Naked Neck/Turken Thread

[pgpoultry]

KKH, that article is one of the places I got my info from.....but others seem to agree, so probably there's some truth in the speculations.

It explains the likes of 'interesting' birds who crop up looking like they are going to want to be permanently engaged in battle. I guess Lil' Steve is not inclined to fight? Gordon is a big softie and even reserves his crowing for when there are no other males in the vicinity....but man can he run and he certainly has a way with the ladies!

I read a very interesting article in the press a few days ago about how hens can eject the sperm of roos. who force their attentions on them and will selectively retain sperm from roos they like or who are higher up in the pecking order. Fascinating.

 

[Knock Kneed Hen]

Quote:
Wow, that IS fascinating! Maybe we don't have as much control over the outcome of our birds as we think we do.

Lil' Steve was easy going when his Dad was in the pen. Remove Dad and he's not as sweet as once was. I plan on moving him into a much smaller coop with the 3 bantam hens that I have and I'm a little worried about how he's going to behave. It's plenty big for the 4 of them and the run will be very spacious. I hope that he'll relax a bit.

Those game birds are awful!!

Hard to believe that our cute little NN's come from THAT gene pool!

 

[Nava]

Lil Steve need your vote, come on
https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=612197

 

[Kev]

Voted!

Quote:
If I remember right, Coco is first generation cross. Lil Kev is second generation- making Lil Steve the third generation.

The lavender modern roo was not very long legged but as obvious from pictures, there can be enough leg in the crosses and later mixes to show the ancestry... KKH is a better source for their cold hardiness, it only gets down to 28F at the lowest here and thats only about once every 20 years. My guess crosses should be okay, because they generally are somewhere in the middle in type and feathering- CoCo was easily the biggest and heaviest one of them all though, the others look like her except smaller and a tad lighter boned.

I'd personally steer from selecting for more modern game type- long legs plus short hard feathering if combined with naked neck in really cold winter areas.. I've made birds with this type before, they did have problems when it approached 30's and were unable to handle rain at all. Got soaked right away, especially the ones pure for naked necks. Lil Steve has gorgeous long soft feathers ideal for winter temperatures.

 

[greenSearcher]

The normal Naked Necks are good in the cold, amazing tolerant, considering they have sometimes half the feathers of a normally feathered bird. That is really obvious when they first hatch or when you process them. We are a bit warmer than MD, most nights are in the 20s and days can be anywhere from teens to almost 60s. So far it is looking to be a mild winter, which is good to me, though the bugs don't get killed off like in a hard 3 or 4 day freeze. (More food for the chickens). If you want a NN that is cold hardy, I would suggest crossing them with a cold tolerant bird, such as the Brahma or Buckeye or New Hampshire, though the latter won't give you much of a difference in color from the typical NN.

I don't know about the others here, but it seems allot of warm weather locations post to this thread. I know I tried NN because of our hot summers, and I was tired of loosing hens, 100+ degrees day after day is hard on them, even with our best efforts to keep them cool. I was thrilled at the unexpected NN vigor in the cold, I have unheated coops. It does get cold enough at night here in Jan and Feb that their water will freeze. Mostly depends on the year. I have had little or no frostbite, and they are out there no matter the weather first thing every morning.

 

[homeschoolchick]

Thank you for the responses. I am about to set eggs from NN bantams, cochins, and modern game bantams tonight. This is my first incubation, so wish me luck! I was asking the question because I know the moderns are not cold tolerant. I have read that the NNs are, so my thoughts were to breed them together to try to get a cross that could tolerate the cold better and not require heat in the winter.

 

[Vamvakas]

Anyone selling a 1-3 year old Turken rooster (non bantam) that will ship? Pm me.

 

[ReiMiraa]

i have come to realize that within the turken genes there are variations of how feathered the neck is or how far down the chest the naked ness goes. i think i have perfected the vulture looking version.... and i have one that is also really weird looking by not having feathers down the keel.

 

[Nava]

Quote:
are you from WA state?
just saw the town you are from.

 

[flower]

Hey Nava, How are things down in Florida ? Are your grasses green ? Did you have any rain ? Too bad our winter has been dry because we really LOVE the wetness of rain and snow during the winter months since it never raisn here in the summer.

KKH are so looking forward to raising your NNs chicks. It feels like we have be talking of having your blues, splashes and blue laced reds for well over a year.