Tips for breeding turkeys

JonathanL23

Chirping
5 Years
Nov 20, 2014
170
13
86
I hear it's hard to do. I have 3 white turkeys and I plan in getting 2 bourbon red very soon. Very excitied as there rare in my area( I'll probably be the only one in my area) but any way they will be 8-9 months in May are bourbons smarter then white when it comes to mating. I plan to have 1 red tom and the rest hens. I have 13 chicken/hens so I plan on letting them hatch the eggs. Also I had a pare of turkeys 5 years ago and the tom always would cut the hen when trying to mate , he was never successful :( any tips would be appreciated.
 
There are heritage variety: http://www.porterturkeys.com/whiteholland.htm And then there are Commercial Whites (Broad Breasted) usually those poults are sold through feed/farm stores. The Commercials do not, as a rule, breed naturally (hens can be bred to heritage toms). Commercial toms are usually "milked" and the hens are artificially inseminated.

Turkey saddles are available for hens (to prevent breeding injuries).
 
Unless you specified variety when you ordered, your turks are likely Commercial Broad Breasted Whites. Are all of yours hens?

We've only had one instance of a hen being lacerated during a breeding attempt, over 10yr, but that was owing to another tom getting in with breeding pair and trying to knock breeding tom off of hen. We are usually more careful about separating breeding pair from the line of sight of ANY other tom (they will clear 6ft. fence to usurp the breeding tom's position on the hen).
 

New posts New threads Active threads

Back
Top Bottom