3wk poults too late to tame?

[The Prairie]

I picked up two 3wk old blue poults (Heritage Bronze x Heritage Blue) on Tuesday from my neighbor. They were hatched by the Turkey hen and had been with her until that day. One is rather calm, not really wanting our attention but not adamant against it hut the other will legit fly away and hide any chance it gets (We've named that one Courage lol). They are living inside with us in a brooder and handled daily. Do you think it's too late for them to be super friendly pets or is there still hope?

 

[R2elk]

I picked up two 3wk old blue poults (Heritage Bronze x Heritage Blue) on Tuesday from my neighbor. They were hatched by the Turkey hen and had been with her until that day. One is rather calm, not really wanting our attention but not adamant against it hut the other will legit fly away and hide any chance it gets (We've named that one Courage lol). They are living inside with us in a brooder and handled daily. Do you think it's too late for them to be super friendly pets or is there still hope?

If the parents were not carrying any hidden recessive genes, and the poults are gray, they are Barred Slates carrying a hidden recessive bronze gene.

Turkeys can be tamed at any age. It requires patience and not trying to force yourself on the turkey.

@memphis has experience in these matters.

 

[The Prairie]

Both are grey, one is indeed obviously barred and the other less so or hard to tell. Barred slate. Good to know

Good to also know there's still hope lol Courage sure doesn't want anything to do with us.

 

[Eric E Chicken whisperer]

I have managed to tame pretty skittish animals, my Golden Narragansett Tom was very skittish when I adopted him (he passed away a couple of weeks ago), when he was brought to me, i was told he was an escapee from a turkey farm, and just running wild in a neighborhood, after about 2 months he was beginning to trust me (when he had arrived at my farm, I had him share a coop with a very tame White Pekin duck), and about 2 months later he was taking grain, and table scraps from my hand just like the duck... i no longer have him, or the duck, but they both left their memories with my family

 

[The Prairie]

They're pretty cute, Courage is a big ol chicken though lol I'm being that one's a hen.

Here's Dad, Mom and my two today.

 

[Eric E Chicken whisperer]

the Tom looks like a Narragansett, and the hen looks like a Blue Slate (i am not 100% sure on the hen due to my colorblindness)

 

[R2elk]

They're pretty cute, Courage is a big ol chicken though lol I'm being that one's a hen.

Here's Dad, Mom and my two today.

I agree on the Narragansett tom but suspect the hen is not a pure Blue Slate. If she is a pure Blue Slate the offspring could be a Light Tipped Barred Slate hen and a Barred Slate tom because the Narragansett gene is a sex linked gene which only requires one copy of the gene for it to be expressed in females but two copies for it to be expressed in males.

If it wasn't for the Narragansett gene being present, I would say that your poults are far too young to be sexed.

 

[The Prairie]

Interesting, I don't know anything about colors, the owners just said he was Bronze and shes blue lol one chick is significantly different than the other in person. Courage is almost entirely an even light blue color even in the wings. The other is significantly darker blue grey in the wings and overall. I am only suspecting sex based on their behaviors but am by no means adamant that they are. We'll see as they grow.

 

[Hobbits Mommie]

Soo cute!

 

[R2elk]

Interesting, I don't know anything about colors, the owners just said he was Bronze and shes blue lol one chick is significantly different than the other in person. Courage is almost entirely an even light blue color even in the wings. The other is significantly darker blue grey in the wings and overall. I am only suspecting sex based on their behaviors but am by no means adamant that they are. We'll see as they grow.

Unfortunately there are a lot of people that do not know what variety their turkeys are. It doesn't help when so many of the sellers on eBay are incorrectly advertising the varieties they have for sale. I personally had a conversation with a person advertising Broad Breasted Bronze hatching eggs. The photos that she posted were of heritage Narragansetts. Her claim was that her father told her they were Broad Breasted Bronze.

You can see lots of the different heritage varieties on Porter's Rare Heritage Turkeys especially if you check out his Phenotypes and Genotypes page.