Who has turkeys?

I am wondering who has turkeys? What kind(s) do you have? What do you like about the ones you have and what do you dislike about them? Just curious to see everyone's thoughts on the different breeds.

I have a pair of royal palms which I just got. I love them! I giggle every morning because my children also really like them. They "gobble" at them when they leave the house in the morning to go to the bus. Of course the Tom gobbles right back at them. I have not had them long enough to have found specific likes or dislikes of them yet.

Our first turkeys were the BBB from Rochester. LOVED them. We raised 2 and they were both boys, Yolker and Stripey. These boys were the farm greeters, and so friendly. We found a hen and then hatched Rosie. She is still here and loves attention.
We tried out an assorted order of Royal Palms, Blue Slates, Bourbon Reds, Black Spanish and the US version of the BBB. From those we decided we liked the Bourbon Reds because they are a stunning looking bird, clean up nicely when butchered, and are not overly large when full grown.
The Blue Slates basically the same reasons, except I am a bit bias on blue so had to have blue turkeys too.
And finally kept Rosie and Yolker because they were pets, we now cross over our Black Spanish/BBB tom to our BBB hen because we have not found a tom we like, this cross seems to be the best of both worlds, not overly large and just a bit darker than the Bronze in the tail.

I had a hard time with the Royal Palms, they were gorgeous birds, but didnt thrive here in the elements as the other birds did, always seemed cold and so they had to go. And the US version of the BBB was just plain aweful. They were like the cornish rocks of the chicken world, they were cripled up quickly and just grew much too fast for my liking.

I have Ridley bronze and bourbon red, the bronze are native to Saskatchewan and Alberta, very lovable and very friendly, the ones butchered 2 years ago were between 14 and 35 pounds, and they are by far one of the best meat birds.

We have some beltsvilles, I love them. They are a nice size for our smaller farm, and won't butcher out too huge for average families to be intereste in them. They are very, very inquisitive and in your face, so if that's not something you like, don't get them! LOL I'm pretty sure our tom thinks my VW Golf is a big turkey and he show's off for it... Funny guy. I like that they eat less then big honkin' turkeys, they grow slow and steady and are naturally breeding. They DO look ugly when it's muddy, and they ARE nosey to the point that you can't leave a full wheelbarrow unattended or it will soon be on it side and empty... but overall I like them. Also, they are well behaved and go where they are told for bedtime, they all roost high up in the coop, but at least they are in the coop!

We had blue slates previously and found that the line we had was not friendly, but rather stand-offish and flighty. Not so much what we wanted. They were also hard to contain and did whatever they pleased when it came to sleeping arrangements. Sigh.

I had a pair of Narragansetts a few years ago. Nice birds but I had no luck breeding them. Tried finding some new blood but had no luck there either. They eventually passed on.

Now I have a three bronze. One hen and her tom and a spare tom. Oh no, I'm not butchering the spare. The minute I do that, the other fellow will drop dead! Beautiful birds. Very nice and docile.

Hoping for fertile eggs this spring.

Bourbon Reds are the ones for me. I hope to get some eggs here this year and keep some breeders over the winter. They are goofy, nosy and endearing and absolutely the tastiest turkeys we grew! I'd love a few varieties, but with keeping them separate form the chickens and the 70 day clearout for breeding, it's too long and I don't want them penned up all the time. With just one breed thee can roam and breed and not be crossbred. Good question, they are all so beautiful. I miss mine, I loved making them gobble! You just had to say gaba-gaba-gaba and off they went!