Subject: Re: Free ranging turkeys?

From: [email-masked] (Jay Miller)
Date: Sun, 30 May 1993 14:20:21 GMT

>
>I'm looking for information about free ranging turkeys. Specifically,
>I believe that there is a grower somewhere in the Northwest that
>raises turkeys that are closer to wild turkeys than to those pea-brained
>domesticated turkeys you see wandering about without a clue.
>
>From what I recall, the strain developed as unpampered turkeys
>were left to themselves to forage and breed at will,
>eventually leading to a strain that pretty much takes care of itself.
>
>I thought the grower was in the Scio, Oregon area but the Scio
>Chamber of Commerce hadn't heard of them.
>
>Can anyone help me out?
>

Someone just told me that a lot of states are introducing wild turkeys
into state parks, and there are farms that are raising wild turkeys for
this purpose, so if you contact the state they aught to be able to tell
you where you can get them.

If you find anything, please post it, I'm interested in this as well.

--------------------------------------------
Jay Miller               East Wind Community
[email-masked]    Tecumseh, MO  65760
--------------------------------------------

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From: [email-masked] (Dan Dreiszus)
Date: Thu, 3 Jun 1993 18:22:45 GMT

Several netters forwarded me the original post, which appeared
some time ago. Since there seems to be a lot of interest in this,
I'm re-posting it.

The name of the breed is the Wishard Bronze turkey. 

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The author of the article below, David Sullenberger, is a professor of 
biology at New Mexico State University. He is an AMBC member, and keeps
a flock of Wishard Bronze turkeys. For a copy of the entire article plus
the bibliography, send a 45-cent SASE to AMBC, Box 477, Pittsboro, NC 27312.

In the not too distant past turkey was strictly holiday fare. Supply was
seasonal and nearly always lagging demand, which made turkey too expensive
for everyday meals. Intense management, close confinement, balanced 
rations, sub-therapeutic medication, growth hormones, selective breeding
and artificial insemination (AI) have changed all that.

The use of AI has been critical, because over the past 25 years breeders
have been busy putting more meat on the birds - especially breast meat -
and those large, meaty breasts very effectively prevent the toms from
mating.

There is, however, at least one breed of domestic turkey that can procreate
without aid from man. The "unimproved" breed is the Wishard strain of
naturally mating Bronze turkeys. Wishard naturally mating bronze turkeys
are vigorous, flight-capable, intelligent, good-looking, weather-tolerant
and disease resistant. They got that way by virture of nearly 50 years of
what for all practical purposes amounts to natural selection - Wishard 
turkeys have never been pampered.

"They either made it or they didn't. They flew to avoid coyotes, hid to
avoid hawks, foraged for a lot of their diet ant if they got sick they lived
or died on their own." Wishard hatched eggs from his own hens, raised the 
poults to 8 weeks on wire, then turned them out to pasture to fend for 
themselves until harvest. The ranging birds were provided with minimal
care in simple facilities consisting of pastures enclosed by woven wire
fence, elementary shelters and roots, feeding and watering stations 
which were moved a few yards each week to minimize ground contamination,
and rotation to new pasture as appropriate. Breeding stock were those 
birds held over at harvest time. No formal selective or pedigree breeding
was practiced and all mating was the responsibility of the toms - exclusively.

The Wishard strain of bronze turkeys represents an invaluable genetic 
resourse of highly adapted, low-input, production meat birds. As we enter
the 1990's - a period in which our nation's agricultural productions
practices will be seriously questioned by chemically-conscious consumers,
environmentalists and politicians - there is comfort in knowing that at
least one low-input, self-propagating turkey breed is still around and 
competing nicely.

If you are interested in beginning a flock of Wishard Bronze turkeys, 
contact Wish Hatchery, Box 362, Prairie City, OR 97869, (503) 820-3509.

AMBC member Peter Jorgensen also has a flock of Wishard Bronze, and can
be reached at CS Fund Conservancy, 469 Bohemian Highway, Freestone,
CA 95472, (707) 874-2942.