Naked Neck/Turken Thread

[draye]

A very old breed and a large chicken. Very rare unless if you live in the North East one rooster can sell for around $2000 fully grown. I had most of my flock stolen after having people come in and look at them, so now we have a huge fence and 3 guard dogs for people to go through to get to them. That is what my rooster is in my picture he is pure legacy. Our youngest Cockerel is mostly red which I really don't want, however he has the black toe nails, and the smaller rose comb even smaller then his dads. Stormy weighs in at 28 pounds, that is about as big as I want any of them to get. Yellow to white eyelids, Black toenails, Yellow to white ear lobes, rose combs, and all girls have leopard spots on them or the partridge pattern. Their life span is way past most chickens, I believe it's due to the size. Many of them reach over 15 years old and still lay eggs daily. This is Stormy from last spring: His son I have in a video and he is just barely 4 months old and already as big as the NN's. Since stormy shed his tail and grew his new one it is now longer. Last spring we measured it and it was 3 1/2 feet long. Come spring this year he gets weighed in and measured again. Stormy size wise is what we want however he does not have all black toe nails. He has mostly yellow toe nails which doesn't make him the best quality. But he has passed the black toenails off to his sons and daughters.

Very nice.

 

[hellbender]

A very old breed and a large chicken. Very rare unless if you live in the North East one rooster can sell for around $2000 fully grown. I had most of my flock stolen after having people come in and look at them, so now we have a huge fence and 3 guard dogs for people to go through to get to them. That is what my rooster is in my picture he is pure legacy. Our youngest Cockerel is mostly red which I really don't want, however he has the black toe nails, and the smaller rose comb even smaller then his dads. Stormy weighs in at 28 pounds, that is about as big as I want any of them to get. Yellow to white eyelids, Black toenails, Yellow to white ear lobes, rose combs, and all girls have leopard spots on them or the partridge pattern. Their life span is way past most chickens, I believe it's due to the size. Many of them reach over 15 years old and still lay eggs daily.

This is Stormy from last spring:


His son I have in a video and he is just barely 4 months old and already as big as the NN's. Since stormy shed his tail and grew his new one it is now longer. Last spring we measured it and it was 3 1/2 feet long. Come spring this year he gets weighed in and measured again. Stormy size wise is what we want however he does not have all black toe nails. He has mostly yellow toe nails which doesn't make him the best quality. But he has passed the black toenails off to his sons and daughters.

I call your attention to an earlier post. It appears that Stormy has gained about 10 pounds since this was put up on another thread of BYC. I must have some of these Goliath-Like birds in my meat production project!

Heck, I would even allow them to keep their large Regal Head Dress, considering my love of braised cocks combs!!!

https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/what-i-need-and-what-i-have

 

[DesertChic]

A very old breed and a large chicken. Very rare unless if you live in the North East one rooster can sell for around $2000 fully grown. I had most of my flock stolen after having people come in and look at them, so now we have a huge fence and 3 guard dogs for people to go through to get to them. That is what my rooster is in my picture he is pure legacy. Our youngest Cockerel is mostly red which I really don't want, however he has the black toe nails, and the smaller rose comb even smaller then his dads. Stormy weighs in at 28 pounds, that is about as big as I want any of them to get. Yellow to white eyelids, Black toenails, Yellow to white ear lobes, rose combs, and all girls have leopard spots on them or the partridge pattern. Their life span is way past most chickens, I believe it's due to the size. Many of them reach over 15 years old and still lay eggs daily.

This is Stormy from last spring:


His son I have in a video and he is just barely 4 months old and already as big as the NN's. Since stormy shed his tail and grew his new one it is now longer. Last spring we measured it and it was 3 1/2 feet long. Come spring this year he gets weighed in and measured again. Stormy size wise is what we want however he does not have all black toe nails. He has mostly yellow toe nails which doesn't make him the best quality. But he has passed the black toenails off to his sons and daughters.

Wow! Huge and beautiful! I'd never heard of this breed, so thanks for sharing.

 

[ChickyChickens]

A very old breed and a large chicken. Very rare unless if you live in the North East one rooster can sell for around $2000 fully grown. I had most of my flock stolen after having people come in and look at them, so now we have a huge fence and 3 guard dogs for people to go through to get to them. That is what my rooster is in my picture he is pure legacy. Our youngest Cockerel is mostly red which I really don't want, however he has the black toe nails, and the smaller rose comb even smaller then his dads. Stormy weighs in at 28 pounds, that is about as big as I want any of them to get. Yellow to white eyelids, Black toenails, Yellow to white ear lobes, rose combs, and all girls have leopard spots on them or the partridge pattern. Their life span is way past most chickens, I believe it's due to the size. Many of them reach over 15 years old and still lay eggs daily.

