What breed and gender are these turkeys (see pics)?

[Must Be Losing It]

I bought these two turkeys a few months ago at a swap and was told they are a pair of sweetgrass turkeys. I'm having a hard time finding much information about the breed and with their coloring so different I am not sure if they are the sam breed or not. Also, I'm beginning to question whether I received a pair or in fact two hens.

Please let me hear your thoughts.

Julie

This one was doing a small fan but that's it, no strutting or fluffing or gobbling. And is smaller and paler than the other.

 

[therealsilkiechick]

DH says they r a cross and top one looks like it has royal palm in it. he said bottom one mixed also looks like it has wild breed in it but if had to guess rio grand mabe. neither of us has ever heard of that breed if they breed true mabe it is a new breed.

he said bottom one is strutting it is a male for sure. they r young yet just looking at pics though top looks male bottom looks female but since that one is strutting has to be a male. get a turkey call and do clucks and purrs and u'll know real quick who males and female r. males will fluff and fan almost instantly. they r both very gorgous birds.

hope that helps,
silkie

 

[poultrykeeper08]

They dont look like the sweet gras turkeys on this site
http://www.porterturkeys.com/sweetgrass.htm
though the bottom one is really cool looking

the top one looks like an oregon grey !

 

[reallemons1]

Just guessing.... top maybe a Sweetgrass mix and bottom a Narragansett mix. Both are hens.

 

[monarc23]

I agree they look like hens to me

*hens can fan, theres someone on BYC that hasa hen that fans all the time hehe it's cute pictures of her too*

 

[Must Be Losing It]

Hmmmm. So the concensus is most likely crosses. Grrr. Oh well, no breeding for this pair. Looks like dinner. Now if they were oregon greys, that would be interesting. They're still gorgeous. I've become such a turkey fan lately.

Poultrykeeper, where'd you find that site? It has turkeys listed I've had trouble finding.

 

[poultrykeeper08]

i dunno where i got that site from i think i ordered poults from him a few years back or i was going to lol . I remeber i got poults from some one .

There was a discussion on him on the-coop.org too

 

[Pinky]

Both look like females to me.The top one does look like it has royal palm in it.My female fans her tail and struts like that when she's mad.

 

[shelleyd2008]

This is what porterturkeys' site says about sweetgrass:

The Sweetgrass strain itself first appeared in 1996 in a flock of Heritage Bronze Turkeys in Big Timber, MT, at Sweetgrass Farms. Most people are now calling this color/pattern by this name .Most tri-colored turkeys in the US are a result of bronze and white crossings which were also carriers of Black winged bronze and Oregon gray genes, some lines also carry a single recessive red gene, this type is better known as "Calico", which is a much lighter color. The Sweetgrass genotype is (b1b1cgcg) Black winged bronze based with Oregon Gray aka Palm genes. They breed 100% true to color/pattern.

The original Sweetgrass birds are believed to be the cross between Wishard Bronze and Broadbreasted white turkeys. As the first tricolored birds didn't appear until the introduction of these whites to their bronze birds.

In Belgium, this color pattern has existed for hundreds of years and it is known as the Yellow-shouldered Ronquière. A clear example of one of these turkeys appears in an old painting, by the Flemish master Joachim Beuckelaars, from 1566!

I developed my strain from the Sweetgrass Farms' line in Big Timber,MT. These birds have a heavily marked royal palm pattern with chestnut red. My new strain has a heritage turkey body style, they are not a broadbreasted type like the ones developed at Sweetgrass Farms. As with all the broadbreasted type birds you run into many other problems too like the need for artificial insemination and also health problems due to the massive body structure which leads to leg and heart problems .


So this to me means that they are supposed to look like palms with the barring on them, and there are some that can be lighter, but they mostly breed true. So depending on where they came from, they could quite possibly be sweetgrass, and the lighter one just has two of the recessive genes.

How old are the birds? I know with some chicken breeds, the color doesn't come in until they get older. All my red pyles were white when they were babies, and the crele's don't start getting their gold until they are almost mature.

And I got that site from googling sweetgrass turkeys, and cllicking on images

 

[poultrykeeper08]

well watever they are i really like the second one !!!! I wish mine looked like that !:|