Naked Neck/Turken Thread

Sandie, yours just happen to be pure for the naked neck gene plus lack the bowtie. Total lack of bowtie appears relatively uncommon.. and is desired by some(but also mistakenly believed as "pure bred trait" by some). There's a visible difference between birds with one or two copies of the gene.. can be seen even on newly hatched chicks- pure ones are a lot more naked. One of the most visible differences is the size of bowtie, not pures have a very large one with feathers covering most of the lower front neck, including the crop area.

Chick on left has only one gene, right has 2. You can see quite good difference in amount of nakedness & size of bowties- one on left has more of a bib. can even see the crop area in this:

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Above chicks still had bowties.. this one was born completely naked necked:

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Naked crops is normal on birds pure for the gene too. I'm guessing you're just seeing a lot of birds with only one copy of naked neck gene.. those are extremely common.
 
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I had gotten 4 turken pullets from MPC and they are now 11 weeks old. I was wondering what leg color they should have??? Three of mine have an off yellow leg color. Not as yellow like a leghorn but a darker yellow and only one has a dark leg color. I really like the turkens. They have a different sound than all of my others and the most piercing gaze!!

Here is a pic of some and you can see the different leg colors!

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Here are 2 of them in the picture and you can see the difference in the leg colors
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Not the best pic but you can see them side by side for leg color
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The show standard for naked necks calls for yellow legs, except for blacks which can have black legs.. still supposed to have yellow skin(can be seen on chicks or on soles of adults).

Hatcheries don't really pay attention to the standards though.. in fact some freely admit they 'deliberately mix the colors for a varied flock'. Sort of like EE.

Leg color makes no difference in production or personality though.. many hatchery stock are nice birds in both departments.
 
Thanks! They still are sweeties!
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I just wasn't sure why the one would have different color legs when they are all about the same color. They were such the sweetest chicks and as they are growing are showing to be pretty brave. They were the first to check out the new cat that arrived on the farm even before the roos!!!
 
Thanks for the help on my naked necks....glad to hear that they were 'normal'. (I would still have loved them anyway). Vultures? Ostriches?.....who cares, they have their own distinctive charm.

Sandie
 
Hello everybody,

Just tucked my little Turkens in for the night and wanted to say that they are so cute while they are sleeping. Yes, cute while awake also but...sleeping..so so sweet.
 

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