I have a lot of questions about how to sex turkeys. I see that there are many people on here that also have the same question. I saw the below information on Facebook and it helped me. I thought it was something that might help others in this group. Hope it does.
A lot of you are asking how do I sex my turkeys? Well, I was born and raised on a farm, worked at feed mills that sold birds, hatched my own, and have had turkey, guineas, ducks, and chickens. Up till the last 4 or 5 years. We could sex poults ( we as in my mother my older sister and myself could sex them right from the egg.)
The 101 of sexing turkeys... Just hatched... The snoods... A snood twice as tall as the fuzz and fully round... Equals tom. If the snood looks like a blind hair pimple... It's a hen...
(For a first-timer pick up and hold 3 or 4 so that you can see their snoods and I guarantee unless you are holding all males it will be clearly apparent.)
As they age when they have full wing and tail feathers and like to strut means it's either a tom or what will be your alpha hen. (Now male wing feathers line up perfectly, hens won't) And only the snood will tell you most accurately which it is the smallest snood is your alpha hen. Some males will lose feathers as they grow that's why the symmetrical wing thing isn't guaranteed to work all the time.
By 8 to 10 weeks she will stop strutting. But by that age 8 to 10 weeks the males will have snoods that will lay down and their waddles will hang more exaggerated and their heads will start turning blue. Hens snoods will lengthen and contract just like male appendages by how warm or cold or nervous they get. Hens will also but they will always be shorter closer to the forehead yet at this point.
Then like I said watch waddles and the heads Turing blue... Blue head, and being that young basically blue head is advertising blue balls... Lol, their brains have an urge to do things their bodies aren't mature enough for yet. Just like full-grown males right before the hens become receptive. Waddles will droop significantly and start turning red.
A lot of you are asking how do I sex my turkeys? Well, I was born and raised on a farm, worked at feed mills that sold birds, hatched my own, and have had turkey, guineas, ducks, and chickens. Up till the last 4 or 5 years. We could sex poults ( we as in my mother my older sister and myself could sex them right from the egg.)
The 101 of sexing turkeys... Just hatched... The snoods... A snood twice as tall as the fuzz and fully round... Equals tom. If the snood looks like a blind hair pimple... It's a hen...
(For a first-timer pick up and hold 3 or 4 so that you can see their snoods and I guarantee unless you are holding all males it will be clearly apparent.)
As they age when they have full wing and tail feathers and like to strut means it's either a tom or what will be your alpha hen. (Now male wing feathers line up perfectly, hens won't) And only the snood will tell you most accurately which it is the smallest snood is your alpha hen. Some males will lose feathers as they grow that's why the symmetrical wing thing isn't guaranteed to work all the time.
By 8 to 10 weeks she will stop strutting. But by that age 8 to 10 weeks the males will have snoods that will lay down and their waddles will hang more exaggerated and their heads will start turning blue. Hens snoods will lengthen and contract just like male appendages by how warm or cold or nervous they get. Hens will also but they will always be shorter closer to the forehead yet at this point.
Then like I said watch waddles and the heads Turing blue... Blue head, and being that young basically blue head is advertising blue balls... Lol, their brains have an urge to do things their bodies aren't mature enough for yet. Just like full-grown males right before the hens become receptive. Waddles will droop significantly and start turning red.
