Facebook groups:
Heritage Turkey Hobbyist: https://www.facebook.com/groups/Heritageturkeys
Backyard Turkeys: https://www.facebook.com/groups/162633030954925
Backyard Turkey Connection: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1129700520756155
Source: https://livestockconservancy.org/index.php/resources/internal/heritage-turkey
Definition of a Heritage Turkey
All domesticated turkeys descend from wild turkeys indigenous to North and South America. They are the quintessential American poultry. For centuries people have raised turkeys for food and for the joy of having them.
Many different varieties have been developed to fit different purposes. Turkeys were selected for productivity and for specific color patterns to show off the bird’s beauty. The American Poultry Association (APA) lists eight varieties of turkeys in its Standard of Perfection. Most were accepted into the Standard in the last half of the 19th century, with a few more recent additions. They are Black, Bronze, Narragansett, White Holland, Slate, Bourbon Red, Beltsville Small White, and Royal Palm. The Livestock Conservancy also recognizes other naturally mating color varieties that have not been accepted into the APA Standard, such as the Jersey Buff, Midget White, and others. All of these varieties are Heritage Turkeys.
Heritage turkeys are defined by the historic, range-based production system in which they are raised. Turkeys must meet all of the following criteria to qualify as a Heritage turkey:
1. Naturally mating: the Heritage Turkey must be reproduced and genetically maintained through natural mating, with expected fertility rates of 70-80%. This means that turkeys marketed as “heritage” must be the result of naturally mating pairs of both grandparent and parent stock.
2. Long productive outdoor lifespan: the Heritage Turkey must have a long productive lifespan. Breeding hens are commonly productive for 5-7 years and breeding toms for 3-5 years. The Heritage Turkey must also have a genetic ability to withstand the environmental rigors of outdoor production systems.
3. Slow growth rate: the Heritage Turkey must have a slow to moderate rate of growth. Today’s heritage turkeys reach a marketable weight in about 28 weeks, giving the birds time to develop a strong skeletal structure and healthy organs prior to building muscle mass. This growth rate is identical to that of the commercial varieties of the first half of the 20th century.
Beginning in the mid-1920s and extending into the 1950s turkeys were selected for larger size and greater breast width, which resulted in the development of the Broad Breasted Bronze. In the 1950s, poultry processors began to seek broad breasted turkeys with less visible pinfeathers, as the dark pinfeathers, which remained in the dressed bird, were considered unattractive. By the 1960s the Large or Broad Breasted White had been developed, and soon surpassed the Broad Breasted Bronze in the marketplace.
Today’s commercial turkey is selected to efficiently produce meat at the lowest possible cost. It is an excellent converter of feed to breast meat, but the result of this improvement is a loss of the bird’s ability to successfully mate and produce fertile eggs without intervention. Both the Broad Breasted White and the Broad Breasted Bronze turkey require artificial insemination to produce fertile eggs.
Interestingly, the turkey known as the Broad Breasted Bronze in the early 1930s through the late 1950s is nearly identical to today’s Heritage Bronze turkey – both being naturally mating, productive, long-lived, and requiring 26-28 weeks to reach market weight. This early Broad Breasted Bronze is very different from the modern turkey of the same name. The Broad Breasted turkey of today has traits that fit modern, genetically controlled, intensively managed, efficiency-driven farming. While superb at their job, modern Broad Breasted Bronze and Broad Breasted White turkeys are not Heritage Turkeys. Only naturally mating turkeys meeting all of the above criteria are Heritage Turkeys.
Prepared by Frank Reese, owner & breeder, Good Shepherd Farm; Marjorie Bender, Research & Technical Program Manager, The Livestock Conservancy; Dr. Scott Beyer, Department Chair, Poultry Science, Kansas State University; Dr. Cal Larson, Professor Emeritus, Poultry Science, Virginia Tech; Jeff May, Regional Manager & Feed Specialist, Dawes Laboratories; Danny Williamson, farmer and turkey breeder, Windmill Farm; Paula Johnson, turkey breeder, and Steve Pope, Promotion & Chef, Good Shepherd Farm.
According to the Livestock Conservancy, America claimed only 1,300 heritage turkeys in 1997; today, that number sits at around 30,000.
modern farmer
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Heritage Turkey Breeds for the Homestead
The Self Sufficient HomeAcre
Homesteaders looking to increase self-reliance and provide their own Thanksgiving meals are often interested in heritage breeds of turkey. There are a variety of different breeds to consider keeping and it can be confusing to choose just one!
I’ve raised both heritage turkey breeds and broadbreasted hybrids and there are pros and cons for each. Here are some of the reasons to choose heritage turkeys…
- Heritage turkeys like to forage for a lot of their own grub, cleaning up pests around the homestead.
- They don’t need as much feed as ‘Broad Breasted’ (BB) turkeys. You will need to feed the breeding stock year-round, however.
- Heritage turkeys reproduce naturally while BB turkeys must be artificially inseminated.
- By raising a heritage breed, you are helping livestock conservation efforts.
If you decide that raising heritage turkey breeds is right for your homestead, you’ll want to choose the best breed for your needs. To help you with this task, I’ve compiled the following list of the breeds commonly available as day-old poults through hatcheries in the United States. You may also find local breeders with a wider selection.
Turkey Breeds I’ve Raised on My Homestead
I’ve raised Narragansetts and Black Slate turkeys, as well as the Broad Breasted White and Bronze turkeys that are commonly raised for Thanksgiving. I’ve had good experiences with most of these, although the Black Slate tom was aggressive.
