Tom killed turkey hen

Vixend

Hatching
5 Years
Oct 13, 2014
2
0
9
Rosewood, Ohio
Can anyone give me some insight on this? Went out this afternoon to find one of my Bourbon Red hens dead. Our Tom has blood all over his feet and head. From the looks of it, he pierced her back several times with his spurs. She was missing almost all her back feathers and was a bloody mess. Our other BR hen in the pen also has blood on her (looking like she joined in on the attack).

Our Tom is 3 yrs old, and not new to the mating game. He is a very tame bird and not aggressive at all (except with our Americauna Roo). Having a hard time figuring out what would cause him to do such a thing!

Any help would be appreciated. Would definitely like to prevent a reoccurrence!
 
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Can anyone give me some insight on this? Went out this afternoon to find one of my Bourbon Red hens dead. Our Tom has blood all over his feet and head. From the looks of it, he pierced her back several times with his spurs. She was missing almost all her back feathers and was a bloody mess. Our other BR hen in the pen also has blood on her (looking like she joined in on the attack).

Our Tom is 3 yrs old, and not new to the mating game. He is a very tame bird and not aggressive at all (except with our Americauna Roo). Having a hard time figuring out what would cause him to do such a thing!

Any help would be appreciated. Would definitely like to prevent a reoccurrence!

He most likely mortally wounded her in an attempt to breed her. She was probably not cooperating in his breeding attempts. One thing that can help is to put turkey saddles on your hens.

If you do a search you can find posts relating to trimming the spurs to make them less dangerous.

My breeding tom did fine his first two years but was injuring the hens and causing low fertility rates during his third season because of his desire to just play around while on their backs. He will not be given the opportunity for a fourth breeding season. That is the only way that you can positively prevent your tom from doing further damage.

Good luck.
 
Can anyone give me some insight on this? Went out this afternoon to find one of my Bourbon Red hens dead. Our Tom has blood all over his feet and head. From the looks of it, he pierced her back several times with his spurs. She was missing almost all her back feathers and was a bloody mess. Our other BR hen in the pen also has blood on her (looking like she joined in on the attack).

Our Tom is 3 yrs old, and not new to the mating game. He is a very tame bird and not aggressive at all (except with our Americauna Roo). Having a hard time figuring out what would cause him to do such a thing!

Any help would be appreciated. Would definitely like to prevent a reoccurrence!

OK. I'll try again and hope I dont get knocked off the system again. I found my tom stomping on several poults a couple years ago. I initially thought he killed them but now I believe he was either trying to revive them or finishing they dying process for them. I think a number of deaths were because of coccidiosis. He is gentle with the poults and never does anything inappropriate. I have one poult now who follows him around.
I am not a turkey expert by any means and would encourage any comments on my thoughts on turkey behavior
 
Turkeys will tear apart dead or dying flock mates, it's the nature of the bird, so he could have killed her or just jumped her as she was dying, I have always found my naturally deceased turkeys pecked quite a bit, and when my husband shoots one to butcher it, the others will attack it as it's dying if it's in the pen with them, he said he has to fight them off. So I'm going to agree with Attila.
 

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