Heritage Turkey Colors & Breeding Question????? Help!

[Kekko]

I have a question for all you Turkey Gurus! Last year I was given a few turkey eggs by a guy that has had nothing on his place but Royal Palm Turkeys (about fifty of them). I noticed when I got the eggs that some were larger and had a lot of brown design and some were smaller and had very little to no brown some small and pure egg shell white. Well I incubated them and got six pullets that grew up to look just like Black Spanish and two that grew up to look like Blue Slates. I keep three of the Black hens and a Black tom. This year I have been breeding them and getting some pouets that look like Royal Palm chicks, some which look like Black Spanish and now this one???? So far I have hatch 28 chicks and 21 have been yellow some with a little black on their backs, six have been black & yellow like the Black Spanish, and like I said this one??? This one looks like pictures I’ve seen of a Narragansett chick or maybe a bronze? With out killing me with criticism can some one tell me what I’m breeding? This is crazy!

 

[iajewel]

I have noticed allot of people just let their birds run together. The chicks look like one type or another however have the genetics for other varieties. So when you hatch you get birds that look like what ever is in their genes that popped up. They then sell these birds as what they look like even though they have not been bred true.. That could be why you are getting a mixed lot.
Im not saying everyone does this.. Im saying I have seen allot of it in my search for Turkeys.. thus I don't have any as Im looking for pure strains.

 

[turkaholic]

Welcome to the world of turkeys! Sort of like a box of chocolates.....ya never know what you'll get. As you are finding out, most color varieties are recessive, and all have their "roots" from the bronze birds. That poult may be a bronze or possibly a Narr, since royal palms carry the Narr. gene. You will have to wait until it starts to achieve it's fall plumage to find out what you have. If it starts getting grey feathers, it's a Narr. That one poult with the black/dark stripe down the back looks like a sweetgrass.

Anyone else have any ideas?

 

[Struttn1]

Now that is cool unless you are wanting to produce purebreeds. I have 3 breeds of heritage turkeys and have to keep them penned seperatly because it seems the hens will try to breed with a tom of a different breed every time.

 

[Steve_of_sandspoultry]

Quote:
I agree. I see it all the time on ebay and other auction sites and they claim you are getting pure eggs. Some people let them run together during the non egg laying periods and even that makes me wonder as they never say how long they have been seperated before they start shipping eggs. We keep ours in seperate pens year round and keep careful breeding records.

Steve

 

[OmaBird]

Many(Many) highly repected breeders (I won't name names) have lines that are mixed. Most big hatchery's are not hatching there own either. I can rememebr when numbers where very low of certain colors you had to mix to keep genetic deversity. I don't want turkeys that are bother and sister, do you? That just weakens the breed. A Royal Palm is a mixture of alot of genes. First it is Homozygous for black wing bronze (b1 b1). It has two palm genes and two narragansett genes. I think your first cross was palms split blue. Those slate might have produced blue palms if bred back. With Blackwings Bronze and Narragansetts in the genetic make up of Royal Palms, I not suprised by you odd little poult.

 

[KOTurkeyRanch]

I was suprised by mine! I have a red bronze tom and red palm tom and a bronze hen. I got 2 rusty blacks in my clutch of 7 so it is a genetic mutation. None of those birds could carry that gene. I really hope i get a male and female as i want to breed them!

 

[Kekko]

I thank all of you that have replied to this. I thought the answers would be along these lines. I guess I'm just surprised at how many color genes there are bred into and/or out of the Heritage turkeys. This is the first year that I have bred these Black Spanish. I knew they weren’t pure since they all came from Royal Palms to start with I guess it was just a shock as to just how much variety I have got. At least I have got my feet wet now and do love to hatch the little devils. I know that the Black Spanish turkeys we butchered last fall were all big birds for six months old. We were very pleased with them!

Thanks Again and I’ll keep reading, doing and learning more!

 

[OmaBird]

Quote:
I was suprised with the black based birds in you clutch too. If you want to breed rusty blacks do not breed two together. They will not breed true. The genetics for rusty black is Genotype Bb+Rr Heterozygous for a black/bronze base with a single red gene.

 

[longranger]

Hey Omabird, sounds like you have a scientific backround or have been apprenticing with Kevin Porter.