We raise chickens for dual purpose. Our first flock was just a few layers, but we added some larger birds to start breeding for meat as well. Then I saw a Turken and did a double take. I thought someone crossed a turkey with a chicken; I wanted a dozen! They were so ugly they were cute. Unfortunately Igor didn't find them at all attractive and said no way. My whole family thought I was crazy, so I gave up.
After losing a few of those bigger birds to heat during the summer, I was able to convince Igor that Turkens would be a good fit despite their appearance. Not only do they have naked necks, but less overall feathering. A huge advantage for our climate, not to mention plucking.
We added two Turken pullets that fall, and the following Summer our beautiful boy Fugly (pictured above) was hatched under a broody. He was a Turken/Bresse mix and a great rooster. I'm sure you can guess where the name comes from,. I found him beautiful, but Igor did not and the name stuck.
Sadly, Fugly and his flock got sick with an unknown illness shortly after we hatched a dozen chicks this summer. We suspect but have not confirmed Marek's. We felt the best decision would be to put the older birds down so we did it all at once, and now we're starting over.
Fugly had a sweet disposition that won Igor over and our love for this wonderful breed lives on because of him and the two hens we had.
This thread is about our new adventure in raising dual purpose birds with our primary focus on Turkens, but other breeds may be added from time to time.
I hope you'll join in with your own flock stories and share your experiences as well.
Well, I’m a bit of a self-described chicken wh*re. To begin with I only wanted regular brown eggs, as I had only ever had white store bought eggs. My first purchase was was Buff Orpingtons, Amberlink, and Red Star. I was a happy chicken keeper until I really began to read up on the different breeds and that’s when I went a little rogue and ordered one each of the following breeds: Australorp, BCM, RIR, Blue Ameraucana (Black), SGDorking, GLW, CW, Buckeye, Barnevelder, Partridge Cochin, CCL, EE, NHR, WPR, BPR, SS, Dom. Male & female of each Welsummer and SLW and three NN (from 
Anyway, I kept 5 of those hatched (January 2019) and order 12 more little pullets in March. Two of each BCM, BO, Partridge OE, Partridge Penes, Blue Ameraucana (Blk and Splash) and finally one Super Blue Egger and CCL. Whew, that is an exhausting list, but I LOVE them all. Some, of course, more than others. Other than my OG’s (Original Gangsta hens), I believe the one I’m most proud of is the little cockerel I have raised. He’s #13 and so far is perfect. He was the first one of my incubated eggs to hatch. He is a Welsummer/BPR cross and is beautiful. The barring is there with a little of the Welsummer reds coming through and he looked like his steely gray barring was rusting a little, thus I named him Rusty. 
Good luck with these new one's!
