Aggressive adult turkey hen - what to do?

[amsunshine]

About a month ago we adopted an adult broad-breasted bronze turkey. They told me she was a year old, but I suspect she is older as she looks pretty gnarly. She gets around pretty slowly, though now that she was out on the farmyard, she made the rounds.

At any rate, she is extremely aggressive to our peafowl, especially the males. She chases them and bites them in the neck area. She did the same to her intended turkey mate, but stopped that. She has not stopped with the peafowl.

They all have a 10-acre--plus area they can roam. What gives? I am ready to rehome her. Her old owner will take her back (I took her with the promise she'd be kept as a pet and not butchered). I can't have my peafowl being attacked.

 

[chooks4life]

LOL, look at those eyes! Angry turkey, right there. They have such expressive eyes, you can always see it when they're in a rage about something. Unfortunately unlike most other species turkeys seem prone to getting into a rage and staying there, they don't usually snap out of it.

About a month ago we adopted an adult broad-breasted bronze turkey. They told me she was a year old, but I suspect she is older as she looks pretty gnarly. She gets around pretty slowly, though now that she was out on the farmyard, she made the rounds.

With turkeys, the slow movement is often a threat. It indicates her state of mind, which is set at almost-ready-to-charge-and-assault, lol. I believe the owner's right about her age, she looks young. Her diet, or breed, may be the reason she looks ratty, she's almost ready to moult or is moulting, either one of those.

Even if they're about to moult or are moulting, though, they stay shiny and smooth if their diet is good enough, whether they are a chicken or turkey or anything else really. Being a broad-breast maybe she needs more protein than a normal breast breed.

At any rate, she is extremely aggressive to our peafowl, especially the males. She chases them and bites them in the neck area. She did the same to her intended turkey mate, but stopped that. She has not stopped with the peafowl.

They all have a 10-acre--plus area they can roam. What gives? I am ready to rehome her. Her old owner will take her back (I took her with the promise she'd be kept as a pet and not butchered). I can't have my peafowl being attacked.

I think your best bet is to give her back. I have a very aggressive turkey hen of my own, well, she's been living at someone else's place and she's coming home soon with a young clutch so I can't cull her yet...

But I got her at a year old, around about, and the aggression she soon showed towards other birds developed out of nowhere and escalated to the point where it's indiscriminate, and now it's directed towards humans too, as she blamed me for every chick that she lost, for some strange reason.

She's smashed herself into me in a rage a few times before and she's strong enough to do serious harm to a child. Now, if you approach her cage, when she's contemplating harming me or someone else, she scratches the ground as a warning, without checking if her chicks are in the way, thereby mauling her own chicks to death. She's destroyed a whole clutch before in a matter of minutes, just scratching on top of them while glaring at us through mesh, injuring all the chicks fatally.

In my experience with turkeys, when they get into killing mode, your only option is to kill them. They really do get stuck there mentally.

This hen will almost certainly be a terrible mother and breed on her attitude, if she doesn't kill all the chicks, that is. She will become worse, and worse, and worse, heading into breeding season and brooding and rearing chicks, and her rage will escalate with every chick she kills or otherwise loses, for as long as she lives she'll just get angrier and angrier, if she's at all like mine... Save yourself the bother, I vote.

With my nasty one, I ended up shackling her ankles together to travel her; so, she can walk, dust-bathe, jump up to and down from her perch all normally, but falls flat on her face when she tries to charge. I was hoping to get some more chicks and eggs from her, to eat, since she was the only turkey hen I had at that point, but really that was a waste of time and effort too. Should have just necked her.

I initially got her to breed for meat, but only kept her past that for eggs for a family member who can't eat chicken eggs, because they're very unwell and her eggs really made a difference... But I will be culling her soon as possible. She's a few years old now, and has only gotten worse with time, and her mothering skills have also gotten markedly worse every season.

Best wishes.

 

[amsunshine]

I'm very grateful for your thoughtful response. I've been mulling it over. This hen has never been aggressive towards me; in fact, she comes up to me and seems to enjoy being petted, and will squat (as in a "I'm ready to mate" position). It makes it hard for me to banish her from our farm. However, I've taken your advice and contacted her former owner. She'll go back this week.

 

[chooks4life]

I'm very grateful for your thoughtful response. I've been mulling it over. This hen has never been aggressive towards me; in fact, she comes up to me and seems to enjoy being petted, and will squat (as in a "I'm ready to mate" position). It makes it hard for me to banish her from our farm. However, I've taken your advice and contacted her former owner. She'll go back this week.

I hope it's for the best for all of you. At least it sounds like she has a good home waiting for her, or considerate people anyway. If they cull her I'm sure they'd be humane about it. Whereas if she culls your animals she won't be.

My turkey hen was fine to start with too, it's only years down the track that her violence escalated to the levels I described. She'd sit for me, or others, allow petting, handfeed, no problems. It was just the mental pattern she was stuck in, the anger, and I didn't find a way to defuse it, though I did try for a long time.

I tried giving her chicken eggs to brood and hatch after a while, to improve her maternal experiences through giving her tougher infants which would survive her mothering habits, but quickly both she and the hens I adopted her babies out to identified that these were not their own kind... Only worked once, and after that she would abandon the clutch as soon as she heard their peeping.

It's hard to get hold of good turkeys. They sure do exist but it's one reason why people put up with bad behavior and breed nasty kinds on. Simply because it's often too hard to find better ones.

Best wishes in future.