I’ve also butchered all of these breeds and have found that the broadbreasted turkeys are my favorite for dressing out. I’ve read some reports of people who have successfully bred the broadbreasted hybrids before the toms reached full size. I’d like to try this someday.
The Narragansetts were my favorite heritage breed for a small homestead because they got along well with my other birds. They were docile to raise and the hens go broody. In the future, I hope to raise the Midget White breed.
Heritage Turkey Breed List
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Feathered Forefathers: The Top Ten Heritage Turkey Breeds
Heritage turkeys are long-lived, slow-growing and endangered to various degrees but these historic turkey breeds are increasingly being recognized as welcome alternatives to industrially-bred turkeys.
Auburn Turkey
Although Auburn turkeys have been referenced in written records since the late 18th century, this reddish-brown feathered domestic turkey is today one of the rarest of the designated heritage breeds. Auburn (also known as Light Brown) turkey toms can weigh up to 35 pounds.
Buff Turkey
Buff turkeys derive from the mid-Atlantic region and are known for their abundance of white pinfeathers. The Buff was listed as a heritage breed by the American Poultry Association in 1874 but as relatively few birds could meet the APA’s strict Standard of Perfection requirements, they were removed from the Standard and became extinct. Efforts to revive the breed began in the 1940s with the so-called Jersey Buff eventually emerging as a small-to-medium sized whose young toms weigh in at around 21 pounds.
Black Turkey
Also known as the Black Spanish or Norfolk Black, Black turkeys descend from Aztec turkeys brought back to Europe by early Spanish explorers and conquistadors. This black-feathered heritage breed was then taken to the New World and one may have served as the first “Thanksgiving Turkey” enjoyed by the Pilgrims in Plymouth Colony. Black turkeys are relatively common in Europe though they have become rare in North America.
Bourbon Red Turkey
Bourbon Red turkeys were developed in Kentucky and Pennsylvania through cross-breeding Buff, Standard Bronze, and White Holland Turkey heritage turkeys. The APA officially recognized the Bourbon Red as a distinct heritage variety in 1909. Today, the American Livestock Breeds Conservancy estimates there are roughly 5,000 breeding birds in the country, making the Bourbon Red one of the most popular heritage turkeys in the United States.
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Other
modern farmer: The Case for Heritage Turkeys
Almost every turkey sold in the United States was bred to develop a grotesquely large chest. But there’s a more human way to raise a holiday bird. Here’s how.
If Benjamin Franklin had gotten his way, the turkey might have become America’s national symbol. In a 1784 letter to his daughter, the founding father described the bald eagle as a “rank coward” of “bad moral character.” The turkey, Franklin wrote, “though a little vain and silly, [is] a bird of courage,” one that seemed more representative of the newly formed United States: “Eagles have been found in all countries, but the turkey was peculiar to ours.
Despite this ringing endorsement, the native fowl went on to develop a bad rap over the interceding centuries. Plenty of folks love turkey, roasted and smothered in gravy, on a holiday platter. But most consider the living, breathing birds dumb as doorknobs, so much so that “turkey” has come to mean “fool” or “failure.” And while it’s true that many domesticated breeds stare at the sky with their beaks open – giving rise to the urban myth that they unwittingly drown during rainstorms – the habit is, in fact, a harmless genetic quirk.
“Heritage turkeys are actually pretty intelligent,” says Marcia Stevers, who raises 25 of the birds at her Blue Haven Farm outside Toronto. “If they know your voice, they’ll come to you.” Heritage breeds, descendants of the wild turkeys that once roamed North and South America, were all established before the advent of factory farming. They grow at a moderate rate – reaching market weight, between 10 and 28 pounds, in around 28 weeks – which allows their bodies time to develop properly.
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Broadbreasted vs Heritage… What’s the Best Turkey for Your Homestead?
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Heritage turkeys – United Kingdom
http://www.heritageturkeys.co.uk/
Welcome to Heritage Turkeys Website, a National Collection of Traditional Varieties of Turkey
At Heritage Turkeys we keep all the UK recognised varieties of heritage turkey and these are: Blue, British White, Bourbon Red, Bronze, Buff, Harvey Spotted, Narragansett, Norfolk Black, Crollwitzer/Pied, and Slate.
It is sad to confirm that all the heritage varieties of turkey in the UK are on the Rare Breed Survival Trust Watchlist. We are the first location where all heritage varieties of turkey could be found alongside each other, but more importantly, with all breeding.
Give the extremely low numbers of some varieties there is a very real danger thay they could be lost forever, but at Heritage Turkeys we are doing all we can to halt the decline. We believe the most effective way to retain and sustain the traditional varieties of turkey is through careful management of core breeding stock with surplus birds sold on to an ever growing band of traditional turkey enthusiasts.
This website is intended to highlight the diverse varieties of turkey available, identify why it is important to retain traditional varieties, inform potential keepers how best to maintain a healthy and happy flock, and to entertain you with regular updates of our turkeys antics.
If you have any questions about Heritage Turkeys, would like to know more about the availability of varieties we raise, or just want to ask a turkey related question, please do not hesitate to contact us.
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Videos
Turkey business (please note: non-heritage – Broad Breasted Whites on pasture):
Associations
Heritage Turkey Foundation
The Heritage Turkey Foundation was formed to protect the surviving heritage turkey strains and re-introduce them to the American marketplace. The Foundation is non-profit but does not accept tax-exempt charitable contributions or seek members. We are food activists supporting this exciting project. The Heritage turkey project is a tremendous success in the making.
