Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
To keep young birds from flying up into the trees, trim the ends of their flight feathers. I
trim to the edge of the wing on flighty types, but leave an inch or so on calmer birds.
To confine your birds to a smaller area, make sure you get the wing feathers trimmed
or they will decide that roosting in the trees is much more to their liking than roosting
inside a shed. Try to catch them and trim their wings before they fly up high in the tree
at night.
Breeds
Once you've decided whether you will raise commercial broad-breasted turkeys or nat-
urally mating heritage types, you have conquered your first battle. Your next decision
involves choosing a particular breed to raise.
Commercial Turkey Strains
Commercial broad-breasted turkeys typically come in one or two strains. Brand or trade
names of the commercial white turkey and its bronze-colored broad-breasted version ex-
ist, but basically there are only two choices for commercial type turkeys in the United
States. These turkeys are all basically forms of the same bird type with white feather
coloring.
Broad-breasted, commercial, bronze strains are usually just a cross between a white
parent and a bronze-colored parent (not a naturally mating or true bronze turkey).
These large commercial turkeys are selections, like the commercial broiler chickens (see
