turkey genetics advice - Narragansett and Blue Slate crosses.

[dennarahl]

my flock of turkeys is currently 4 Narragansett (3 boys, 1 girl) and 4 Blue Slate (2 girls, 2 boys). I'm trying to decide which ones will be turned into turkey dinner on the 23rd, and which will be breeding stock for next years turkey dinners. Weight doesn't matter as much to me as the pretty. I definitely plan to keep the one Narragansett girl and a Blue girl.

I can't decide if I should keep a blue boy or a Narragansett boy. I only plan to keep one boy because I'm sick of the fighting caused by little boy hormones. I'm hoping that someone good at the genetics could tell me which boy will lead to the most colorful babies.

Thanks!

 

[Lagerdogger]

You will get more variety by keeping the narragansett tom. You have four color genes in play with your turkeys. The narragansetts are bronze based with recessive Narragansett genes, while the slates are black based with a single dominant blue gene. If you keep the Narrgansett Tom, the Narri hen will give all narragansetts, the slate hen is a little more complicated, all offspring will have one black based genes and one bronze based gene, black is mostly dominant. All offspring will also have a single Narragansett gene. In males, this recessive gene will not show, but hens will show Narragansett traits because the Narri gene is sex linked. Furthermore, half the birds will have the dominant blue gene and half will not. So half the toms will look blue slatish and half will look like blacks. Half the hens will look slatish and half will look like black based narragansetts.

If you keep the slate tom, the slate hen will give 1/4 black, 1/4 self blue, and 1/2 slate. The cross with the Narri hen will produce birds that have one black based and one brone based gene, with black based being mostly dominant. Half will get the dominant blue, and half will not. Hens will get the not-Narragansett gene from the slate Tom, while toms will get the recessive Narri gene from the hen. So no first generation offspring will show Narragansett, offspring will look like blacks or slates, even though toms will carry a recessive gene.

 

[dennarahl]

Thanks a ton! That's the general idea I thought I was getting from all the genetics threads, but was getting really confused. Thanks for spelling it out really clearly.

 

[IsaacStone18]

You will get more variety by keeping the narragansett tom. You have four color genes in play with your turkeys. The narragansetts are bronze based with recessive Narragansett genes, while the slates are black based with a single dominant blue gene. If you keep the Narrgansett Tom, the Narri hen will give all narragansetts, the slate hen is a little more complicated, all offspring will have one black based genes and one bronze based gene, black is mostly dominant. All offspring will also have a single Narragansett gene. In males, this recessive gene will not show, but hens will show Narragansett traits because the Narri gene is sex linked. Furthermore, half the birds will have the dominant blue gene and half will not. So half the toms will look blue slatish and half will look like blacks. Half the hens will look slatish and half will look like black based narragansetts.

If you keep the slate tom, the slate hen will give 1/4 black, 1/4 self blue, and 1/2 slate. The cross with the Narri hen will produce birds that have one black based and one brone based gene, with black based being mostly dominant. Half will get the dominant blue, and half will not. Hens will get the not-Narragansett gene from the slate Tom, while toms will get the recessive Narri gene from the hen. So no first generation offspring will show Narragansett, offspring will look like blacks or slates, even though toms will carry a recessive gene.

What do you mean by blacks? I guess I’ve never seen these before

 

[R2elk]

What do you mean by blacks? I guess I’ve never seen these before

He is speaking about mating the Blue Slate tom with the Blue Slate hen. Blue Slates are BB Dd. Because they are heterozygous for the dominant slate gene, they cannot breed true. If enough offspring are produced they will average out to 50% Blue Slate (BB Dd), 25% Self Blue aka Lavender (BB DD) and 25% Black (BB dd).

You can learn about turkey color genetics by visiting Porter's Rare Heritage Turkeys.

When I was raising Blue Slates I would use a Self Blue tom (BB DD) with my Blue Slate hens (BB Dd) to produce 50% Blue Slates and 50%

Some people that don't know any better and some unethical hatcheries sell Self Blues as Blue Slates.