[Bubbas Boys]

We ordered Bourbon Red turkeys this year from hatchery. We are new to turkeys and didn't realize for awhile they were actually Broad Breasted Bronze. Is there any reason to keep a female or does anyone keep them? Our plan was to keep eggs and hatch them out, but my understanding is Bronze don't do that.

 

[Tango]

There are several bronze turkey varieties that are not broad breasted and will breed naturally. And there are broad breasted turkeys like the Sweetgrass which will breed naturally. It depends on what you have, really. The production broad breasted bronze is the one that gets too big/ heavy to naturally mate and are artificially inseminated at the hatcheries.

 

[Jennifer L.]

You could get a standard bronze (AKA, heritage bronze) tom and the hens would lay fertile eggs. Do not keep a BB tom and expect to get much in the way of fertility as they simply are too big breasted to be able to mount and get the job done. The standard bred tom won't have that problem.

However, you'll have to incubate the eggs yourself, not let the hen try it, because again the big breasts will one by one crush the eggs as she sets. Turkeys line the eggs up on either side of their breast bones to incubate, and if the breast is a huge piece of meat, the eggs get mashed. With the standard bred birds, the smaller breast allows the eggs to be set on correctly.

Having said that, , the BB bronze are not as large as the BB whites, so if you did want to try keeping a tom, it's possible you would get some fertile eggs. I've heard fertility runs maybe 15% in these cases. Depends on how much you like to gamble, I guess.