Turkeys!

[Dfarago]

My husband and I want to try out raising turkeys for meat. We prefer getting poultry that are good at incubating and raising their own. What would be the best breed to start with?

Not really interested in broad breasted turkeys since they don’t really reproduce on their own and have short lifespans.

 

[3KillerBs]

 

[JacinLarkwell]

I loved my royal palms. They only had one successful batch, but it yielded like 8 babies and they did really good. Except that I don't want to draw another bobcat in, I'd get them again.

It did take almost a year for my boys to be the same size as their dad though. Heritage take longer than broad breasted to fill out

 

[NY Coturnix]

I went with the bourbon red. My understanding is that with the heritage varieties the difference is feather color more than anything else. Obviously the midgets would be smaller but I went with the bourbon red because I like how they looked.

 

[Huntmaster]

Most heritage varieties are pretty close in size and can reproduce on there own. Royal Palms, Midget Whites are the smaller varieties. All are good roasting birds but do take longer to get to size. A lot of people say Bourbon Reds are a tasty roasting bird I have never raised reds so cant say much for that. I think what they eat and how they are raised has more to do with taste than anything else with heritage birds. I have raised many different varieties and found that at least in my line of Sweetgrass they get a little larger and faster than my other varieties and make for a fantastic eating bird. My line of sweetgrass came from porters rare heritage turkeys.