This is Stormy from last spring:


His son I have in a video and he is just barely 4 months old and already as big as the NN's. Since stormy shed his tail and grew his new one it is now longer. Last spring we measured it and it was 3 1/2 feet long. Come spring this year he gets weighed in and measured again. Stormy size wise is what we want however he does not have all black toe nails. He has mostly yellow toe nails which doesn't make him the best quality. But he has passed the black toenails off to his sons and daughters.

 

[hellbender]

The greatest of many problems I would have with a cock of this size is despite the fact I have some quite hefty hens, they would be stomped into the ground during mating. I suppose artificial insemination would be my only recourse.

I wonder, could such size actually contribute to the longevity and length of laying life?

 

[hildar]

The greatest of many problems I would have with a cock of this size is despite the fact I have some quite hefty hens, they would be stomped into the ground during mating. I suppose artificial insemination would be my only recourse.

I wonder, could such size actually contribute to the longevity and length of laying life?

Firstly he does weigh more they actually gain weight for the winter months as well as have under feathers in the winter months which most breeds do not have. Come spring he will be back down to 18 to 20 pounds. But they gain lots in the fall and eat more in the winter months but the down they get in the winter months helps to add to the weight. Remember these are a far Northern breed and use to minus 0 temps, so they know how to fatten up before winter hits.

As for the breeding I have only my large hens in with him. In the summer last year he had 3 big hens in our yard that he would sometimes breed with however they were fairly large and Turken was one of them. Some wheres out there, there are some chicks that are NN with his huge size genes. This past falls hatch from him and Buffy we got 2 good new ones to keep and to pass the size and good genetics on with. Peaches is showing the comb that is really wanted in the girls small, tight and yet with a hook at the end, however she never had the yellow eyelids. Buffy's mom had the yellow eyelids and Buffy passed that onto her daughter Hope.

I have seen a Legacy rooster go from 27 pounds down to 16 pounds come spring. The reason being that they lose all that fluff from under their feathers, and then they start losing weight. Oh and the hens also gain some weight in the winter months, usually between 3 to 5 pounds.

It has been brought up many times why they continue to lay eggs for so long I still think it has to do with the size, like their life spans most chickens these days live to be maybe 6 years old maximum. I also have noticed that with the breed itself I have not had any internal hatching, where I have had issues of that with other breeds. So far I have lucked out and have not had that issue with NN's either. I don't know if anyone else has had that issue.

In the old days and yes I still do it. The farmers would collect the fluffy feathers in the spring for pillows for the family. I do it every year.

 

[hildar]

I call your attention to an earlier post. It appears that Stormy has gained about 10 pounds since this was put up on another thread of BYC. I must have some of these Goliath-Like birds in my meat production project!

Heck, I would even allow them to keep their large Regal Head Dress, considering my love of braised cocks combs!!!

https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/what-i-need-and-what-i-have

I never touch their combs, They are proud of them.

 

[hellbender]

Just goes to show, one is never too old to learn!

My Grandma and Great Grandma used to make down comforters and even articles of clothing with down but they use goose down. I've learned today that some chickens have down that is light enough for pillows but heavy enough to add weight to a bird.

These really are remarkable fowl! For some reason, I thought they were straight combed. Since I'm breeding toward removing straight combs on most of my breeds, they would fit right in!!!

 

[hildar]

Just goes to show, one is never too old to learn!

My Grandma and Great Grandma used to make down comforters and even articles of clothing with down but they use goose down. I've learned today that some chickens have down that is light enough for pillows but heavy enough to add weight to a bird.

These really are remarkable fowl! For some reason, I thought they were straight combed. Since I'm breeding toward removing straight combs on most of my breeds, they would fit right in!!!

Well if feathers are as light as a feather then how come a feather pillow weighs so much???

Yeah their combs are not straight they have rose combs. If I can ever get the neighbor to quit cutting trees down next door, I plan on getting a good video this year of my big boys and girls. If the weather cooperates as well seems the only time he leaves the trees alone over there is when it's raining.

 

[Pyxis]

It took a little while, but pictures as promised! I need to learn to take pictures during the day so I can utilize some of the natural light. Everybody was also cold and cranky and didn't want to show off their nice necks for me.

This is my mottled/possible exchequer naked neck bantam cockerel that I will be using for breeding:

And this is his non naked neck girlfriend:

Here's my older cemani NN cross. You can really see how much the skin has darkened up since she hatched:

And here's my pretty cemani NN cross with dark skin and a single comb. The feathers are almost coming in in what I would think was a dark blue, although in the picture they look gray:

Just for fun, this is quite possibly the full sibling of the above cross. Not naked neck, but gorgeous! He's a little cockerel, and I need more roosters like a hole in the head, but he's so pretty and so sweet that he gets to stay.