Royal Palm Turkey Question

[mixedpoultry]

Im not a very happy camper. We drove over 2 hours to get these and that was back in July. I dont have the guys phone # anymore. I took his word they were RP. These are the first ones I have ever had. I guess I will sell them and get a couple that are. The only thing is what are they if not RP.

 

[ivan3]

Apparently, the Hollands have blue eyes (OK, you Holland herders, speak up!). Not colorful, but not cheap either: http://www.hoobly.com/ureMbFB9/pure-heritage-breed-white-holland-turkey-poult-breeding-pairs.htm If eyes aren't blue (assuming this indicator is accurate) I'd guess you were slipped a couple Broad Breasted Whites.

20736 wrote: I have Royal Palms and the girls all showed some black by the time they were that size.

Yeah. One of ours at five-and-a-half weeks:

 

[mixedpoultry]

I hope they arent BBW. This is my BBW that I have had for amost 2 years and she was about 7 months old when I got her. Notice she has no feathers on her chest. She rubs them off rolling around taking dirt baths. Or it may just be because she is so big she just rubs them off doing anything. LOL I have heard that they cant breed naturely because their chest is too big. I guess I should say the toms cant because she has no problem breeding. I bred her to my mottled black/black spanish tom and this is one their babies. I wonder if those turkeys might be Beltsville.

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[TV]

The one with black doesn't look pure either. I think they are probably all of mixed heritage. The APA standard for White Holland turkeys calls for dark brown eyes.

 

[mixedpoultry]

Im thinking the same thing because I think Im seeing some brown starting to show on its wings. But I wasnt sure if it was his color or poop. lol Well the name of my business is Laurens Mixed Poultry so I guess those turkeys will fit right in.

 

[Lagerdogger]

RP toms definitely show more black earlier than hens, but I would agree that you should be seeing some black on the hens. The new tail feathers should have black bands at the very least.

I might have to disagree with 20736 that Royal Palm crosses would also be showing black. That would totally depend on the cross. In fact, most things crossed with Royal Palms would not look like half royal palm half something else. For example, crossing a Royal Palm tom with a Bourbon Red hen produces Red Bronze toms and Golden Narragansett hens, with some other hidden genes.

Getting some white turkeys by mistake is not uncommon when trying to buy Royal Palms, even from larger hatcheries. I got a midget white once from Murray Mcmurray by mistake. Day old whites and RPs are both just plain yellow poults. You want to make sure you didn't get slipped some excess broad-breasted whites, though (it does not look like you did in the pictures).

 

[ivan3]

TV wrote: The one with black doesn't look pure either. I think they are probably all of mixed heritage. The APA standard for White Holland turkeys calls for dark brown eyes.

Thanks. Only thing that struck me as being interesting, about this variety, was the fact that some breeders are attempting to reestablish blue eyes in at least a few lines (what I `remembered').

Lagerdogger wrote: In fact, most things crossed with Royal Palms would not look like half royal palm half something else. For example, crossing a Royal Palm tom with a Bourbon Red hen produces Red Bronze toms and Golden Narragansett hens, with some other hidden genes.

Here's another: thought we had segregated Royals from Slates during season, last year (obviously the Royal tom was free ranging). What started out looking like a Slate poult (if a bit washed out) ended up... well... `different': 6/29/11 8/29/12 Good luck with your mixed poultry, mixedpoultry!

 

[mixedpoultry]

Thanks everyone for your time in trying to figure this out. I guess I will just watch them grow and see what I end up with. I went out yesterday and looked them over really good and on one of them I found 1 feather that was black on the very tip. LOL