Naked Neck/Turken Thread

Kev,

I will have to take some more pics this weekend of the babies including the ones w a mullet. I don't think that either the mom or dad are pure for barring...the father of both cuckoos I have was pure white and the mom was black. I somehow ended up w cuckoo.

The chicks w the mullets have a reg single comb just like the rest of the chicks. Do you raise bantam turkens as well? If so, what colors?
 
Orly,

The barring came from the white. White isn't really a color, it's a gene that prevents any color or pattern the bird has from showing up. Your white very likely was a cuckoo except you couldn't see it due to white 'blocking' it from showing up visually.

Barring is also sex linked, this means all hens are either barred or not barred, no in between('not pure'). Also barred/cuckoo hens will always give barring to all of their sons(they cannot pass it to daughters). Only cocks can be pure or not pure for barring, they can pass it or not pass it on to both sons and daughters. If you see a black chick without barring, it's automatically a pullet from this pairing. Much lighter chicks probably are cockerels, those would be the ones pure for barring.. as barring also has a dose effect, cocks with only one barring gene(not pure) are much darker than those pure for barring. Cuckoo marans are good example of double dose(roosters) vs single dose (hens).

Barring is often added to whites to help keep the white cleaner plus also help clean the legs of any color, as barring also dilutes pigments from a specific layer in skin of leg- if the bird has genes for black/green/blue legs, the barring will mostly or totally clear them off, leaving the legs a cleaner yellow or white.

IF you happened to get the Bsd version of barring, will be able to create a line of auto sexing birds. Bsd is a much more extreme form of barring, roosters pure for it are almost totally white and hens are a lighter cuckoo. The chicks are sexable at hatch, cockerels are much lighter and greyer than pullets. This is sometimes used to add to whites, as it does a much better job at clearing the body and legs of color than regular barring/cuckoo. I got this version after crossing a bantam white turken. Pic of newly hatched with Bsd, no chance of mistaking which one is the boy or girl:

5756_barredturk.jpg


adult:

5756_barredboy8.jpg


5756_barredhen.jpg


I do have bantams- currently in lavender, lavender cuckoo, a couple black cuckoo pullets. Here's a picture of one from earlier this year:

5756_lavcockerel.jpg


BTW I thought some more on mullets showing up, remembered almost all of them were from crosses and mixes with bantam araucanas.... it has showed up occasionally in unrelated lines, all were bantams, could not remember one showing up in standard size or large fowl.. Interesting... I'm sure it could show up in larges but since I've hatched quite good numbers over the years, just cannot remember one big bird with a mullet.. (heh, now that would be an interesting Sesame Street....)
 
Last edited:
Kev,

Wow, thanks for the info...that was really helpful! My cuckoo hen looks just like yours. If you ever get into shipping birds or chicks, put me down for some lavender, they look really awesome! I have red, black, blue, silver, white, and white columbian (bantams)...not very many of ea, but I'm working on increasing my small flock.

I'm interested to see what color the chicks from this (Standard BO roo and bantam red turkens) cross come out. I wanted to separate the two little reds and only had room w the BO roo. One of them is sitting on eggs due to hatch this weekend.

26879_turken5.jpg
 
My first hatch is due on the 3rd also! I should have a few NN or NN/Delaware crosses. I just sit here and wait while the incubator moves back and forth keeping the warm and cosy. I did the first candling, and it seems most are doing something. Can't figure out what the dark egg w/ light air space is, I hope it is good since most of the eggs look like that. Only 3 or 4 duds out of 25 otherwise. If the darkones don't hatch my odds of having anything doesn't look too good. Will check them out in a few more days to observe the changes. This is a first time for hatching for me. At least it looks like my boys are doing their jobs.
 

New posts New threads Active threads

Back
Top Bottom