Life expectancy for BB bronze or whites?

[favoritekitty]

My gawd, this is heartbreaking. See what happens when we mess with nature? Suffering

I dont know what you can do to prolong their lives. Every time I have read of a story about someone trying to raise an animal that was bred to grow too fast it ended in euthanasia. Organs fail and their bodies just cant support the massive growth rate. Im sorry

I tried to do a quick Google search and couldnt find anything helpful. Maybe a more indepth search? Are you able to free range them as they get older? I wonder if less "pellets" and more natural foods would help with the growth?

 

[briana1975]

We did the same thing. Not knowing a lot about turkeys we bought our first 2 from TSC. Well BBW are not to keep around long term. Ours are now named Christmas and Thanksgiving, after the holidays that they will be eaten on.

But we do like the turkeys very much and now we have 4 more. Two Sweetgrass and two Bourbon Reds. What a differance. They eat so much less feed and grow so much slower and poop so much less and are very beautiful. These four are for pets. I have brought up butchering if we end up with to many toms but my husband the pet hater will not let me. He has decided he like the turkeys.

 

[paulinaydern]

Our 6 wk. old BBs run a lot! They are out of their pen for the better part of the day. They are stuck to us like glue, so they spend a great deal of time jogging behind us to to keep up.

I don't want to starve them so I guess I'll turn them into The Biggest Looser turkeys and make sure they get their fair share of exercise to keep their weight down while cutting back on their store bought food.

Thanks,
p.

 

[cashela]

I guess I will have to make a bigger pen for mine or leave them out during the day to free range. I just worry because I'm not home all day. *sigh* I love my turkey's I will be heart broken.

 

[Poupoulles]

I was supposed to get a heritage mix and got a BB mix instead. They are enormous! I am limiting their feed, but still plan on eating them. In fact I can hear them through the window so their chow must be empty. Being around these turkeys (they are in a moveable, bottomless house and will be going out on pasture here shortly) seeing how much they poop, and watching them shove the food down as fast as they can, I find myself wondering how someone can decide "I want to raise confinement turkeys! I want thousands and thousands of them all in a big house!"
I just dont get it. They are shockingly disgusting. I move their house every day and the flies are awful. They poop like its a business! One day I left them in the same spot for longer then 24 hours and the grass they were on is dead dead dead!
I cant wait until they are out on their pasture during the day, and just sleeping int heir hut. They are only five/six weeks and are HUGE. Little poop factories! That said, their obvious joy when I move their house and they start chomping on the new grass and clover is very cute... There are 18 of them left, and some black spanish are mixed in with the BBW and BBB. The biggest black tom is the size of the smallest BBB hen. The biggest BBB tom is the size of a grown chicken. Ridiculous!!!! (and delicious I hope!)

 

[PineBurrowPeeps]

I have a 1.5 year old BBB tom from Ideal. He was supposed to be T-day dinner, but we got attached.
He is very active and standing/walking all day long.
That said, he does have a "funny" gait that I'm not if it's a turkey thing or just because he's well over 35 pounds.
At the first sign of something wrong with him I will put him out of his misery.
Everyone who visits the farm loves "Gobble" and he is very sweet.

 

[cashela]

I bet my Tom will have more difficulty then my hen because his middle toes are crooked. *sigh* I will be crushed.

So if I had gotten a heritage breed, they would eat less? These guys eat like crazy, I'm just amazed at how ravenous they are. I am limiting them and feel bad.

 

[Steve_of_sandspoultry]

Yes the heritage eat much less, when we raised BBW's they shoveled the food away.

Steve in NC

 

[Lilredhippie]

We have a 1.5 year old BBB hen. We bred her with a Black Spanish tom and have 4 hatchlings from incubated eggs. She is a very sweet bird, so ugly she is cute. She has been free range since out of the brooder and does very well. She does eat feed, but since she ranges, she does not wolf down too much feed.
This being said, weight is not the only factor in their health problems. These birds are bred to gain weight fast. Their organs cannot keep up with the tremendous growth, and often, like the cornish X meat chickens, heart and lung failure will be their demise if the chopping block isn't. We don't expect "Momma Brown" to live more than a couple of years. When she looks like her quality of life is not good, she will be the guest of honor at the dinner table.
We did purchase 3 more BBB to raise with the other 14 poults. We plan on keeping a hen, if there is one, and breeding her with a Narragansett tom. Should be a pretty and hefty mixed breed. The BBB and Black Spanish cross poults look to be all toms, nice size, forage well, long, fairly wide set legs, so hoping for a medium to large bird to butcher.

 

[ohiofarmgirl]

So if I had gotten a heritage breed, they would eat less?

as the all knowing Steve said... yes. in fact our BR's free range most of the time and prefer it to bagged feed. we free ranged our BBW's and they loved it too - we know they didnt grow as fast but that was ok with us.

so ...um... not to be a downer.. or anything.. but suppose you grew them out, loved them, them sold them to some one else for their.. that is.. um... "intended purpose"? that way you could love them.. and someone else could love them in a different way.. and you wouldnt have to watch them suffer or be the hatchet man.

please understand that i'm saying this as lovingly and as gently as possible. we grow our own food and i completely understand that some people do not. our BBW's provided us (and the house cats!) with many many meals. with so many people not working - and hunger in this country - maybe you could see it as a gift to someone?? again, i know that these are your friends - and turks have so much personality! so this is no judgment or recommendation that you change what you are doing. just a thought.

good luck!​