sexing turkeys

my daughter has just started raising poultry an has 3 palm 2narragansett an getting 2 blue slates.at what age can you sex them i know one of the palms is a tom because he puffs up an does a wing dance for the buff hen chicks.he is around 4 weeks old very cute.also if the all run together will they all cross breed like a palm tom with a blue hen?do i have to do any thing special to breed them in the spring or will the handle that themselves?also how much room should they have indoors an out i am going to build a 20x30 pen but have the room for them to free range as well do they stay close to home?or should i keep them pened?

The palms are the easiest, USUALLY the toms will start getting their black younger than the hens will. I haven't found a sure fire way on the Narris until the toms start getting very leggy at about 4 mos. I don't have blues so no idea on them. The Royals and Bourbons I have gotten pretty good at guessing, the Narris not so much! The hen poults do tend to be more talkative and have a higher pitched "voice", someone once told me the hens "sing" and if you listen to a group of poults you can see what they meant.

Ye,s they will crossbreed. Mine are separated into breeding pens which are a little smaller than I would like with each 4-6 birds having a 10x20 outside run and an 8x10 inside house. They share the pens during breeding season with a type of chicken and or type of duck due to lack of breeding pens I also alternate turkeys and peas in the row of pens so the toms don't fence fight and the peahens aren't more impressed with their neighbor than their own peacock.

If you don't pen them up you will lose hens when they start nesting since they nest on the ground and are easy prey for dogs, foxes, coyotes, etc....

Good Luck!
Val

thanks for the help my pen is 20x30 outside an18x20 inside for 7 turkeys should be o.k i dont mind if the cross breed .so i can let them free range till around march then pen up for the spring.i think i have one royal tom an two hen.maybe just wishfull thinking.i to might get a peacock how high is your run for your peacocks. how high are your roosts for your turkey an peacock.thanks again for the help

We have some pens that are 8' and one that is 12 ' tall all have wire or netting tops as peas are very good flyers. The roosts in the houses are about 4' off the ground (metal 12" shelf supports from Home Depot with a 2x4 screwed onto the top for the roost. If you are in very cold area you can use a 2x6 and wrapp carpet over a heat tape to keep their toes warm in the winter. The roosts out in the pen is 6' off the ground so I don't run into ithem! I have 2'x2'x4" nest boxes mounted on the wall slightly higher than the roosts so they can get onto them from the roost. Both turkeys and peas seem to like that although I do still find eggs on the ground One of the cattle mineral tubs with a U cut out of one side works great as a nest box for the bigger birds too.



Val