A century of Turkey talk 2000-2100.

[chickadoodles]

Enjoy Ralph.

 

[R2elk]

Oh yes. Full strut every morning. He/she's always strutting to threaten the chickens away and has an ongoing thing against my one rooster. Every morning and numerous times throughout the day.

He/she was being totally uncooperative while i was trying to get pics but i tried lol. The snood is never any bigger than it is in the pics. Also, i don't have a flash so a couple pictures make the feathers look really dark.

Those sure look like the darker mature feathers and they clearly have a light bottom edge on the breast feathers.

I suspect that she is strutting because she has an ongoing feud with your rooster. Her legs are thinner like a hen and the smaller snood also says she is a hen. I am also confident that she has never gobbled.

I had my bearded hen all puffed up and strutting the other day because one of the other hens was laying an egg right in front of her. Hens do strut.

 

[memphis]

I say hen. My Bourbon Red hen struts occasionally. Never have seen the Blue Slate strut.

 

[mountain mom]

Ralph, it sounds amazing! You really are living on the edge... There is an awful lot of spice in your dinner, for a Northerner!

I am currently toasting Blue with my spiced sour ale.

Edited to add: UMMM... are you getting rid of the Guineas?!

 

[memphis]

Ralph...how did the Cajun Buttered Blue turn out?

 

[mountain mom]

R2Elk-
Do chocolate hens have the white tip on their feathers as well? I've got a 20 week old that has had me guessing lately...

 

[duluthralphie]

Ralph, it sounds amazing! You really are living on the edge... There is an awful lot of spice in your dinner, for a Northerner!

I am currently toasting Blue with my spiced sour ale.

Edited to add: UMMM... are you getting rid of the Guineas?!

I have no idea.. The guy from craigslist did not show, I might just release some of them and eat the rest.

Ralph...how did the Cajun Buttered Blue turn out?

It is smelling great! It will not be done for an hour or so, We eat late

 

[R2elk]

R2Elk-
Do chocolate hens have the white tip on their feathers as well? I've got a 20 week old that has had me guessing lately...

I just greatly enlarged the Chocolate hen pics on Porter's site and yes they do have a light colored edge on their breast feathers although it is not as pronounced as with the Bourbon Red hens.

The breast feather trick is supposed to apply to any dark feathered turkeys. I can verify that it really does work on Bourbon Reds and Bronzes. With my Blue Slates and Self Blues, I have a hard time noticing the light edge on the hen's breast feathers but I find it very easy to see the dark edges on the tom's breast feathers. I have ten approximately 3 month old poults that are either self blue or blue slate and I can easily see the dark edges on the breast feathers of 9 of them with the possibility that one blue slate may be a hen or else since it is about 3 weeks younger than most of them it just might be too early to tell.

By the time the breast feather trick works there are usually a number of other signs that are dead give-a-ways as to the sex of the poults. When you only have one or two it can be difficult to see any of those differences because you may well only have one sex to compare against.

At 20 weeks your turkey should be old enough to accurately sex unless it just happens to be one of those late developing toms.

Good luck.

 

[memphis]

Looking at Aurora ' s Bourbon...I see the lighter colored edging on the feathers. I also think she has girlie legs. Wouldn't a Tom's legs be thicker?

 

[OneMountainAcres]

Thank you everyone. I guess Adam is now officially Eve again lol. Of course, now that she answers to Adam haha! Now I'm hoping that one of the 3 little ones is a Tom. They are 5 weeks younger than Eve.