Mixed or full blooded varieties

[cmobley]

I'm wanting to get into turkeys so bad I can't stand it. I did research and wanted to start with bourbon reds but eggs and poults seem hard to come by in my area south Alabama. I have been emailing a guy this morning thats gonna have mixed variety eggs for sale close to me tomorrow 45 dollars a dozen his 3 toms are bourbon,eastern,Narragansett. He doesn't keep any of them apart so you could end up with fill blooded something or all be mixed. Are there any advantages or disadvantages to having mixed turkeys other than being able to sell full blooded poults? I really want full blooded birds but starting to get to where ill take what I can get.

 

[Cattle dog Mom]

Turkeys don't really work like that. They aren't dogs for example. When you cross varieties of turkey, you don't really get a "mixed breed". You just get a different variety. OR sometimes you can get both varieties in the poults. (Some poults the same color (variety) as each parent.) For instance if you cross a royal palm tom with a sweetgrass hen, the female poults will be royal palm and the males will be sweetgrass. Rather than them being "mixed". (Not all crosses result in sex linked colors though. Far from it.) And crossing a sweetgrass tom on a RP hen will give ALL sweetgrass poults and no royal palms. But NON will be considered "full blooded" vs "mixed". Is this making sense?

 

[cmobley]

That does make sense. Basically whatever I hatch from12 eggs could result in a chance of having all 4 varieties he has, but the hens and toms could end up not being the same variety. Say his red tom over a blue slate hen would make red hens and blue toms or vice versa but not a bourbon red blue slate colored poult.

 

[R2elk]

Say his red tom over a blue slate hen would make red hens and blue toms or vice versa but not a bourbon red blue slate colored poult.

No. A Bourbon Red Tom over a Blue Slate hen will make 50% Rusty Blacks and 50% Rusty Slates.

You can run Porter's Turkey Color Calculator to get an idea of what varieties can be produced by different matings.

 

[yesterDAYNE]

Basically from what I understand, besides breeding for popular colorations that more people are willing to buy bc they are recognized (also for those who show, maybe? I know very few varieties are recognized atm), it's literally just breeding for colors. I don't think there's a benefit besides that, other than some varieties are known for being bigger or smaller, some have different temperaments or tendencies, I've also heard of meat differences? I don't process turkeys though, so I have no input on how true any of that is..

I like mixing the varieties, because when you're too dumb to understand genetics or a picture doesn't exist of certain colors on porter's, it's fun to see what the babies end up looking like when they grow up! I've always loved more uncommon variations though.

 

[cmobley]

Basically from what I understand, besides breeding for popular colorations that more people are willing to buy bc they are recognized (also for those who show, maybe? I know very few varieties are recognized atm), it's literally just breeding for colors. I don't think there's a benefit besides that, other than some varieties are known for being bigger or smaller, some have different temperaments or tendencies, I've also heard of meat differences? I don't process turkeys though, so I have no input on how true any of that is..

I like mixing the varieties, because when you're too dumb to understand genetics or a picture doesn't exist of certain colors on porter's, it's fun to see what the babies end up looking like when they grow up! I've always loved more uncommon variations though.

Yeah me to i dunno anything about the color this over that stuff. I just want something cool looking that might taste good if it comes to it lol. Either way I'm getting a dozen eggs in the morning from him so let the new adventure begin. I'm hatching out lavender orpington chicks right now. My mutt eggs I mixed in to fill voids are popping out like crazy. The high dolla eggs are gettin me worried only one outta 16 so far.