The Royal Palm is a strikingly attractive and small sized turkey variety.They are white with a sharply contrasting,metallic black edging on the feathers. The saddle is black and the tail is pure white with each feather having a band of black and an edge of white. The coverts are white with a band of black, and the wings are white with a narrow edge of black on each feather. The breast is white with the exposed portion of each feather ending in a band of black to form a contrast of black and white similar to the scales of a fish. The turkeys have deep pink shanks and toes, light brown eyes, and black beards.
The first known bird in America to have the Royal Palm color pattern appeared in a mixed flock of Black, Bronze, Narragansett and Wild turkeys on the farm of Enoch Carson of Lake Worth, Florida in the 1920's.
This bird was a tom and he bred it to off-colored bronze (actually Black winged bronze) hens from similar crosses. He got BWB toms and RP hens. He took the RP colored F1 hens and mated back to their sire, the original RP tom, to develop the first large flock of true breeding Royal Palms. Others soon followed suit.
Poult color/pattern at hatch is yellow downed with or without a single black strip going down it's back.
