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What is the difference between wild turkeys and farm turkeys?

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Answer:
Physically there's not much difference between the heritage breeds of domesticated turkeys and wild turkeys. They can both fly, naturally mate and have the ability to learn to forage and live without humans. They are similar weight and proportion. The domesticated heritage turkeys tend to get bigger than the wild turkeys because they are fed more consistently and have been bred for size. Heritage and wild turkeys go from hatch to slaughter in 6-10 months.
Broad breasted turkeys, currently the type of turkey that is most farmed, are unable to fly, cannot mate naturally (must be artificially insemnated) and have a faster weight gain than wild or heritage turkeys, typically going from hatch to slaughter in 4 or 5 months.
A heritage turkey breed is on that is similar or identical to one that was domesticated and present on farms 50 to 100 years ago. Examples of heritage turkey breeds are narragansett, blue slate, bourbon red, standard bronze and royal palm. Examples of wild turkeys are eastern wild turkey, Rio grande wild turkey, merriams wild turkey. Examples of currently domesticated are broad breasted white turkey, broad breasted bronze turkey.

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