Despite what you may hear, Mareks exists all over. How well some are immune to is it is a determining factor as to whether a bird is symptomatic or not. Even vaccinating is not a guarantee that you won't get some that come down with symptoms of it. The smart thing to do is to cull birds that are symptomatic. It is hard for folks who just keep a few birds around for their laying flock to follow this, but it is the way to keeping a healthier flock. Sad but true. Unfortunately, you can have asymptomatic birds that are carriers who can continue to infect other birds with weaker immune systems, and therein lies probably the biggest challenge with it.
Ralphie...
There are two different types of color genes for Blue. Self Blue, which is actually the color that people are commonly calling Lavender these days, is one that will breed true, meaning, if you breed Self Blue to another, you will get Self Blue. There are color differences in the shade of slate blue, and that includes the shaft of the feather, which is also consistent with the shade of slate blue, if I am not mistaken (haven't read about it in a while).
Rather than trying to explain the Slate Blue, which is slightly different from the chickens with the similar color, here is a page from Porter's that you can see what the combos will be: http://www.porterturkeys.com/slateselfblue.htm
As you can see, it is similar to the Andalusian Blue color phenotype. Instead of Splash, they call it Slate for the recessive color result, and that is where the black "splashes" come into the turkey's color. I hope that you don't end up culling a bird because you were lead to believe they would be useless for breeding when that wasn't true.
It does get confusing. I am not color expert and I really don't care to dig into it to see what allels are what and who carries what pattern markers or whatever. I look at the birds and think through how I believe that one bird will effect the other and discover if I am right or wrong when I hatch them. I have read quite a few people's writings about breeding the Blue Cochins and Blue Orpingtons, which I have had for a few years now. They are a pain in the butt to get right. One person will say to never use Splash, while others say that using Splash is how you get your lacing to pop. Well, both sides seem to have valid reasoning, but when it comes right down to it, it takes numbers to get what you are looking for. For most people looking for Blue anything, it is to have pretty gray birds in their flock, but for breeders who are concerned with exhibition, there are the details with this variety that take time to achieve and a bit of trial and error.
I hope this was useful to you. Enjoy the warm up this weekend. I just wish the dang wind would stop!
Ralphie...
There are two different types of color genes for Blue. Self Blue, which is actually the color that people are commonly calling Lavender these days, is one that will breed true, meaning, if you breed Self Blue to another, you will get Self Blue. There are color differences in the shade of slate blue, and that includes the shaft of the feather, which is also consistent with the shade of slate blue, if I am not mistaken (haven't read about it in a while).
Rather than trying to explain the Slate Blue, which is slightly different from the chickens with the similar color, here is a page from Porter's that you can see what the combos will be: http://www.porterturkeys.com/slateselfblue.htm
As you can see, it is similar to the Andalusian Blue color phenotype. Instead of Splash, they call it Slate for the recessive color result, and that is where the black "splashes" come into the turkey's color. I hope that you don't end up culling a bird because you were lead to believe they would be useless for breeding when that wasn't true.
It does get confusing. I am not color expert and I really don't care to dig into it to see what allels are what and who carries what pattern markers or whatever. I look at the birds and think through how I believe that one bird will effect the other and discover if I am right or wrong when I hatch them. I have read quite a few people's writings about breeding the Blue Cochins and Blue Orpingtons, which I have had for a few years now. They are a pain in the butt to get right. One person will say to never use Splash, while others say that using Splash is how you get your lacing to pop. Well, both sides seem to have valid reasoning, but when it comes right down to it, it takes numbers to get what you are looking for. For most people looking for Blue anything, it is to have pretty gray birds in their flock, but for breeders who are concerned with exhibition, there are the details with this variety that take time to achieve and a bit of trial and error.
I hope this was useful to you. Enjoy the warm up this weekend. I just wish the dang wind would stop!
