Royal Palm Turkeys

The Striking Ornamental Heritage Breed

The Royal Palm is a small-sized variety of domestic turkeys. It’s one of the few turkey breeds, that aren’t primarily selected for meat production, but for exhibition purposes instead. The Royal Palm is a strikingly attractive bird indeed, with its unique appearance. Unlike most of other turkey species, it’s largely white with bands of metallic black.

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The first Royal Palm Turkey appeared in the 1920s on a farm in Lake Worth, Florida. Apparently, it resulted from a cross between Black, Bronze, Narragansett and Wild Turkeys. With selective breeding for showy traits for many generations, we now have the Royal Palm we see today. These birds are known to be active, thrifty, and excellent foragers.

In addition to that, Royal Palm toms are noted for being non-aggressive, and hens are particularly good mothers. All of that, led the bird to be a perfect choice for small-scale farms. As it’s suitable when used for home production of meat, or where its ability to control insect pests would be of value.

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There are two sub-varieties for the Royal Palm, the ‘Blue Palm’ and the ‘Golden Palm’. The Blue Palm’s coloring is blueish brown in areas that are black on the common Royal Palm. The Golden Palm has a creamy golden tint in areas of the body that are white on the common Royal Palm.

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Silver Prairie Stock & Poultry Farm / Socrates Petting Zoo specializes in the original Royal Palm type.