Will free range,organic raised broad brested turkeys be able to mate natturaly ?

[razvanM]

Will free range,organic raised broad brested turkeys be able to mate natturaly ? I want to raise them in my garden,with other poultry,free range,mainly grass fed.Will they be able to breed naturaly,cuz I know factory,grain raised turkeys are not able to mate.

 

[Oregon Blues]

It has nothing to do with factory raising or a grain diet. The broad breasted whites have double sized breast muscles and they are too thick in the body to make proper contact to breed. If you would like to breed and raised broad breasted whites, you will need to learn how to AI.

 

[razvanM]

No,I dont want birds that cant breed natturaly.I will probably get some nargansetts then,btw how big can a nargansett get ?

 

[cjhubbs]

It will take Narragansett Turkeys between 24-28 weeks to reach full size. Toms should weigh between 22-28 pounds and hens around 12-16 pounds.

 

[Narragansett]

It has nothing to do with factory raising or a grain diet. The broad breasted whites have double sized breast muscles and they are too thick in the body to make proper contact to breed. If you would like to breed and raised broad breasted whites, you will need to learn how to AI.

It's not actually that simple. The parent stock which produces the terminal cross poults which we can all buy are proprietary genetics which are strictly regulated by the 3 or 4 companies which own them. They are unavailable to anyone not affiliated with the companies, and in most cases consist of multi way hybrids, not a simple two way cross. Even if one were to learn AI, you would be unable to obtain the stock to create the BB poults as we know them. It doesn't work by simply keeping some BB birds to adulthood and breeding them by AI, if they even would make it to breeding age.

Quote:
Actually, it takes the average Narragansett 24-28 weeks to make it to market size, not full size. They will continue to grow for more than a year. Per the Standard, toms should weigh 33 pounds, hens 18.

 

[Oregon Blues]

I suspect that you are mixing up Cornish Cross chickens with Broadbreasted White Turkeys.

 

[Celie]

BBW and BBB are hybrids and were bred from white Holland turkeys in 1935, if I am not mistaken and they can mate(sort of, for a short period of time) if you hold down their weight. They will litterally eat themselves to death like the cornish cross chickens, but that is not very likely if you do not overfeed them. Their downfall is that they have trumendous breasts that make the males too big in the breast area to mount the female properly, but I found with a restricted diet, the first dozen or so eggs, I got when I raised these birds, were fertie and I hatched out several poults, but some were broad breasted and some were not,and one had a sunken chest ! The BB type turkey have an increased risk of heart attacks and leg broblems, because they get so heavy so fast. I now raise the Holland White heritage breed, which next to the standard bronze are the biggest Heritage Breed of turkeys I know of. The Holland Whites are only a few pounds lighter than the Standard Bronze, and easier to dress doe to their all white feathering.

 

[Narragansett]

I suspect that you are mixing up Cornish Cross chickens with Broadbreasted White Turkeys.

Actually, I'm not. The breeding techniques for both are similar. By Cornish Cross I assume that you mean commercial broilers. Cornish cross have not existed on a commercial scale since about WWII. Hatcheries and other sources continue to spoonfeed that misnomer to the ignorant masses because it's easier than trying to educate today's average American public school product about the correct terminology.

 

[wolfie115]

We have BBW's, our tom was always too big to breed our hens. He would tear up their backs because of his weight. When one of our Narragansett toms became the boss he no longer tries so its not something we have to worry about. You can successfully cross BBW or BBB hens with heritage breed toms. We hatched a BBW/Narragansett cross this year and she grew up faster than any of the other poults we got this year (though they were RP/Narragansett). She doesn't have a breast like the BB but she does have a noticably larger breast than our other birds. It's something to consider anyway. BB hens can live several years if kept on a diet. Ours are now free ranged with the rest of our birds and we even still have a BBW tom that is 18 months old and he's in better shape (featherwise) than our hens.