sexing broad breasted bronze turkeys with updated pics......

[ButchGood]

I raise 4 BBB. They have been dispatched and are delicious. The only way I could tell what ones were toms was by the strut. Tails fan out and wings down and they "Blow Up" like this.

This bird is a 16 week old tom. They will also be bigger then the hens. Mine did not start gobbling until around 17 or 18 weeks old. They were processed at 19 weeks old. Processed birds were 25.5lbs., 23.5lbs, 20.5lbs and 19.5lbs. The tastiest turkeys I have ever eaten.

 

[honda150]

bucket04, i see what you mean with the snood but all my birds look like your hens head feathering going up the back of the neck and a little fuzz on the forehead.I have sold mine for someone to butcher.I have just bought 3, 4 week old narragansett turkeys mayb these will be more pet friendly.

 

[Sunksschicken]

Nice turkeys very beautiful

 

[bucket04]

I hope your Narries are more pet friendly than mine. I ended up with two Narragansett Toms. They both chase my dogs around. One of my dogs 'don't play that game' and snaps at them until he gives up and goes through the doggy door where the turkeys don't follow him. The other dog, a younger female, LOVES playing with the turkeys and gets them going so they'll chase her.

But they (the Narries) are my FAVORITE of all the breeds I have, color-wise. They are beautiful birds.

 

[brendanoe]

Love the picures! Thanks !

 

[suzyaq]

I have bought bronze turkeys as chicks. one died the next day. Now they bigger one demonstrates he is a tom the other never does. He struts his tail feathers fanned chest out head back and lowers his wings then the other one lays down. I thought one would have a blue head and the other a red head. So far both have the same head.

 

[gmawhimsy]

I have two turkeys left out of a dozen that we started with. I stupidly housed them where I had kept my chickens and they all got very sick. We had a mix of broad breasted and regular bronze. I believe the two I have left are a BBB female and a regular male. Will they be able to breed? We had planned on having them for Thanksgiving and Christmas, but if they can breed we would rather keep them as a breeding pair, hoping that they will pass on some immunity to their offspring.

 

[MamaBird072316]

bucket04, i see what you mean with the snood but all my birds look like your hens head feathering going up the back of the neck and a little fuzz on the forehead.I have sold mine for someone to butcher.I have just bought 3, 4 week old narragansett turkeys mayb these will be more pet friendly.

Males will get the fuzz up the neck and head and then lose it. It's very weird. So it's so hard to tell at that age.

 

[CrxyChickLdy]

I have these two broad breasted bronze turkeys, they are almost 4 you months old. I think from their behavior that I have a Tom and a Hen. In the last couple of days my hen has been "talking" to the Tom in a way that totally ticks him off then they start fighting. Before this the hen only exhibited hen behavior to the Tom. Now this fighting thing makes me wonder. If so, have you ever heard of the hen & Tom fighting??

 

[dwlacy]

I was told the three 6 month old turkeys I was given are hens....however, I think I have two toms and a hen....the two I suspect are toms have a more iridescent feathers, white tips on their tail feathers, & more caruncles.....none of them have beards...none of them are gobbling or displaying....

first pic shows all three from the back, the two more iridescent birds are to the right & I suspect are males....second one shows the difference in the tail feathers, hen on the left, two toms to the right....third pic, side view of all three birds, from the left, hen, suspected tom, suspected tom....forth pic, the hen & suspected tom side by side....fifth pic, the two suspected toms from the front....

any help in sexing my turkeys would be greatly appreciated....