Cross Bred Turkeys

[lisa69]

I crossed my Broad breasted Bronze Hens , with a Royal palm Tom. They produced the pair in the last pic. Folks keep telling the whitish hen is a Narragansett. Are turkey breeds just color and marking arrangements or are they real breeds?

 

[Clearwater Chicken]

I was of the impression that there are no breeds just varieties of turkeys

 

[Molpet]

I was of the impression that there are no breeds just varieties of turkeys

Correct

 

[Clearwater Chicken]

yes i was right for once

 

[R2elk]

I crossed my Broad breasted Bronze Hens , with a Royal palm Tom. They produced the pair in the last pic. Folks keep telling the whitish hen is a Narragansett. Are turkey breeds just color and marking arrangements or are they real breeds?View attachment 2152670

All domestic turkeys are the breed Turkey. There are many possible different varieties although the APA only recognizes 8 varieties.

For the purpose of determining the variety, it is based on color. The Narragansett gene that a Royal Palm has is a sex linked gene. For the Royal Palm to be displayed, the males have to have two of the recessive Narragansett genes (nn) but the females will show the Royal Palm variety with only one Narragansett gene (n-) because it is linked to the male gene and hens only have one male gene and one female gene.

When you cross a Royal Palm tom with a Bronze hen, you will produce male offspring that are Bronze Semi-Color Semi-Gray (bb1 Ccg Nn) and female offspring that are Narragansett Semi-Color Semi-Gray (bb1 Ccg n-)

I have not seen enough information to determine whether the broad breasted gene is a dominant, recessive or partially recessive gene. When I crossed a BBW hen with a Bourbon Red tom, I got a Red Bronze tom that was nearly as big as a BB tom. To me this indicates that at the very least the BB gene is either a partially recessive or an incomplete dominant gene.

 

[lisa69]

All domestic turkeys are the breed Turkey. There are many possible different varieties although the APA only recognizes 8 varieties.

For the purpose of determining the variety, it is based on color. The Narragansett gene that a Royal Palm has is a sex linked gene. For the Royal Palm to be displayed, the males have to have two of the recessive Narragansett genes (nn) but the females will show the Royal Palm variety with only one Narragansett gene (n-) because it is linked to the male gene and hens only have one male gene and one female gene.

When you cross a Royal Palm tom with a Bronze hen, you will produce male offspring that are Bronze Semi-Color Semi-Gray (bb1 Ccg Nn) and female offspring that are Narragansett Semi-Color Semi-Gray (bb1 Ccg n-)

I have not seen enough information to determine whether the broad breasted gene is a dominant, recessive or partially recessive gene. When I crossed a BBW hen with a Bourbon Red tom, I got a Red Bronze tom that was nearly as big as a BB tom. To me this indicates that at the very least the BB gene is either a partially recessive or an incomplete dominant gene.

So I have 2 more questions. All the aforementioned crossed poults look the same at hatch. Then some turn whitish later. When I cross this way are the white birds always going to be hens and the males will grow up bronze? A customer has they 2 birds in the last pic( the bronze and the white bird). He let them line breed and her poults look distinctly royal palm or bronze at hatch . are they sex linked?

 

[R2elk]

So I have 2 more questions. All the aforementioned crossed poults look the same at hatch. Then some turn whitish later. When I cross this way are the white birds always going to be hens and the males will grow up bronze? A customer has they 2 birds in the last pic( the bronze and the white bird). He let them line breed and her poults look distinctly royal palm or bronze at hatch . are they sex linked?

As long as you don't have any hidden recessive genes in the originals, if you breed a Royal Palm tom to a Bronze hen, you will always get these same results. While the poults will look very similar at the hatch, a person who is very familiar with Bronze poults and Narragansett poults may be able to tell them apart at the hatch.

This only works if the Royal Palm is the father. If the father is the Bronze and the mother is the Royal Palm, all of the offspring will be the Bronze Sem-Color Semi-Gray.

Line breeding is breeding the offspring back to the parent. Breeding siblings is inbreediing.

Inbreeding and Line breeding

If they are breeding the siblings to each other, they have the genes to make Bronze and Royal Palms as well as other varieties. Some may be sex linked and some may not be sex linked.

 

[lisa69]

cool thanks, these are their

poults, except for the black poult