Royal Palms

[LadyTurkey]

I cant seem to find anyone that breeds them at all. Either that or I am looking in the wrong places. Anyone know of someone in Montana?

 

[dragontamer56]

Hey, I'm in Montana too and it seemed pretty tough to find some turkeys that weren't a few hundred miles away. I found severeal people selling red bourbon turkeys wich i am gettin tomarrow. I kust posted a wtb on craigslist. Thats what i did and found somone who is a mile away from me selling a couple of hens. So i wouold start at craigslist. hope that helps.

 

[ColbyNTX]

You have to live in a state that has more than 500 people!

Your best bet is to buy RP eggs from someone up north and hatch them. Do you want RP's to eat or just be yard art? If you are eating them, there are much better heritage birds for eating. The RP's taste great but not much breast meat.

 

[Lagerdogger]

Ya know, royal palms are not the plumpest birds, but I was surprised how much meat they had after hearing how little there would be.

A RP tom is good to look at and makes a fine dinner. Last year I cooked up a RP tom and a bronze hen, and I think I probably got about the same amount of breast meat from each of them. The tom was bigger framed, and had a slightly lower live to dressed weight ratio, but if you like the looks of palms and want to eat them, I urge to not to let people talk you out of it. If, after trying it, you are not satisfied, then try something else.

 

[ColbyNTX]

Not trying to talk anybody out of RP's, heck, I have some. I said they were good but not as meatie as other heritage birds. She my have no intentions of eating them.

 

[Lagerdogger]

Quote:
And I'm not disagreeing with you and certainly not trying to have a row. I respect your opinion as much as anybody's on this website. It just seems that there are some things that are said over and over again that may persuade people not to try certain things. Common myths include(among many other things) turkeys are hard to start, turkeys poults need a chick to help them find food, and royal palms don't have enough meat to be worth eating (I know that's not what you said, but that is a common conception). So I'm just trying to throw out there the idea that if you like the looks of royal palms, and you want to raise a few birds to eat, go ahead and eat the palms. They won't be big and plump like a bronze or a bourbon red, but there is enough meat to make for a fine Thanksgiving. And they are good lookers!

 

[LadyTurkey]

I currently have bronzes and they are our meat birds other then two i have taken an extreme liking to ( they are my little buddies). I just want a royal palm male for yard art

not for eating.

 

[ColbyNTX]

Look in the farm& garden section of craigslist. Search turkey and then turkeys! The is a 1 year old for sale in Billings. Don't know if thats anywhere near you. Its under the heading "heritage turkeys". They do list it as a rogal palm byt im sure its a royal palm.