turkey has colors..

[laura29532]

I breed heritage turkeys. This is my third year and I'm having so much fun. I have five different
breeds of heritage birds. We had a huge thunderstorm hit out of the blue causing chaos in my turkey pens. I had to put some different hens together, my Toms got out and begun fighting so I had to put the four of them in the different hen pens..what a time I had. now everyone is doing fine and hopefully stays that way until my new sheds are being built.! getting to my question, my black sweedish tom, my bourbon red hens (3), and blue slate hens ( 3) (that's all that was in that pen.) started mating. No big deal right.? I thought I had picked up all the days eggs daily. One day I go to feed and theres four baby turkeys following my Blue slate hen..
today they are four weeks old, I have 2 black sweedish, one slightly lighter than the two blacks and one grey swirl.. she is very pretty, she looks like an owl, light grey all around, swirls edged with black, shes the same all over..how did they throw off such a color. I have never seen a heritage turkey of such color. does anyone know about genetics and how they get such color.?

 

[R2elk]

I breed heritage turkeys. This is my third year and I'm having so much fun. I have five different
breeds of heritage birds. We had a huge thunderstorm hit out of the blue causing chaos in my turkey pens. I had to put some different hens together, my Toms got out and begun fighting so I had to put the four of them in the different hen pens..what a time I had. now everyone is doing fine and hopefully stays that way until my new sheds are being built.! getting to my question, my black sweedish tom, my bourbon red hens (3), and blue slate hens ( 3) (that's all that was in that pen.) started mating. No big deal right.? I thought I had picked up all the days eggs daily. One day I go to feed and theres four baby turkeys following my Blue slate hen..
today they are four weeks old, I have 2 black sweedish, one slightly lighter than the two blacks and one grey swirl.. she is very pretty, she looks like an owl, light grey all around, swirls edged with black, shes the same all over..how did they throw off such a color. I have never seen a heritage turkey of such color. does anyone know about genetics and how they get such color.?

You have one breed (Turkey) but you had five different varieties. Now you may have more varieties because of the mixes.

To my knowledge there is no Black Swedish turkey. Many refer to any black turkey as a Black Spanish which really doesn't exist any more.

Crossing a Black tom with a Bourbon Red hen will produce all Rusty Blacks if there were no hidden recessive genes in the parents.

Crossing a Black tom with a Blue Slate hen will produce both Blue Slates and Blacks unless there are hidden recessive genes in the parents.

My guess is that the parents weren't pure to start with. Pictures should help.

You can use Porter's Turkey Color Calculator to predict what color varieties can be produce from different matings.

 

[laura29532]

oops your right Black Spanish, I confuse them with my chicks..
I bought these from McMurray and got the Tom from Arizona.
a reputable farm that only raises heritage breeds..
I hatch eggs myself and never had any issues with them until I was forced to put them together.
I'm not sure your breeding but I breed two generations of one breed and then mate them with the Black Spanish to keep the true bloodline. The Blue slate hen is a splash so I'm thinking that's where it got its colors..They are nothing I would keep or breed but they might taste pretty
good on a platter for the holidays..thanks for your help.

 

[laura29532]

bourbon hen 1 yr old Blue slate splash hen Blue slate lavender and splash hens

Blue slate splash Tom Black Spanish Tom Red bourbon Tom

I feed only organic, no antibiotics, no medicated feeds. I use all natural ingredients
for good heath and immunize myself, never had any issues with my birds. I am hands
on 6-8 hours a day. No one is allowed in my pens or breeding areas for my birds health not theirs..

 

[R2elk]

The Blue slate hen is a splash

Splash is chicken terminology and does not apply when talking about turkeys. Slates are Blue Slate which has black splotches on their feathers and when mated together can produce 50% Blue Slate, 25% Self Blue (no black on the feathers) aka known as Lavender and 25% black.

One of the reasons that there are no true Black Spanish anymore is because of how many Black Slates that are sold as Black Spanish. The APA only recognizes Black and does not distinguish among the different types of Black.

View attachment 1532100 View attachment 1532101 View attachment 1532104
bourbon hen 1 yr old Blue slate splash hen Blue slate lavender and splash hens
View attachment 1532107 View attachment 1532108 View attachment 1532113
Blue slate splash Tom Black Spanish Tom Red bourbon Tom

I feed only organic, no antibiotics, no medicated feeds. I use all natural ingredients
for good heath and immunize myself, never had any issues with my birds. I am hands
on 6-8 hours a day. No one is allowed in my pens or breeding areas for my birds health not theirs..

