Naked Neck/Turken Thread

[pins2danes]

Hello fellow NN lovers!! I have fallen in love with these delightfully weird little beings and I can't wait to get my first babies in a week! I'm in AZ so I needed heat tolerant birds that are friendly, docile, and non aggressive that also lay great eggs. After months of researching breeds, I landed on the Turken and the fact that they are so strange looking made me love them even more! I'm hoping they aren't too broody but it's something I can look past considering they meet all my other requirements! I was hoping to get some good quality, purebred chicks from a breeder locally but I have not been successful in tracking anyone down so the feed store is getting a new shipment in next week and I'll be first in line so I can try to pick out the best quality they have. I'm so excited and nervous since I've never had baby chicks ever so I hope everything turns out and I will have 6 adult Turken friends to hang out with in the yard

and my Franny will have friends soon!

 

[Kev]

Hi and welcome! Seems there's a recent influx of AZ folks getting into NN....

NN are a great choice for sure. Hatchery stock should work well for you, they are more production bred and so their broodiness is about in the 'medium' range with some leaning more broody, and some not particularly.

If you like the bare neck look, try to pick out chicks with either no fuzz on front of the neck at all or just two wispy bits on each side of neck. The ones with a big fuzzy patch will grow up with basically a lot of feathers on the front of neck, sort of hiding it from the front. Some people like that, others are a fan of the other. Both will do well, so it's is all down to a personal preference.

Here's links to chicks with the small neck puffs that will grow 'very naked necked'

http://cdn.backyardchickens.com/f/fa/fa620552_5756_baby2.jpeg

http://cdn.backyardchickens.com/6/64/648f0322_29766_turken_chicks_001.jpeg

Here's one with the bigger patch of neck fuzz- it will have a lot of feathers on front:

http://cdn.backyardchickens.com/d/dc/500x1000px-LL-dc4e8f88_053.jpeg

Pictures showing both- in this one, middle and right chicks have the small neck puffs, the third chick has a big puffy bib

https://goodlifeprogress.files.wordpress.com/2011/04/buffturkenchix.jpg

 

[pins2danes]

Hi and welcome!  Seems there's a recent influx of AZ folks getting into NN.... 

NN are a great choice for sure.   Hatchery stock should work well for you, they are more production bred and so their broodiness is about in the 'medium' range with some leaning more broody, and some not particularly.

If you like the bare neck look, try to pick out chicks with either no fuzz on front of the neck at all or just two wispy bits on each side of neck.  The ones with a big fuzzy patch will grow up with basically a lot of feathers on the front of neck, sort of hiding it from the front. Some people like that, others are a fan of the other.  Both will do well, so it's is all down to a personal preference.

I'm actually surprised that they aren't so common here since they are supposed to handle the heat so much better than most but I know the few times I've seen them at the feed store, they sold out in 5 days or less!
Thanks for the information! Yes I like the completely bare neck, that's why I have passed on some local birds I've seen. Even though I'm not looking to show or breed, I do want as close to show quality as I can get just for personal preferences so I've been trying to read up on the standards. But no matter what, in the end I will love the heck out of these guys and they will be very spoiled with great lives

 

[Kev]

I'm actually surprised that they aren't so common here since they are supposed to handle the heat so much better than most but I know the few times I've seen them at the feed store, they sold out in 5 days or less!
Thanks for the information! Yes I like the completely bare neck, that's why I have passed on some local birds I've seen. Even though I'm not looking to show or breed, I do want as close to show quality as I can get just for personal preferences so I've been trying to read up on the standards. But no matter what, in the end I will love the heck out of these guys and they will be very spoiled with great lives

It is very odd for sure, how people are about NN. Lately, their popularity is going up though. I've been noticing the same thing about the chicks- they selling out very fast at the feed store and recently had an ad up and they sold out in two days. Many, many years ago I would have several ads and barely get responses... however it was pretty common thing for people to come for other things- like the peafowl or another breed and they end up leaving with several NN. It's like they found the idea repellent.. until seeing some in person or simply finding out they do not need any special care. Some had assumed they needed regular sunblock applications, or needed to be covered up during winters(even in southern Calif? HA) or could not be around other chickens.

Be aware that the big bibs are extremely common, even in hatchery stock. It often is half or more often, closer to 3/4 of the chicks.

