Welcome to Heritage Turkeys Website, a National Collection of Traditional Varieties of Turkey
The Black turkey is believed to have been brought to England via Spain in the 1500s. Many farmers in East Anglia and especially Norfolk liked and kept this bird, hence its name. The Norfolk Black has developed over the centuries through selective breeding and is now recognised as English in origin. It was taken back to America in the 1600s where it was crossed with the Eastern Wild and from those matings came the Slate, Narragansett and Bronze
Origin: | England | |||
Classification: | Light | |||
Stag Adult: | 11.35kg / 25lb | |||
Stag Young: | 8.15-10.00kg / 18-22lb | |||
Hen Adult: | 5.90-6.80kg / 13-15lb | |||
Hen Young: | 5.00-5.90kg / 11-13lb | |||
Head: | Fairly long, broad and carunculated. Red, changing to bluish-white. Short black feathers on head and face not a fault. | |||
Beak: | Black. | |||
Eyes: | Dark to black. | |||
Throat & Wattle: | N/A | |||
Neck: | N/A | |||
Back: | N/A | |||
Tail: | N/A | |||
Wings: | N/A | |||
Breast: | N/A | |||
Body and Fluff: | N/A | |||
Legs and Feet: | Black legs, feet and toenails (change to pink with age). | |||
Undercolour or all Sections: | N/A | |||
Colour Female: | N/A | |||
Defects: | Any other feather colour than black. | |||
Day-old Poult: | The majority of the body is black but the head and face is a creamy white, along with the breast and the abdomen. There is no distinct pattern to this and poults can have a lesser or greater amount of creamy-white down coloration. The pale colour will disappear with age and as feathers begin to grow these should be totally black. The poult’s beak is a pale pink with varying amounts of black on it, especially at the tip. The shanks, feet and toes are black with some flesh colouring. | |||
Plumage in both sexes: | A dense black. |