O.K. fellow turkey lovers. How old do domestic turkeys get. How about sharing your experiences with you flock?. I live up here in Wisocnsin and on my farm I have wild turkeys and know that wome of the toms have lived for 4-5 years. This year I will hatch Royal Palms,blue slates, and Bronze. I have heard that domestic turkeys don't live that long. No cpontest here book of records or anything but just curious. John

-- John Clark (johnclrk@Elroynet.com), February 26, 2002

Answers

John, A turkey at MY place would be hard-pressed to live past Thanksgiving! ;)))

-- Judy in IN (whileaway3@cs.com), February 27, 2002.

I don't qualify as a "Turkey Lover", quite the opposite but I can tell you that my aunt had a pair of turkeys who were hatched the same year as my Arab Stallion was foaled and they outlived him. We lost the stallion at the age of 15 yrs. I have no idea how long the Turkeys lived after that, I want away to school. I do remember that old Tom Turkey and his magnificent strut though. He thought he was hot stuff! LOL LQ

-- Little Quacker (carouselxing@juno.com), February 27, 2002.

I can only speak about the Bronze broadbreast and white broadbreast turkeys, which are commonly available from hatcheries and feed stores. These birds have been selectivley bred to have much more meat on the breast than wild turkeys. Their body weight is often too much for their legs to handle, as well as their internal organs. Mostly it is the toms who have trouble first. They are fine for the first several months, but as they approach one year old, they may start to become crippled. We have had some for two years, which butchered out to 45 lbs. pan ready (no pan big enough), with no problems; we have also had some that developed leg problems the first year. There was no difference in the feed that was used.

-- Dianne Wood - Woodland, WA (woodgoat@pacifier.com), February 27, 2002.