The Narragansett Turkey Breed

Get acquainted with the iconic Narragansett breed, and meet one of its esteemed members, who's found a home and friends on a famous estate.

By Jeannette Beranger
Updated on October 16, 2021
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by Brittany Sweeney/The Livestock Conservancy
Jeannette holds a Narragansett named Roger on the Mount Vernon estate.

I lived in Rhode Island for much of my life, along beautiful Narragansett Bay, a large coastal area that has constant offshore breezes and once hosted the famous America’s Cup sailing tournaments. The bay was named for a local Native American tribe whose name roughly translates to “people of the small point.” The bay is a relatively protected body of water surrounded by land and filled with islands that create a mild climate, with cooler summers and warmer winters compared with the rest of the state.

This region was home to early large agricultural plantations of the Colonies, which produced some of the most iconic American poultry and livestock breeds. These include the Narragansett Pacer horse (now extinct), the Narragansett turkey, the Bronze turkey, the Rhode Island White chicken, and, perhaps the most famous chicken breed of all, the Rhode Island Red. The Narragansett turkey never became as famous as the Rhode Island Red, but it nonetheless made an impact on the turkey industry before the domination of the modern broad-breasted varieties that came into existence in the 20th century.

a black and white turkey foraging

Turkeys are among the few species domesticated by Native American tribes in the Southwest and into Latin America. Early European explorers brought these birds back to Europe, where avid poultry breeders produced new varieties. Some of those new turkeys then returned to America and developed into the breeds and varieties we know today.

It’s speculated that the stunningly colored Narragansett turkey descends from a cross between an English breed known as the Norfolk Black, which came to the Colonies in the 1600s, and the native Eastern wild turkeys present throughout New England. Narragansetts’ color pattern includes black, gray, tan, and white. It’s similar to that of the Bronze, with gray or dull black replacing the bronze. Narragansetts have white wing bars, a red-to-bluish-white head, and salmon-colored shanks and feet. The standard live weight for mature toms is 33 pounds, and for hens it’s 18 pounds. If you grow them for the holiday market, you can expect young toms to reach about 23 pounds, and young hens to reach about 14 pounds.

flock of black and white turkeys in a fenced in yard
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