Blue Slate Turkeys.

[Professional]

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To begin with, despite the common vernacular, the proper term for the breed is simply Slate, as officially recognized by the American Poultry Association.

 

[bibliophile birds]

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well, technically perhaps, but since there are different colors of Slate turkeys, it's fair to call the common ones Blue Slate to differentiate them from the less common lavender (self-blue).

 

[bibliophile birds]

i've found them at McMurray, Ideal, Purely Poultry, Nature’s Hatchery.

eta: oh and Porter Turkeys.

 

[Professional]

Quote:
well, technically perhaps, but since there are different colors of Slate turkeys, it's fair to call the common ones Blue Slate to differentiate them from the less common lavender (self-blue).

Slate is Slate, self blue is self blue, or as in Great Britain, simply, Blue. Continuing to add confusion by throwing lavender to the mix doesn't help anything. (But I know, lavender is such a pretty sounding name.) Then we have to get into the intricasies of the Standards, which indeed do include both Self Blue and Slate variants encompassed under the Slate description.

 

[eggchel]

The terminology for the various blue colors is certainly confusing for many, even sticking with just the American vernacular.

Is "Blue" for turkeys the same as in chickens, with two blue parents producing blue, black, or splash offspring?

And, is "Self-blue", the same as in chickens, meaning that two blue parents produce only blue offspring?

Where does "Slate" fit in? Does it correspond to any of the terminology for chicken color genetics? Blue, self-blue, gray?

As for lavender, I am somewhat confused by this term. In chickens, as in turkeys, Ive seen self-blues described as lavender but in Muscovy ducks, those that Ive seen that were called lavender clearly had a beige/brown undertone to the lavender, and the lavender did not look at all like regular blue ducks (blue/black/splash genetics) or like the color of blue or self-blue chickens. I believe that lavender is actually produced by a cross between chocolate and blue ducks.
Blue Muscovy drake on left. Sorry I dont have a picture showing the lavender color.



A few years ago, I purchased a trio of turkeys for my neighbor. They looked to be similar in color to
Chickensouix's "blue-slate" toms but were somewhat lighter and did not have any splashes of darker feathers. Here is a picture:

Rare blue mini chicken:

LOL



Please keep replies friendly and courteous. We are here to help each other with shared information not sarcasm.

 

[chickensioux]

I NEED me a rare blue mini-chicken.......

 

[Kennyog]

Eggchel,
The picture of the turkey you posted is what i would call a self blue.

 

[ivan3]

Porter has some pretty thorough info: http://www.porterturkeys.com/blueslateselfblue.htm

This was our big `self blue' back in `07. Though it doesn't show up in the shot, he had irregularly placed, faded buff feathering in his retrices.

The differences between varieties is nearly as small as the actual breeding populations : http://ps.fass.org/cgi/content/full/86/1/46

There has been some improvement in breeding numbers since the link below went up in `04, but the number of hatcheries providing heritage turks has decreased:

http://heritageturkeyfoundation.org/resources/albc_2004_heritage_turkey_letter.htm

 

[purelypoultry]

We have the Blue Slate Turkeys. Our Poults we will start taking orders for on February 1. I really love the Blue Turkeys.

http://www.purelypoultry.com/blue-slate-turkeys-p-457.html

Let me know if ya have any questions.

 

[bibliophile birds]

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as far as i've been able to find out, the blues do breed the same. self-blue and lavender are usually the same, but i've seen some places where they were listed separately. slate = blue.

A few years ago, I purchased a trio of turkeys for my neighbor. They looked to be similar in color to
Chickensouix's "blue-slate" toms but were somewhat lighter and did not have any splashes of darker feathers.

could they have been Lilacs? Lilacs are supposedly really rare, but the Feathersite pic looks a lot like what you posted. yours seem to have some of the reddish sheen in the tail feathers, which is what made me think Lilac.

Lilac from feathersite.com