Blue Slate Variety- Black?

[MDeezy79]

I recently visited a farm that had a good number of blue slates...
Among all the slate birds there were a handful of JET BLACK birds. Like really dark black. Asked if she had ordered any Black Spanish ever and she said all she has ever had on her farm was SLATE AND NARRI. Which seemed fishy because most of the birds she was calling NARRI were GOLDEN NARRI.. so I know at one point there was probably Bourbon or Bronze birds there.

I was taken by 1 tom that was just shy of a year old, so I took him home with me. His tail feathers are all black except for 2 that look either light grey or white. Wing feathers are almost completely black with just a few white bands barely coming through. Immediately when I got him home he bred a Narri hen before I could separate the flocks. So question is.... I am unfamiliar with this color spur off of a Slate? Does it have a name? It kind of looks like a molted black but not as much white. Thinking if I breed him to a RP hen.. that might yield some cool birds since they are both black winged. That was my thinking when I bought him. But I am not sure what to plug into the calculator for him exactly.

What did I just bring into my Flock?

Thanks in advance,

 

[R2elk]

I recently visited a farm that had a good number of blue slates...
Among all the slate birds there were a handful of JET BLACK birds. Like really dark black. Asked if she had ordered any Black Spanish ever and she said all she has ever had on her farm was SLATE AND NARRI. Which seemed fishy because most of the birds she was calling NARRI were GOLDEN NARRI.. so I know at one point there was probably Bourbon or Bronze birds there.

I was taken by 1 tom that was just shy of a year old, so I took him home with me. His tail feathers are all black except for 2 that look either light grey or white. Wing feathers are almost completely black with just a few white bands barely coming through. Immediately when I got him home he bred a Narri hen before I could separate the flocks. So question is.... I am unfamiliar with this color spur off of a Slate? Does it have a name? It kind of looks like a molted black but not as much white. Thinking if I breed him to a RP hen.. that might yield some cool birds since they are both black winged. That was my thinking when I bought him. But I am not sure what to plug into the calculator for him exactly.

What did I just bring into my Flock?

Thanks in advance,

Blue Slate do not breed true to color because they are heterozygous for the slate gene (Dd). Breeding a Blue Slate to a Blue Slate should yield 25% Black (BB dd), 25% Self Blue aka Lavender (BB DD) and 50% Blue Slate (BB Dd).

Because there is the possibility that her line of Slates has been contaminated by outside influences such as Narragansett, it is not possible to know what other hidden recessive color genes may be present.

For her Narragansetts to be Golden Narragansetts they would have had to get the red (r) color gene from somewhere. The most likely source would have been from Bourbon Red but there are other possibilities such as Rusty Slate (BB Dd Rr). I have personally seen Rusty Slates being passed off as Blue Slates.

It is very unlikely there really are any Spanish Black in the U.S. Many people think any black turkey is a Spanish Black. The APA does not recognize a Spanish Black turkey. They do recognize a Black turkey. Many people are passing off Black Slates as Spanish Blacks. My Black Slates would develop a band of blue (gray) at the base of their tail feathers as they matured. They were never pure black.

Just guessing that your new black tom may be carrying a Narragansett (n) color gene, breeding him to a Royal Palm hen should produce 50% Tri-Color Mottled Blacks and 50% Mottled Blacks.

If on the other hand he is a Barred Black (Bb1) then the match should produce 50% Tri-Color Mottled Black and 50% Cornish Palm.

Of course there is also the possibility that he is a Mottled Black (Bb1 Ccg nn) (they develop more white spots as they age) that match would produce Mottled Blacks, Black Winged Narragansetts Semi-Color Semi-Grays and Royal palms.