How'd they taste?
4 were given too a friend and that's why I know how there colors were...The Nestles cocoa brown ones were beautiful. She said all were tasty...but only let them breed once, with all the other animals on her farm, she didn't need to raise turkeys too so 2 years of turkey was enough for her... I gave one neighbor a 4 year old Royal Palm and he expected it to be a tough old bird...said it was the best turkey he ever had...
A meat turkey is fully mature and ready to eat at about 4-5 months...They dressed out to over 20 pounds...My kids each got one for their table...but the tasty birds were the chickens we raised for the freezer. Almost all breast and at 3 months dressed out from 4-6 pounds...They were a cross bred (don't remember the 2 cross's but were eating machines.I think they were called White Rock Cross chicks)..had those professionally butchered and hubby sold quite a few at work...and they came back for more...tasty if one loves real chicken and the not stuff you get in the store thats water soaked to add weight...
Those were obtained as day olds and were what is called straight run, meaning both hen and cockerels..if you purchased only the male chicks it cost more, they were the ones that dressed out 5 pounds or more in 3 months. And we knew what kind of feed they got and no added medications to their feed..
Only ate a couple of our turkeys, nasty to butcher for a novice. I didn't like dressing them out myself and it wasn't worth taking them to the farmer that butchered fowl for one 1 turkey.. According to my course in genetic's, the cocoa brown ones were a surprise. Didn't look like either parent, so color of fowl does not necessarily follow the same pattern as breeding for eye colr..
PS 20 meat chicks would go through 3/4 ton of feed in those 3-4 months...mostly in the last month. They ate a special brand of feed not laying mash and corn like regular chickens. Other chickens were free range and were roosting already about 6 in the evening...the meat chickens were kept in the coop. They grew so fast they couldn't fly..