Porter's Rare Heritage Turkeys |

Jersey Buff Turkeys

The Buff is a historic variety of the mid-Atlantic region named for the beautiful color of its feathers. Though never widespread, it was accepted by the American Poultry Association in 1874 and used in the development of the Bourbon Red variety in the late 1800s. The Bourbon Red, selected more purposefully for performance and promoted more widely, gained prominence, causing Buff numbers to decline. Even though the breed’s color was advantageous for processing because of the nearly white pinfeathers, the Buff was not extensively selected for other performance qualities and by the early 1900s this variety had become rare. An additional obstacle to the Buff’s success was the difficulty of breeding birds to meet the Buff color standard, which called for even buff coloration throughout with light flight feathers. By 1915, the Buff was removed from the American Poultry Association’s Standard of Perfection and ultimately became extinct.

Interest in creating a buff colored turkey returned once again the 1940’s. The New Jersey Agricultural Experiment Station at Millville initiated a program to develop a small to medium size market turkey. This is one of the few instances where a new variety was developed in a methodical manner: The new buff colored birds, called “Jersey Buffs”, were developed through pedigree breeding and selection from crosses of Black, Bourbon Red and Broad Breasted Bronze varieties. It is interesting that the original Buff was used in developing the Bourbon Red and then in turn the Bourbon Red was used in developing the newer Jersey Buff variety. The double recessive gene for red (rr) is the same in both varieties.
The Genotype for a Jersey Buff is (BBrr) Black based and homozygous for recessive red.

The Jersey Buff has rich reddish-buff colored body feathers. Tail feathers are white with a light buff color extending halfway down. Primary and secondary wing feathers are white with buff shading. It is difficult to have the Jersey Buff males and females match in color since the females tend to lighten with age, especially after a molt. For both toms and hens, the shanks and toes are bluish-white or flesh colored, the beard is black and the eyes are hazel. Poults are a solid tan color with white face at hatch.

Toms weigh around 25 pounds and mature hens about 15 pounds, both present a clean carcass when dressed. The Jersey Buff has not been recently selected for production attributes, including weight gain and many birds will be smaller than stated. The hens have been known to be good egg producers. Careful selection for good health, ability to mate naturally, and production attributes will help ensure the survival of Jersey Buff turkeys.

Jersey Buff Poult color/pattern

Poult Price $9.50 each ( Limit 6 per order)

A minimum order of 15 poults is required to be able to ship them safely so they will be able to keep each other warm enough in the box during shipping. So you may have to choose another variety or two to come up with the required number to ship. If you don't desire to place at least the minimum order of 15, we will not be able to except your request.