Blue slate turkey poult question, with lots of pics

[megshenhut]

Man, I wish a hatchery would send me a box of birds by mistake!! In your blue slate pics, you have 2 self blues and 3 blue slates. When the blue slates feather out, they will have a few black feathers here and there. The self blues will stay lighter blue (grayish) and have no black feathers. It's the blue genetics thing when hatching out blue slates. You get blue slates, self blues and black. The hatcheries don't send out the blacks......

No one wants blacks when they order blues.

 

[LarryPQ]

Wow. Where is my box of poults?

 

[ColbyNTX]

Looks like a couple of self blues and 3 slates. Be sure to put something like paper towles or pine shavings in the tote. That bottom is too slick and you will get leg problems. Congrats! Too bad you don't eat meat because they are great.

 

[jc12551]

Don't worry, there are paper towels in the tote. I guess it would be too much to hope that the self-blues are a pair, right?

Hubby is out working on a turkey pen right now. We have 150 feet of wire--i'm encouraging him to use it all

I need to go buy another brooder light today so I can see if the outdoor brooder can be heated properly. The laundry room is so small I can't wash clothes until the birds are gone. I figure that should hurry hubby up a bit!

If I believed in Karma, this would affirm it. The hatchery forgot to put my order (for chicks) in the queue in February for a March delivery. I had confirmation that they would come the last week of March, but they didn't come. Then my order that is shipping two months after I requested it gets murdered by the post office last week. Funny thing was they were worried about me being inconvenienced by the turkeys and apologized profusely. I wonder if they will still send me the extra birds that were promised as an apology?

 

[ColbyNTX]

Quote:
Well, it could be a pair of selfs but you will also have slates and breeding self blue to slate will give you about 50/50 in both with no black.

 

[jc12551]

Thanks for the information!

 

[CedarOR]

My thing in turkeys are Slates. I have other varieties, but will always raise the Slates. I realize this is an old thread, but in case anyone else wanted to know sometime...

The greyish ones with the white faces are Splash/Slates. The ones which are all lighter will be Self Blue/Lavenders.

When breeding Slate to Slate, the results are turkeys of three different colors - Slate, Self Blue and Black.
When breeding Self Blue to Self Blue, only Self Blues result.
When breeding Self Blue to Black, only slates result.
When breeding Slate to Black both slates and blacks result, with no self blues.
When breeding Self Blue to Slate both Slates and Self Blues result, with no blacks.
When breeding Black to Black, just Blacks result.
​

I have Slates hatching right now in the incubator as I type this. A Splash tom with a Splash hen and a Self-Blue hen so far has produced today 1 Black, the rest Slates and 2 more eggs to go which have pipped. I am hoping for one Self-Blue/Lavender, but I suspect I will get 1 more Black from the bit of darkness on the little beak I can see.

Cedar

 

[CedarOR]

My appologies, I did not see there was a second page of replies.

Cedar

 

[ivan3]

CedarOR, thanks for posting the info. When you get a chance, post up a shot of the current crop of poults.

 

[CedarOR]

I will do so

Cedar