbs at 6 months old and my poor hen has huge swollen feet already but yeah I think it's time (and for the animals sake too) that you either eat them or set them free.. I'm sorry ): I've had to do it too ),: my white turkey that I raised from a day old had just layed down one day and couldn't get back up (he was 5 months) and went from crawling on his "forearms so to say" to having curled feet and trying to move around by his wings to layin with his feet sprawled out to one side and I couldn't even bend his legs at all an I had to put him down (I cried for like a week he was the only turkey I named and kept in my room) ):

 

[bubbalou]

Just realized I didn't finish tellin bout my jake "Teddy" he's the sweetest but he broke his right leg 2 almost 3 months ago and it wasnt as crooked and as he's grown the more crooked it gets ): it's like at a 35° angle now but he's still gettin around good ooh and sometimes if they get spooked and they can't handle their weight they will break their legs it's awful :/

 

[sidsmama]

Thanks for the insight! I think that Thanksgiving is ready to go, even though it makes me sad I can't let an animal suffer and it is still fairly hot here and he just pants. Christmas will be going as well, I just thought we could hang on a little longer not sure though. Our ducks are going to be devastated, they are a flock and the turkeys are their leaders. We hand raised them all together. Is there a breed of turkey that doesn't have their weight issue?

 

[Hummingbird Hollow]

Is there a breed of turkey that doesn't have their weight issue?

Look into heritage breeds of turkeys. They are all able to grow to adulthood and breed naturally. The BBBs and BBWs were bred to put on meat as quickly as possible, even if it leads to disability and death. There are some really beautiful heritage breeds out there to choose from.

 

[Celie]

The humane thing to do would be to process them, These turkeys are usually processed around 4 to 6 months and not quite so heavy. These hybrids will literally eat themselves to death sooner(if diet is not restricted) or later( if it is). Yours sounds like it is suffering!

 

[sidsmama]

Well, Thanksgiving has gone to rest is the deep freeze. He dressed out at a little over 20 pounds!

 

[chicken pickin]

The same thing happened to me last year when I decided to try to raise BBWs for thanksgiving and Christmas dinner. I really really liked having them around they definitely pulled at my heart strings, but I knew they couldn't stay so to help ease me away from my dear BBWs I decided to get Heritage poults and raise them to keep as breeders so I could always have turkeys around. I decided on Bourbon Reds and they are great and it did help me keep the focus off of the BBWs and I knew it wouldn't be kind of me to keep them since they weren't made to live forever.

 

[chicken pickin]

Well, Thanksgiving has gone to rest is the deep freeze. He dressed out at a little over 20 pounds!

Wow that does not seem very large for a BBB his age. Do you have pics of them before process?

 

[sidsmama]

This is Thanksgiving on 7-16, I can't find any more recent pictures. After he was dispatched and drained, he weight 25 lbs. We have been looking into heritage breeds for next year, if anybody has a suggestion for a good website to purchase them from, I'd appreciate it!