Turkeys and chickens getting along????

Has anyone ever had trouble having turkeys and chickens getting along? I have 13 chickens and 2 turkeys together. The coop is large enough for them all and they have 1/2 acre to graze in. I've been noticing blood spatters on the inside widow near the roosts and today I saw Rosie, the turkey try to stomp dust bathing hens. What did you do? Thanks. Sue

Ok, so here's what I did. The 5 older hens were closed in the other coop. Rosie and Chuck were put in the hen's coop. Rosie flew over the 6 ft fence. Now they are locked in the coop. Someone is throwing themselves against the door. The poor older hens probably have never seen a rooster before. Now they do up close and personal like.
The turkeys's enclosure is now covered so Rosie can't get out.
This couldn't have happened 2 weeks ago. It was 71 degrees. Today is below freezing, snowing, wind blowing. But my water isn't frozen.
Can anyone relate? Not so many years ago, my extra money would go in quilting supplies or yarn, cross stitching. Today, when I'm asked to go shopping with my friends, I'll say "no thanks, I need to go to Tractor Supply"

Sally8 said:

Ok, so here's what I did. The 5 older hens were closed in the other coop. Rosie and Chuck were put in the hen's coop. Rosie flew over the 6 ft fence. Now they are locked in the coop. Someone is throwing themselves against the door. The poor older hens probably have never seen a rooster before. Now they do up close and personal like.
The turkeys's enclosure is now covered so Rosie can't get out.
This couldn't have happened 2 weeks ago. It was 71 degrees. Today is below freezing, snowing, wind blowing. But my water isn't frozen.
Can anyone relate? Not so many years ago, my extra money would go in quilting supplies or yarn, cross stitching. Today, when I'm asked to go shopping with my friends, I'll say "no thanks, I need to go to Tractor Supply"

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Sorry to hear Rosie is acting out like this. How long have you have them both together, and what breed is Rosie? I raised 6 week old Narragansett poults with 7 bantam chickens and eventually added 2 12 week old standard Bronze breasted boys and then 7 standard sized chickens. The chickens kept them at the bottom of the pecking order until they grew and they all get along but the hens occasionally get pecked by them now when it's feed time!
So I am wondering how the pecking order got established originally, whether Rosie is acting out because she is bored with the weather, or is feeling hormonal and needs a mate, or is Chuck her mate...?It's good that you were able to separate them for a while anyway.

Turkeytruff said:

Sorry to hear Rosie is acting out like this. How long have you have them both together, and what breed is Rosie? I raised 6 week old Narragansett poults with 7 bantam chickens and eventually added 2 12 week old standard Bronze breasted boys and then 7 standard sized chickens. The chickens kept them at the bottom of the pecking order until they grew and they all get along but the hens occasionally get pecked by them now when it's feed time!
So I am wondering how the pecking order got established originally, whether Rosie is acting out because she is bored with the weather, or is feeling hormonal and needs a mate, or is Chuck her mate...? It's good that you were able to separate them for a while anyway.

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Chuck, Rosie and all the chickens were hatched and raised together. They've never been apart. Rosie has always been a concern. She's not really aggressive but has to be everywhere we are outside. When I washed windows, she was up on the ladder with me. My husband was on the house roof, so was Rosie. She follows us everywhere and has to be close. I'm worried about getting pecked in the face. She's never tried but I never realized how big turkeys get. Even though I have them contained in a coop and run, I'll let them out when we are home. (Rosie even went up into the woods when my husband went deer hunting and found him. He carried her home, lol). They are 7 months old now.

I have kept narragansetts with my chickens for 3 years now. I have seen a little pecking but nothing you wouldn't see with chickens alone. It seams that they just stay out of each others way. If there is an aggressor it is always the turks. The chickens are rir standard size. It seems that the chickens always out maneuver the turks. The turks are tall and travel fast straight only. In the coop at night they just stay at each end of the roost.

That is strange I had an older flock of Chickens and raised Poults and Chicks together and they got along just fine.
The older chickens pushed the larger Turkeys around till the Turkeys were around 9 months old it was funny to seeing the Chickens chase the very much larger Turkeys away from scraps being thrown out for them to eat.
But now at 9 months old the Turkey Hens will not take it any more if the roosters or Hens try to Boss around the Turkey Hens they turn around and go after the Chickens.
I think my Chickens have learned not to try to push the Turkeys around any more and stay out of there way of course the Chickens are faster than the Turkeys and still try to get to the scraps first and once in awhile a Chicken gets stepped on no Injury's

With my Fowl its been just part of the pecking order with no casualties.

I built an addition on my coop and I've been noticing blood spatters on the inside of the windows and on the shavings on the floor. I guess it was time to separate the turks and chickens. The turkeys are not happy to be separated. We'll let them out when we are home. We live out in the country but people think it is a raceway here Just Thursday morning at 5:30 I literally had to scrape my border collie off the road. Someone ran over him and never stopped. It looked like it was a quick death for him. I had just let him out and was feeding the chickens. I don't think he ever went in the road but there has been deer around the front of the house.

I am so sorry to hear about your border collie. I used to have one, and they are so curious and needing to keep busy all the time.
So Rosie is a Royal Palm judging by your info below. Sounds like she thinks she is almost human by the way she follows you and your husband everywhere? It's beyond a joke if you find blood on the walls and she is actually stomping on the chickens though, and not even when they are feeding or trying to be dominant around her. There's pecking order and there is just aggression gone crazy. You do right to seperate them or only let them be together with the chickens when you are observing them. It's a shame, but you are right, you have to keep the peace somehow...

Turkeys imprint on whatever animal they are around the first few days of their life. If it is mama turkey, it will be more aggressive and forage better and be more wild-natured. If they imprint on people, they will be free-loaders as far as food is concerned and look for handouts from their people family, more than foraging. They are also inquisitive, by nature and will have to see everything you are doing, and if hand raised, it will be up close and personal. As weather get colder, turkeys, like all other livestock, will need more calories to keep warm. They will become more aggressive about food as they instinctively try to be the survivor, by becoming more aggressive. By being stronger and bigger, they naturally have a better chance for survival and can become more territorial. You may have to keep them separated, when you are not around, until spring. You may try to compensate for the weather by adding more fat to their diet, such as corn or sunflower seeds(wild bird feed) or stale bread. Sometimes an animal will continue to be aggressive, no matter what you do and may need to have their own pen, if you are going to continue to keep her. Sorry to hear you are having so much trouble.

I have a male and female turkey with all my other birds and when i first got them they were a little mean to the rest of my birds but eventually they warmed up and i havnt had any issues with them except my female turkey wanting to hog all the food to herself lol