Truly bare necks, no fuzz at hatch and never having feathers are uncommon anywhere. Some people like to say these are the ones pure for the naked neck, but that is not true. Majority of birds pure for the NN gene have a small what I like to call 'bowtie'- a paired clump of few feathers on each side of mid-front neck. The truly bare necks seem to require being pure for the NN gene plus a mystery gene. I can't recall ever seeing a chick with this from hatchery in person, maybe have seen a very few pictures from hatchery stock.. ironically, most true bare necks have been from mixed breed stock.

Bowties are accepted in the breed standard btw, irrc with total bare necks 'preferred'. Only the "bibs"(big patch of many feathers covering most or all of the front neck) would be considred DQ/

 

[ochochicas]

I hope you guys are right! I'll have about 20 NNs hatching right before Easter. There is only 1 feed store within 60 miles of my house that sells NNs because I don't think the demand is there. My hope is to sell ALL my chicks before they are a week old since I don't need to keep more chicks. Chicken math is starting to catch up to me! I still have some Turkens left over from my last hatch that didn't sell. It might be time for a better marketing strategy!

 

[Kev]

I used to go to this small mom/pop feed store that regularly sold chicks. One time I was not feeling like dealing with shipped chicks and didn't want to deal with bibbed chicks so I asked them to order 'turkens' along their usual chick order. Boy were they resistant to the idea.... of EVEN having NN chicks present at all. I had to do a big reassuring dance for them and promised to come back a week after picking out what I wanted on day of arrival to buy all the remaining NN if they did not sell.

Finally they did order 25 NN as part of order.. I picked out something like 10 on the day of arrival.. Next day, the rest sold out with plenty of other breeds(barred rocks, red sex links and the like) still remaining.. I said See? Popular!

They never ordered any more NN though.......

The other two feed stores in the area occasionally get them and they do sell well.

 

[DesertChic]

Hello fellow NN lovers!! I have fallen in love with these delightfully weird little beings and I can't wait to get my first babies in a week! I'm in AZ so I needed heat tolerant birds that are friendly, docile, and non aggressive that also lay great eggs. After months of researching breeds, I landed on the Turken and the fact that they are so strange looking made me love them even more! I'm hoping they aren't too broody but it's something I can look past considering they meet all my other requirements! I was hoping to get some good quality, purebred chicks from a breeder locally but I have not been successful in tracking anyone down so the feed store is getting a new shipment in next week and I'll be first in line so I can try to pick out the best quality they have. I'm so excited and nervous since I've never had baby chicks ever so I hope everything turns out and I will have 6 adult Turken friends to hang out with in the yard

and my Franny will have friends soon!

I'm so glad you found a feed store willing to have some shipped in. You're going to absolutely love the breed! Even the cockerels I have are super sweet so far compared to other breeds I've had. Be sure to post pics of your chicks!

 

[pins2danes]

I'm so glad you found a feed store willing to have some shipped in. You're going to absolutely love the breed!  Even the cockerels I have are super sweet so far compared to other breeds I've had. Be sure to post pics of your chicks! 

Oh yes, I definitely will post pics! I can't wait!

 

[ochochicas]

You all were right! I sold the rest of my Turken chicks yesterday. A lady came over that wanted all my pullets, but she specifically said she'd been looking for Turkens, too. She took all of them, even the ones I knew were cockerels (There were only two and I gave them to her for free). They are actually going to a "Family Farm" where kids and families go to visit and see the animals. The NNs will get a lot of publicity there!

Fortunately for me, there is only one farm in the county that sells NNs. People either love the farm, or they hate it. All their birds are from the hatchery and many of them are cross breeds even though they are sold as purebreds. In any event, their prices are high on pretty much everything. As long as I keep my prices reasonable I don't have to worry about competition from them. Right now they are not advertising Turkens at all, so it looks like I'm the only one that has them!

My next batch of chicks is set to hatch in two weeks. I've got a small batch of Turken X Black copper marans in the incubator in addition to all the EEs. So excited!

 

[flower]

Nava is a "her"

She told me that NAVA is a combination of both her and her husbands names. But I am sure it does not make any difference. hop humm

How are you Phage ? now there is a handle !! Bet it has something to do with your "job" at the lab.