I have 6 of these white turkeys. I was planning to have them for Thanksgiving dinner, but they are too cute. every time I go to the backyard to do my work, they come to say hi or say gobble-gobble to me and follow me all around. I changed my mind. I will keep them for backyard pets and just buy one turkey from Walmart.
I bought 2 buff orpingtons at TSC. One died less than 12 hours. The other one is the sweetest, most gentle chick I have. Turns out this sweet chick is a white breasted turkey 😂. Not sure what sex it is yet but definitely will keep as a pet ❤
We bought 10 per mail order from TractorSupply , we have 6 left .. First one died 2 days after we got it. 3 more died that was less than two weeks old. Was good one minute then died the next. The 20 chickens we got, all 20 are still alive. .
We got 2 Orlopp Bronze turkeys from a local farm awhile back. Sadly, one died after a couple of weeks. (unsure why) So we picked another turkey from the farm store. It was labeled as "commercial white"... I'm assuming that's the same type as the broad-breasted white? My daughter picked it and the 2 turkeys were going to be our pets. Did we pick the wrong kinds? Are both meant for rapid growth and eating? We bought them intentionally as farm pets, not to be eaten. I'm nervous they may grow huge and be unable to walk?
The Orlopp is a hybrid that will probably do better than a Broad Breasted White (most likely what the “commercial white” is). But neither one is an ideal choice for a pet. That said, yes you can keep them as pets, just understand that they will not live as long as a heritage breed would. Now Steve has had Broad Breasted turkeys that ended up being pets, and they lived 3-4 years. And they can be quite personable during their time with you. Some tips to improve quality and length of life: - Allow them plenty of exercise time - limit feed to just what they need - no treats - keep them off sharp rocks and ground - make sure they have companion birds The main obstacle for commercial turkeys health is their weight. Keeping the weight down will help them live longer lives.
If they have a draft free shelter, supplemental heat shouldn’t be needed. Unless they will experience extreme cold temperatures inside the coop for long periods of time.
You guys may push me to sell the house and move next door up there in Idaho! That’s the retirement plan anyway. SE Idaho, far North Utah, SW Wyoming, possibly even Southern Montana. Idaho would be my first choice, love the Rexburg area!
It’s not unusual. Most broad breasted Tom’s will have been butchered between 16 and 24 weeks a 40 to 50 pound bird is not uncommon at that time. Considering yours is a year old, 65 pounds is not out of the question.
I have 10. As I purchased them from a local farm store on clearance (They were already fully feathered) I am not sure of their age. I have had for 8 weeks. how can I distinguish their age as well as be sure of their sex. Currently I believe I have all females as they all look the same to me and are about the same size.
If you’ve had them 8 weeks, and they feather out at 5-6 weeks, they are probably 13-15 weeks old. It can sometimes be tough to sex the broad breasted turkeys before 18-20 weeks. But if they all appear the same at this age, they could very easily be all females.
Yes. They can successfully mate. Your best chance for success is when the hen is a yearling. When she gets older she will be a bit larger and lose a lot of flexibility, which can make her an uncooperative mate.
You don’t have to (Steve kept one for several years). But because the Broad Breasted breeds are developed to pack on weight quickly, they tend to have shorter life spans and are prone to some significant health problems.
I want to know how to artificially inseminate them because I’m interested in breeding them on my own, I don’t want to have to buy poults and I also want to sell broad breasted poults. But I can’t find any information on how to artificially inseminate them anywhere. It seems like most small farmers are just letting the big corporations breed all the broad breasted poults when we should be more independent in that. It can’t be all that hard to artificially inseminate them so where can I find the info?? It would be very useful and profitable to learn how.
Most small farmers and hobby farms won't go through the expense (or learning curve if doing it themselves) to artificially inseminate turkeys. But if you are interested, I did find this page that has a description of the process & video showing how it is done: www.how-to-raise-livestock.com/how-do-you-artificially-inseminate-a-turkey/
