Hatcheries offer many dud varieties . Once you’vedecided you want to call down bomb , choosing the correct stock starts with decide between broad - breasted and heritage turkey . If you want to erect a few large bomb to jest at for the wintertime holidays , you might deliberate a fast - growing broad - breasted type . However , if you wish to raise turkeys in the future from your own flock , the heritage breeds will naturally produce fertile eggs . In direct contrast , broad - breasted Turkey take hokey insemination , because their enormous weightiness and outsize dresser make them too awkward to mate of course .
Compared with broad - breasted turkey , the inheritance breeds have nifty disease - resistance and are better foragers , nominate them suitable for keeping on ley . On the other hand , heritage turkeys grow at a much slower pace , land up in six to seven months , whereas the broad - breasted types are quick to harvest in four to five months . Even though a heritage bomb meat projection postulate an extra two month , the reward is juicier , more flavorful meat . But if you ’re strictly into bloodless meat , the breast of a heritage turkey is only about half the size of that of a broad - breasted Meleagris gallopavo .
Raising a heritage breed for kernel might seem like a contradiction in terms , but doing so helps back up the efforts of those who maintain the inherited lines of minor and endangered breeds . And confront it : The primary design of any turkey is to produce marrow . Although turkey egg taste fantastic , the hens pose only seasonally , make egg production uneconomical as a master reason for keep turkeys . Other intellect for stir turkeys are to help uphold the genetics of the rarer breeds or simply to revel these beautiful fowl sashay around your farm .
Almost any hatchery that sells chicks also sells poults ( baby turkeys ) . Place your order early in the class , especially if you want one of the less vulgar breeds , to assure the hatchery does n’t sell out . Ordering well in advance also gives you plenitude of time to set up your brooding readiness .
8 Turkey Breeds to Consider
For the bomb - bring up tyro , the following eight breeds are worth considering .
Gail Damerow
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Gail Damerow
Potential Turkey Troubles
Turkeys are only somewhat more unmanageable to raise than chickens . For starters , they are a little less calm , and they cool more easily . When young turkeys are cold or frightened , they incline to jam on top of each other , stifle those inauspicious enough to find themselves at the bottom .
They are also more rummy ; while investigate something of involvement , a turkey might wedge its body into a tight fleck from which it ca n’t back out . Because turkeys take longer than chickens to touch maturity , they have more time to become injured , get sick or die .
Once turkey are fully originate , the trickiest management emergence is persuading hens to pose their egg in a safe space — an specially ambitious feat with breeds that can fly out of the poultry yard . With slimly more aid to contingent , though , raising turkey is n’t much unlike from hold back Gallus gallus .
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This history originally appear in the March / April 2018 subject ofHobby Farms .
