A century of Turkey talk 2000-2100.

[R2elk]

is there a hussy luring your tom out into the wild side?

Two.

Neighbor had 6 show up. Got them to leave. The next day they came back with 6 more.

These are ones that someone has been feeding. They do not fear me. They should.

 

[Finnie]

Captured a poult mid-yawn

This is the first hatch of the year, and the first hatch in my new Sportsman incubator. Started with 17 eggs, 14 made it to lock down. There is only one that hasn’t pipped yet. Incubator must run hot, because they weren’t supposed to be due until Saturday (4/22).

And, I’m a little surprised to see brown poults. Both of my toms are Bourbon Reds. I have 3 Bourbon Red hens, a chocolate hen and a chocolate lavender (I think) hen. I was expecting blues, blacks and pure Bourbon Reds. I guess my BRs must be mixed.

 

[R2elk]

 

[Finnie]

So I was thinking about how none of my poults are black. I don’t expect the BR toms to be split to chocolate so I wondered if the red gene could affect the black color of the poults. I looked at Porter’s color pages, and found this:

https://www.porterturkeys.com/more-color-combos

So that confirms that I have Rusty blacks, and not chocolates.

So for my lavender hen, I should get this, only diluted, and I do have one poult like that. Rusty Slate, maybe?

The rest of them must be pure bourbon reds, but they seem to have a wide range of markings from no body markings to almost a regular bronze poult markings. I wonder if that’s normal. The only bourbon red poults I’ve ever had were quite pale. Rural King had them listed as white turkeys, but I could tell by their orange heads they were mislabeled. I have one tom and one hen left of those. My other BRs were bought as older birds, so I do not know what their down color looked like.

 

[OneMountainAcres]

Captured a poult mid-yawn

View attachment 3475593

This is the first hatch of the year, and the first hatch in my new Sportsman incubator. Started with 17 eggs, 14 made it to lock down. There is only one that hasn’t pipped yet. Incubator must run hot, because they weren’t supposed to be due until Saturday (4/22).

And, I’m a little surprised to see brown poults. Both of my toms are Bourbon Reds. I have 3 Bourbon Red hens, a chocolate hen and a chocolate lavender (I think) hen. I was expecting blues, blacks and pure Bourbon Reds. I guess my BRs must be mixed.

He looks like he's yelling at you lol

 

[R2elk]

So I was thinking about how none of my poults are black. I don’t expect the BR toms to be split to chocolate so I wondered if the red gene could affect the black color of the poults. I looked at Porter’s color pages, and found this:

View attachment 3475786
https://www.porterturkeys.com/more-color-combos

So that confirms that I have Rusty blacks, and not chocolates.

So for my lavender hen, I should get this, only diluted, and I do have one poult like that. Rusty Slate, maybe?

The rest of them must be pure bourbon reds, but they seem to have a wide range of markings from no body markings to almost a regular bronze poult markings. I wonder if that’s normal. The only bourbon red poults I’ve ever had were quite pale. Rural King had them listed as white turkeys, but I could tell by their orange heads they were mislabeled. I have one tom and one hen left of those. My other BRs were bought as older birds, so I do not know what their down color looked like.
View attachment 3475795

Lavender with Bourbon Red = Rusty Slate.

If you have a Bourbon Red tom that has a hidden brown gene and crossed him with a Chocolate hen you could get Rusty Blacks and Rusty Browns.

 

[Finnie]

Lavender with Bourbon Red = Rusty Slate.

If you have a Bourbon Red tom that has a hidden brown gene and crossed him with a Chocolate hen you could get Rusty Blacks and Rusty Browns.

Hm. I wonder if I would be able to tell the difference between Rusty brown and rusty slate. The chocolate gene and the blue gene both dilute black but in different ways. Throw in the red, and I feel like I will get mixed up.

Last year I only hatched out blues and lavenders. Some with chocolate and some without, and I think I had those figured out correctly. Because my tom was lavender, I got no blacks and no plain chocolates. So I have no point of reference to draw on for those.

I will try to get better pictures of the one lighter “brown” poult.

 

[Finnie]

He looks like he's yelling at you lol

Ha ha he probably was!

 

[R2elk]

 

[Finnie]

Here’s the “diluted” brown one.

Both shades of brown (i.e. the Rusty blacks and the Rusty whatevers) all have brown legs.

I wouldn’t have thought the red gene would affect the leg color. So much to learn about turkey fine points. My black and chocolate Orpington chickens have black and brown legs respectively. I would have thought it would be the same with turkeys. So brown legs would make me think these are dark and light chocolates.