Heritage Turkeys

CHERRY CREEK CANADIANS

Heritage Turkeys

Given our interest in raising other rare, endangered heritage breeds, in 2009, we embarked on a new venture of raising heritage turkeys and are proud to announce that as of 2011, we have a small but very productive breeding flock of Ridley Bronze turkeys. We also used to have Blue Slate turkeys as well, however to decrease our workload, as of June 2011, decided to sell our Blue Slate breeding flock and concentrate our efforts on just the Ridley Bronze.

For those who are not familiar with heritage turkeys, here is a short description from Wikipedia:

"A heritage turkey is one of a variety of strains of domestic turkey which retains historic characteristics that are no longer present in the majority of turkeys raised for consumption since the mid-20th century. Heritage turkeys can be differentiated from other domestic turkeys in that they are biologically capable of being raised in a manner that more closely matches the natural behavior and life cycle of wild turkeys. Heritage turkeys have a relatively long lifespan and a much slower growth rate than turkeys bred for industrial agriculture, and unlike industrially-bred turkeys, can reproduce without artificial insemination."

"Along with the adoption of the Broad Breasted White by industrial producers, other turkey varieties faded in numbers. Other than exhibition birds and those on a scant few small farms, other turkeys virtually disappeared. By the end of the 20th century, all but the Broad Breasted White were in danger of extinction. Around this time, conservation organization began to recognize the plight of heritage turkeys; the American Livestock Breeds Conservancy (ALBC) considered heritage turkeys to the most critically endangered of all domestic animals circa 1997. A census conducted by the Conservancy found less than 1,500 total breeding birds (out of all heritage varieties) were left in the country. Some breeds, such as the Narragansett, had less than a dozen individuals left, and many considered most heritage turkeys to be beyond hope."

We decided to once again do our part to help a very rare, endangered Canadian Heritage breed - the Ridley Bronze turkey. As it turned out, they were far more difficult to find and obtain than either our Canadian Horses or Chantecler chickens were. A recent census done in 2010 of this uniquely Canadian Heritage turkey (which was developed at the University of Saskatchewan), indicates there are less than 100 Ridley Bronze breeding hens currenly in existence!!! Clearly they are in need of any little bit of help that we could provide. Ultimately we were very fortunate to be able to source some Ridley Bronze eggs from private breeders in Ontario.

While trying to obtain our Ridley Bronze turkeys, we decided to start with another rare heritage turkey, the Blue Slate, in the interim.

Of note, both types of turkey are classified as "Critical" with less than 100 breeding females in existence, by Rare Breeds Canada. For more information on this, see the Rare Breeds Canada website.

We have found both types of turkeys to be very hardy, intelligent (no "stupid" meat birds these ones!), as well as very friendly and sociable. Not to mention incredibly entertaining! We have been enjoying them thoroughly. Thus our rare heritage turkey breeding program has begun...

Ridley Bronze turkey

A population census of the Ridley Bronze turkey was completed in 2011, and unfortunately it seems that there are only about a total of 100 of these exceedingly rare turkey hens in existence today.
For more information on the Bronze Ridley turkey (another uniquely Canadian and very rare breed),
please see the Canadian Farm Animal Genetic Resources Foundation website.

Blue Slate turkey

Please note: We no longer have any Blue Slate turkeys available as we sold our breeding flock of these in June 2011

For more information on the Blue Slate turkey, see the avianweb.com website.

Heritage Turkey Sales

We will be accepting orders for hatching turkey eggs and day old poults starting January 2012. See our poultry order form link below.

Please note: any birds sold are available on a farm pick up basis only. We do not ship any birds!

For information on our farm, poultry, horses, or on the Canadian Horse breed in general, please feel free to contact us.

If you will be in the neighbourhood and want to come see our horses and farm,
please feel free to contact us to set up a time, and to get directions. We always welcome visitors!

Updated December 21, 2011