Royal Palms - Hatchery vs Breeder

[racuda]

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I am not asking about meat birds. I am specifically interested in what makes a good or bad Royal Palm. As I said I have 5 poults and am curious how to evaluate them as they mature.


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Are you planning on showing them? If your looking to find out if they are good enough to become breeders then the ALBC has some god info on evaluating your stock. http://www.albc-usa.org/EducationalResources/master_breeder_turkeys.html

Not interested in showing at this time, just trying to figure out what I have for my own satisfaction.

When I posted this question I thought the answer would be to look for very specific attributes. For example if you ask a Silkie person about hatchery vs. breeder the answer would be hatchery birds have a small crest, poor foot feathering, skin is other than black, incorrect number of toes, etc. Ask a Cochin person and you'll be told that good birds have a basketball shape and abundant feathering on their feet, no off color in the hackles, etc.

So, how do you tell the difference in a good and a bad Royal Palm?

 

[La Mike]

A good RP will have a full fan with consistant solid banding ,nice clean distinctive barring on the front and back.
Imo a poor quality RP will have broken tail band lines and more mottled black banding.
I dont breed mine as for size but clean marking. I dont eat my Rp. I have Bronze breasted for meat.

 

[little blue]

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What hatcheries have you ordered from? Do you have pictures of these poor bred Royal Palms?

jimmythechicken is my dad all the turkeys are mine we brought a few turkeys from mackeys last year dont know what hatchery they use but they were not very friendly but did get big fast before i sold them here is a pic of me with one of my turkeys last year i like calm mild tempered birds an find that from breeders more then from hatcherys here is a pic of me with my little blue you can post pics of your birds if you want 2 i love blue slates we did have 3 rp last year great bird but sold them when they were around 3 months to get more blue slate.