My Bronze Hen and Tom gave us a white baby!

[PlumTuckered]

Three weeks ago our Bronze Hen hatched out some babies. We had slipped some chicken eggs under her and when six bronze babies and one white baby hatched we just assumed the white one was a chicken from our Buff Orpington gal. Well today I picked that baby up and it's a turkey...my Husband and I had been talking this morning about how funny that this "chicken" acts so much like a turkey...LOL

We only have the one Hen and one Tom, this was her first year laying eggs..in fact these were her first eggs ever, we took her first 7 and checked for fertility then left her eggs alone until she was ready to sit. She had 11 eggs in the nest and 7 hatched. Both of our adult turkeys are Bronze. Has anyone else ever had a white turkey come from their Bronze? This is our first year having Turkeys.

Michelle

 

[Frosty]

Is it just the picture or are there a few dark flecks on the wing feathers? I wonder if your pair might have some Royal Palm in their background?

 

[PlumTuckered]

Yes there are a few pale flecks there. Our friend owns the mating pair that produced our Hen and Tom, his are also Bronze..is it possible the "grandparents" had some Royal Palm in them? He's never seen the mating pair that produced his Hen and Tom.

Michelle

 

[Lagerdogger]

Could you post pictures of the adults?

 

[Lagerdogger]

I've been thinking a bit about this.

First, it could be a mutation within the white poult itself. This is probably unlikely.

Second, there has been a suggestion that it could have some royal palm. This is not possible if your hen is a bronze. In order to produce a royal palm, the poult needs a black-wing gene from each parent. This is possible if both carry it. It would also need a grey gene from each parent. Again possible. It would also need a Narragansett gene from each parent. This is not possible if both adults look like bronzes, because if the hen carried a Narri gene, it would look like a Narragansett.

If the poult had two grey genes and no narragansett genes, it would be Oregon grey, which is not a white poult.

Another possibility, especially if the birds are siblings, is that there are recessive white genes in the line, and each of your birds carries one. In that case, you could have a white poult.

There may be other ways to get a white poult, but they would require some red genes. That's where the adult pictures would come in handy.

 

[jasonm11]

or someone could have switched birds at birth, the stork could have delived the wrong one, or it could have been....wait for it......white washed..hahaha I crack myself up

 

[PlumTuckered]

LOL @ the stork

Here are a couple of photos of our Tom and Hen

They are the only grown turkeys we have.

Michelle

 

[Lagerdogger]

They sure look like good ole bronze turkeys. I'm liking Jason's explanation with the stork!

 

[turkaholic]

Both your hen and gobbler are showing one or more solid colored wing feathers, rather than all being barred. This is a good indicator that both birds harbor palm or possibly blackwing genes. With these genes, a small percentage of the poults from this mating could turn out to be a palm or variation thereof.

 

[Arielle]

I love how knowledgeable everyone is!! Genes are an incredible thing!