Broody tom?

[chooks4life]

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My hens gobble, puff up and display too. The most masculine of them has a snood that exceeds her beak length when extended. There's still nothing about him that says to me it's a tom. Strange, lol! Have you seen his snood hang down about five or so inches? Also have you seen him do the rainbow white/blue/green/yellow/purple facemask thingy the toms do? From the tuft on his chest he's at least a year old, but that might be different for that breed.

The caruncles and snood will change redness based on health, not testosterone, the same as roosters and chickens. I think he's lost the redness from running around after the bubs. All half-grown through to adult chickens should have red crests and wattles if fully healthy, regardless of gender, and red is the default color of both male and female turkey's wattles and caruncles when healthy. They fluctuate more due to mood though, and a mothering animal's health is often sub-par.

This could all be because he's not of a breed I've owned before, I've only had (most probably not purebred) standard-size, large, and bantam blue-eyed whites, black-eyed whites, a bourbon, blacks, and a buff, whereas greys and that sort are pretty different genetically as far as I understand it.... And on top of that you're in America, home of the still-wild turkeys, whom I assume, perhaps wrongly, would be slighter than the meat breeds we have here. How very confusing. It'd be interesting sometime in future if you get a photo of him beside your female, lol... He's a strange one indeed.

Have you heard how chickens and other poultry can 'swap' gender after damage to one gonad? (Gonad being a uni-gender term). I wonder if that's happened to him. I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for a suddenly feminized adult male to breed, though I've had crowing hens with spurs who mate with hens and are reliable prolific layers and good mothers.... But I've never seen it happen to a male turkey. One of my turkey hens physically masculinized a bit but she's still a good layer and mother. Testosterone and female fertility can work but estrogen and male fertility are less likely to. Your turkey's puzzling.

 

[mama24]

Yes, his caruncles and snood were enormous and would turn blue when we still had the female. She disappeared about 2 months ago, which is what seemed to cause him to go broody. He's lost a lot of weight since then. Btw, it's not uncommon for hens combs to get small and pale when they're broody, so that's why I'm assuming it's normal that his stuff got smaller. He's only about 8 months old, I think. I think blue slates are usually smaller than the larger breeds. I think blue slates and Spanish are smaller and about the same size? I could be wrong with that.

Btw, you are correct that wild turkeys are smaller and lighter than most domestic turkeys. They can fly decent distances as well. The blue slate hen I had actually looked more like a wild turkey to She had some bourbon in her family to tree and had a lot of brown leakage.

 

[chooks4life]

In your very first post you said you bought a pair of year old turkeys, but in your very last post you said you think he's about 8 months. Is this the same male?

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Yeah, that's one possibility. that's what I meant when I said a mothering animal's health is often sub-par. He could have lost color and weight due to broody behaviour. Females can go blue/purple too, it's the rainbow of other colors that are specific to males, but if he's not a year old, he wouldn't have displayed that yet. Confused as to whether or not he's an adult or a growing teen, now.

I don't know how to ask this without possibly offending, so please don't take offense, none is intended... Just confused now... You said before that his head comes up to your chest, then you've said in this last post that you think blue slates are usually smaller than other breeds... So how tall are you? I thought he must be giant if his head comes up to your chest, but now you're saying he's small, or maybe you've lost me....

 

[mama24]

When I first posted, I thought my turkeys were a year old. When I went to pick up the poults, my friend informed me that they were actually under a year old. I am 5'3, and his head comes up to my chest when he stretches up, though in normal position, it's more like hip height, maybe waist. He weighed probably 25-30 lbs I am estimating last time I picked him up. I said I thought blue slates were *usually* smaller, which I thought implied that I thought he was larger than usual. Whether he is or not, I have no idea, b/c it's hard to find any information about blue slates. I ended up with them b/c my friend asked me if I wanted some, and I posted here b/c I don't know much about turkeys at all, obviously. He looks a lot smaller than the mature bronze toms I've seen, not that I've seen many and might be misremembering, and larger than wild turkeys. He's slightly smaller than his dad at my friend's house, but way bigger than any of her hens. And his face did turn blue when he displayed for the hen. Not as impressively as some pictures I've seen, but since my friend has been breeding them for years, I'll take her word for it that he is, in fact, a boy. I did see him mating with our hen before she disappeared. I've had crowing hens before, and my rabbit and goat does will mount each other like crazy, but I've never seen a female bird mount another female to mate. Plus the fact that 4 of the eggs I gave to my friend to incubate hatched. All of those things together seem like infallible proof that he's a boy!

 

[chooks4life]

Yeah, the fertile eggs seems a likely thing, if she hadn't been seeing any boys for two or more weeks before she laid the eggs... I don't know much about turkeys either, just what I've learnt from my various mix breeds, most of which were bad strains. My first turkeys were bred by people who told me that inbreeding with birds doesn't matter, and their toms would always attack you when you turned your back. About female birds mating with others, that seems about as common as them crowing... Not actually common but not unheard of. I've had production reds go nuts about mating with my banty females, and all the reds were good layers, undoubtedly female. I also had one hen who liked to be on top of the roosters when they mated, though she'd challenge and beat them first.

Best wishes with your lot. One thing I have learnt for 100% sure: there's always the exception to the rule! Everyone's flock is unique.

 

[jenspice]

My tom is broody too! His name is Turbert.