Pros/Cons: Eastern Wild x Standard Bronze

[Amos-Moses]

Added 2 Eastern Wild hens to my rafter yesterday. I previously thought that my tom was an Eastern Wild, but after seeing these hens and searching online I now think that he is a Standard Bronze or maybe a Merriam (the guy I bought him from claimed that he was a ‘wild’ turkey, so I assumed Eastern Wild).

Question is: if my tom breeds with these Eastern Wild hens, will the offspring be less valuable than purebreds? Or will the hardiness of the EW improve the SB traits?

What are the pros/cons of crossbreading Eastern Wild with Standard Bronze?

 

[Amos-Moses]

Anybody have any thoughts on this?

The Eastern Wild hens are still quarantined out of reach from my other birds, and I would consider trading them for Standard Bronze hens before my tom ever has access to them if cross-breeding has more cons than pros...

Personally I think a crossbreed would be an improvement (but again I have VERY LITTLE experience with raising turkeys, and NO experience with breeding them). It seems like adding more Eastern Wild genes to the Standard Bronze would make them a better free-range bird (cheaper to feed), more disease resistant, and hardier overall. I am sure the offspring would lose some size potential, but that is the only negative I can think of. Also, I wanted to see if the hens would sit their own eggs through incubation/hatching, and I assume that Eastern Wilds would have greater residual maternal instinct and thus be broodier.

If I were planning to keep all of the offspring then I wouldn't hesitate to cross breed these birds. But I plan to sell the offspring, and my worry is that a 'mutt' would be less valuable/harder to sell.

Any opinions &/or expertise would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

 

[R2elk]

Anybody have any thoughts on this?

The Eastern Wild hens are still quarantined out of reach from my other birds, and I would consider trading them for Standard Bronze hens before my tom ever has access to them if cross-breeding has more cons than pros...

Personally I think a crossbreed would be an improvement (but again I have VERY LITTLE experience with raising turkeys, and NO experience with breeding them). It seems like adding more Eastern Wild genes to the Standard Bronze would make them a better free-range bird (cheaper to feed), more disease resistant, and hardier overall. I am sure the offspring would lose some size potential, but that is the only negative I can think of. Also, I wanted to see if the hens would sit their own eggs through incubation/hatching, and I assume that Eastern Wilds would have greater residual maternal instinct and thus be broodier.

If I were planning to keep all of the offspring then I wouldn't hesitate to cross breed these birds. But I plan to sell the offspring, and my worry is that a 'mutt' would be less valuable/harder to sell.

Any opinions &/or expertise would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

All domestic turkeys are descended from the wild turkeys and are the same species as the wild turkeys Meleagris gallapovo. They differ only in the subspecies.

The Eastern Wilds that are currently available through the hatcheries have had much of the wild bred out of them. Not sure about the Eastern Wilds but the wild turkeys around here are of slighter frame and lighter weight than are the domestic turkeys.

As far as color goes, the wild turkeys are bronze turkeys so you would just be breeding bronze turkeys to bronze turkeys.

I have been raising turkeys for about 30 years and to date have not had any turkey hens that have not gone broody whether they were broad breasted or heritage turkeys. Obviously wild turkeys will go broody or they would have gone out of existence long before this.

The only downfall to your plans that I see is that you may be inadvertently breeding in a smaller size to your turkeys.

 

[Amos-Moses]

Thank you for your input! I really appreciate you sharing your expertise.

The EW hens are definitely smaller than my SB. I am interested to see the specific bronze pattern produced, since my SBs have cream and white colored patterning while the 2 EW hens have no light colors (only shades of brown).

Glad to hear that turkey hens tend to be broody, as I would love for them to hatch and raise their own poults.

 

[Cody Walker]

when breeding an eastern wild to your standard bronze, the poults will most likely be majority a mix between those light colors and the dark colors. depending how light your bronze tom is, you will likely end up with offspring that look like a rio grande or close to it. I raise pure rio grandes and osceola but im pretty sure at some point down the road the osceola have some miscolored genes. they are much too light in the tips of the tail fans and the base feathers of the tail fans. I would imagine they would still sell fine for you. the wild birds will be more appealing to hunters and less to your average turkey raiser. I ask more $$ for my wild birds because their laying season is shorter and tend to be a little harder to raise.

 

[Amos-Moses]

when breeding an eastern wild to your standard bronze, the poults will most likely be majority a mix between those light colors and the dark colors. depending how light your bronze tom is, you will likely end up with offspring that look like a rio grande or close to it. I raise pure rio grandes and osceola but im pretty sure at some point down the road the osceola have some miscolored genes. they are much too light in the tips of the tail fans and the base feathers of the tail fans. I would imagine they would still sell fine for you. the wild birds will be more appealing to hunters and less to your average turkey raiser. I ask more $$ for my wild birds because their laying season is shorter and tend to be a little harder to raise.

Thanks for sharing your expertise, hopefully you are right about being able to sell them without too much trouble.

I didnt realize wild turkeys had a shorter laying season, but after thinking about it that makes sense.

Why do you consider wild birds harder to raise? I am new to turkeys (and birds in general) and just assumed that wild birds would be easier (since they are hardier). I let my birds free range 7 acres from sun up to sun down, and figured that the Eastern Wilds would suit better to that with their increased foraging abilities.




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[Cody Walker]

I cant let my wild birds out of their pen because they will either fly away or wander off until i find them and herd them back. too much trouble and worry about they staying gone or getting killed. They are naturally much flightier than the tame(heritage breeds). I believe they get stressed out easier than the tame breeds and because of that they tend to not lay quite as well. it seems that the poults, after they hatch are naturally a little wilder and harder to tame down. Since i pen them and they can fly i have to have a net over top of them. those are a few things that come to mind as far as being harder to raise.