Black Slate Turkey

The Black Slate Turkey has mostly coal black plumage with an occasional white or lavender feather. The head, throat, and wattles are red to bluish-white. Their eyes are brown, the beak is a horn color, the beard is black, and the shanks and toes are pink.

Black Slate Turkeys are one color variety of our Blue Slate Turkeys, which are bred from three color patterns — blue, blue splash, and black. A Black Slate hen mated to a Black Slate tom normally produces all black offspring. The American Poultry Association does not list this variety.

Slate turkeys are slow to mature, resulting in superior flavor of the meat. They are active foragers, making them popular for pasture poultry production. Toms grow to 23 pounds, hens to 14 pounds.

The hens are rather poor layers of large to extra large eggs with tinted shells covered with brown speckles. They will brood, at which time house the mother hen separately for the protection of the young poults. Once mature, however, the Black Slate Turkey is fit and hardy, with good survivability and a long expected life span.

Live Chick Guarantee

We guarantee your ordered number of birds will arrive healthy and true to breed. Please contact us immediately should any losses or variances to your order occur. This guarantee covers only the safe and live delivery of your poultry. For any adjustment to be made, you must report any loss to Chickens for Backyards within 3 days of receipt. Reshipment is subject to availability and minimum shipping requirements; we will reship only once. Reimbursements are limited to the cost of the birds and do not include shipping charges.

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