Your Bourbon Reds are correct as is your Blue Slate hen and tom. The pic of the two Slate hens is a Lavender on the left and a Blue Slate on the right.

Your claimed Black Spanish tom looks to be a Black Slate tom. A true Black tom will not have those gray feathers in the tail area. Every one of my Black Slate toms and hens had that gray/blue coloring in the tail area.

 

[laura29532]

Thanks for the info. I am interested in trying to start breeding to get back to a black Spanish. I have been looking at articles on how and what to breed and how many generations it would take. I never knew there was a difference between blacks(Spanish) and black slates. I bought these from a reputable breeders and they never showed these black slates only as black Spanish..thats not right with me. I started this to keep the breeding lines pure. I have had people ask whats the difference, they are just turkeys to eat right..lol
They are just as unaware as I was, and I still love reading up on every article I can find..Genetics however are not my strongest in learning more.. I'm slowly learning..enjoying every bit a long the way..I spend a lot of time with my crew out there. some say I had rather talk turkey, they'd be right..lol

 

[R2elk]

Thanks for the info. I am interested in trying to start breeding to get back to a black Spanish. I have been looking at articles on how and what to breed and how many generations it would take. I never knew there was a difference between blacks(Spanish) and black slates. I bought these from a reputable breeders and they never showed these black slates only as black Spanish..thats not right with me. I started this to keep the breeding lines pure. I have had people ask whats the difference, they are just turkeys to eat right..lol
They are just as unaware as I was, and I still love reading up on every article I can find..Genetics however are not my strongest in learning more.. I'm slowly learning..enjoying every bit a long the way..I spend a lot of time with my crew out there. some say I had rather talk turkey, they'd be right..lol

As far as the APA is concerned there is only the Black turkey. They do not differentiate between Black Spanish and Black Slates. Even overseas the Black Spanish do not exist anymore since they are calling anything black a Black Spanish including barred blacks. If you go back far enough there was the Norfolk Black and the Black Spanish with the only difference being the region they were raised in.

There is no standard for a Black Spanish which makes it impossible to breed to the specifications for the Variety.

Now you also have the Artisan Gold which is just a marketing brand name for one line of black turkeys.

 

[laura29532]

well now I am excited to find I have a Narragansett..I had never seen pullets like that. she sure is beautiful, she looks a lot like my barred rock chicksjust more spacing in between colors..I was a bit confused when her head started looking red. I can't wait for her first moult to see how she turns..

 

[R2elk]

well now I am excited to find I have a Narragansett..I had never seen pullets like that. she sure is beautiful, she looks a lot like my barred rock chicksjust more spacing in between colors..I was a bit confused when her head started looking red. I can't wait for her first moult to see how she turns..

Turkeys are not pullets. At hatch they are referred to as poults up until approximately 6 months old. From 6 months to a year some people refer to the females as jennies and the males as jakes. Mature female turkeys are hens and males are toms unless you live somewhere other the U.S. In that case the toms may be referred to as stags.

Good luck.

 

[laura29532]

thanks for the info.. I raise heritage turkey, geese, ducks and guineau hens. they are all just my" babies ". But thanks for the quick info on what they call them in the real world. I never breed them or cross breed them just to see what I can get. On pick up of my eggs, I mark those eggs I intend to hatch right then, not waiting to maybe confuse eggs. I have been known to be laughed at with my pencil behind my ear while getting eggs.! lol This was a fluke that they got away with hiding eggs that four turkey, two duck and one chicken hatched because of the storm.( my female Mallard duck hatched seven of these in all) she had squeezed under the turkey gate(bent during the storm).she found a place behind the egg boxes ,along with my silver tipped Wyandotte hen and hatched eggs. I pick up eggs daily, from five different areas of bird pens. the birds not kept together as a rule, this was just a necessary quick fix until fences were fixed and pens were back to normal. Mathew done some real damage to pens and fences..most people would do what they can just to protect their investments. I refer to my turkeys as Toms and hens but mostly just my ladies or boys. I'm a yankee born, southern lived twenty years..