Breeding different varieties of turkeys together?

[Sumatra503]

I have a couple of Royal Palm hens that I would like to breed. Only problem is that I can't find any Roayal palm toms.

All I have found are broad breasted bronze (unnatural creatures that are banned from my farm), Narraganset (which to me seem very similar in appearance, but not sure on size), and Eastern Wild Turkeys (Which I love and I would love to breed if I had pure wild hens or if it would work genetically).

I'm just wondering, though I know people hate cross breeds, if the different varieties of turkeys readily inter breed. also, can wild turkeys be bred to the heritage turkeys? Just wondering in case I can't find another tom.

I am mainly looking to get some babies to raise and sell pre-butchered at Thanksgiving under the thousand bird exemption law for Oregon. Also I just love my turkeys to death and love the idea of having babies this season.

Thanks for the help.

 

[booker81]

I know I hatched out some poults this year that are of definitely uncertain parentage. I believe the mix had a BBW tom, a "black" tom (Eastern Wild type?), a slate hen, and a couple chocolate colored hens that were mixed breed. I've hatched out one white turkey and two "dark" ones - kinda looks like the Eastern wild chicks I've seen. They're destined for our freezer, so I'm not too caring on breeding for purity of the breed(s), and I got the eggs free. Nice turkey mutts The white one is already showing a bit more heft than the other two.

 

[mkcolls]

We started with 8 RP and 7 Narr last summer. Unfortunately, we lost 5 to raccoons, including our RP Toms. On Friday, March 30, we hatched our first Narr X RP poult. A beautiful bird and so far a great mix of both breeds. We only have 1 Narr Tom, 1 Narr Jenny, and 3 RP Jennys. There have not been any issues with breeding.

Our RP were really small at Thanksgiving last year, estimated dressed weight about 6.5lbs. After winter they filled out before starting to lay, although they are still small by "production" standards, which is fine for us.

The Narr Jenny is about 20% larger than the RP. They are both sweet bird breeds.

 

[GobbleGobbleBaw]

We have 3 Royal Palm's currently laying, and only the 2 Eastern Wild we have are breeding with those hens. The other toms are leaving them alone, although there is a more dominant male who is a Royal Palm but he seems to be too busy trying to fight the others than to take care of the hen if you know what I mean. We just hatched the first turkey chick from this combination, it's only a few hours old. Time will tell what it will look like, if it makes it past the first week. It had a lot of trouble coming out of the egg and seems rather week (I'm used to chickens hatching, maybe turkey's are just slower?).

 

[Lagerdogger]

Naragansetts and Royal Palms share some genes, but not others. Narragansetts are bronze based with Narragansett genes, while Royal Palms are black-winged-based with narragansett and gray genes (sort of ironic that they gray narragansett doesn't have the gray gene). Anyway, the offspring will have one bronze based gene and one black-winged base gene, and one gray gene and one not white gene (At the site of the grey gene you may find white, not white, or grey). They will look pretty much like narragansetts, but if you breed them to a Royal Palm, one in four of those offspring will be Royal Palm.

 

[MsCedarSwamp]

You have the opposite problem from what I have...can find plenty of RP toms and no hens!

 

[Sumatra503]

Thanks for the replies!

I figured that they could interbreed, since turkeys are turkeys, but I still had to ask.

All that's left now are Eastern Wild Toms.

Will these be suitable enough?

 

[HarpersGirl]

I have two Narragansett hens almost a year old. They are starting to squat for me so I'm pretty sure they wanna be Mama's. The only halfway mature Males that I have located are eastern wild. I think they are beautiful and would love to see what the combination would create. Is it possible? Has anyone else tried this cross? Results/pictures would be awesome! Is it a good idea? My hens are sisters and very sweet.. they never stray from home. Would the introduction of a Tom upset the balance? Anyone with similar experience that would be willing to share?

Thanks for taking the time to read and or reply.

 

[R2elk]

I have two Narragansett hens almost a year old. They are starting to squat for me so I'm pretty sure they wanna be Mama's. The only halfway mature Males that I have located are eastern wild. I think they are beautiful and would love to see what the combination would create. Is it possible? Has anyone else tried this cross? Results/pictures would be awesome! Is it a good idea? My hens are sisters and very sweet.. they never stray from home. Would the introduction of a Tom upset the balance? Anyone with similar experience that would be willing to share?

Thanks for taking the time to read and or reply.

At first the introduction of a tom will upset the normal routines but after a few days things should settle down.

For color purposes, an Eastern Wild turkey is a bronze turkey. The only difference between a Bronze turkey and a Narragansett turkey is the presence of the Narragansett (n) gene. The Narragansett gene is a sex linked gene in that a hen can only have one Narragansett (n-) gene while a tom has two (nn). Hens cannot pass their Narragansett gene to their daughters, they can only pass it to their sons.

Breeding a Bronze tom to a Narragansett hen will produce Bronze toms that are carrying the hidden recessive Narragansett gene and hens that are pure Bronze hens.

 

[HarpersGirl]

Thank you! Can you tell me, size and personality wise what differences the Narragansett and Bronze (or Eastern wild) have?