Royal Palm or Standard Bronze?

[jossanne]

Okay, these 5 free turkeys that I brought home are all males. Four standard bronze, and one royal palm. I want turkeys for fun and for meat, and want to get a couple of females to go with whichever breed I decide to keep.

So far, I'm reading that RP's aren't really great table birds because they're not very meaty. Looking at him compared to the bronze, he is definitely narrower through the chest. Some of the bronze are shorter than him, but still a couple inches broader.

I like the idea of the RP more, though, because he's so pretty and his feathers are mostly white. This seems like it would make it easier to dress out a nice-looking carcass. We butchered barred rock cockerels this last winter, and then we butchered out some Cornish X chickens in the spring, and it was much easier to make the skin look clean and feather-free on the white chickens. Will I have this same issue with bronze turkeys?

There are 8 people in my family, including 5 boys who are starting to eat us out of house and home. So, basically, we need a good-sized turkey to roast for our crowd. No midget whites for us!

So with those things in mind, which should we keep, and what female should I look for? Bronze or Royal Palm?

THANKS!

 

[Harp Turkey Ranch]

The RP's will not dress out nice, they will have more bone to meat ratio. Very narrow breasts.

If you want a nice size heritage bird with white feathers then you need to look at white hollands.

We raise and slaughter bronzes and never had a problem, only time you get problems with pin feathers is on older birds that have started to go thru a molt. Ours dress out real nice.

 

[Steve_of_sandspoultry]

Bronze, our kids will eat the turkey, the plates, the table, and probably the floor heading for the fridge.

The Palms are great eye candy and tasty but the pounds of meat just isn't there.

Something to think about when you are raising them to feed the family is you don't have to do the "whole" bird. We skin alot of ours into bonless skinless breast fillets, leg 1/4's and wings. takes up alot less freezer space and processing is super fast. For your crowd you could do 3 meals per bird will extra fillers of course.

Steve in NC