A century of Turkey talk 2000-2100.

[duluthralphie]

How bad will it get????
I have 7 toms and 7 hens. All free range. There were more of each but between blackhead, predators, and our table this is what we have left. The two oldest are a Blue Slate Tom and his hen. 2 years old. The rest are between 4 and 6 months old. The 4 month old toms have decided to attack the older tom. I have seen toms fight but that usually lasts an hour or so then peace in the valley. Not today. It is going on all day. Should I separate them? I figured if I did once released it would be all out war again.

We have raised turkeys for table but this is the first time building some breeding stock. No need to have them kill each other.

Any advice?
TIA

Where are you located, Tom fights are brutal for position and during breeding time. Their heads get all beat up and bloody. It is ugly. We call the snood pulling contests. It will end when the hens are done breeding.

 

[R2elk]

That looks like the work of Guineas. They do that for no reason this time of year. Coffee called me today and she had a young hen nearly killed by her guineas. They went so far as to surround her in an isolation cage.

I am becoming less and less of a fan of Guineas, Sorry R2elk, as much fun as they are to watch their bad habits are starting to rub me wrong. I lost a rooster to the young ones last week. I think, no way to tell for sure.

I went through the mess of raising guineas with the chickens and turkeys. The guineas have no fear of poultry that are bigger than them and cause all kinds of stress to the other poultry.

My guineas are no longer a problem because all of their evils are only used against each other. My guineas have their own coop and their own run. On occasion they are allowed to free range in the same area as the other poultry. They leave the other poultry alone and the chickens and turkeys leave them alone.

 

[R2elk]

How bad will it get????
I have 7 toms and 7 hens. All free range. There were more of each but between blackhead, predators, and our table this is what we have left. The two oldest are a Blue Slate Tom and his hen. 2 years old. The rest are between 4 and 6 months old. The 4 month old toms have decided to attack the older tom. I have seen toms fight but that usually lasts an hour or so then peace in the valley. Not today. It is going on all day. Should I separate them? I figured if I did once released it would be all out war again.

We have raised turkeys for table but this is the first time building some breeding stock. No need to have them kill each other.

Any advice?
TIA

I don't know why people think they should keep a ratio of one tom to one hen. Turkeys are in no way monogamous and do not do well in pairs. In your situation you are likely to end with injured or even dead hens and poor fertility.

The hens get injured from toms knocking each other off of the hen's backs during breeding attempts. The failed breeding attempts result in poor fertility.

I try to keep at least 4 to 5 hens for one tom. I highly recommend that you eliminate at least 5 of your toms.

 

[holm25]

That looks like the work of Guineas. They do that for no reason this time of year. Coffee called me today and she had a young hen nearly killed by her guineas. They went so far as to surround her in an isolation cage.

I am becoming less and less of a fan of Guineas,  Sorry R2elk,   as much fun as they are to watch their bad habits are starting to rub me wrong.  I lost a rooster to the young ones last week. I think, no way to tell for sure.

Mine cornered my Buckeye roosters and started to beat the bloody hell out of him! It's a good thing Mr. T is a good boy and chased the Guineas away before I got there! He is quite the good boy and doesn't attack any of my birds. Whenever somebody starts fighting he breaks it up.

These Guineas will not see the inside of the coop come spring. I am kicking their sorry butts out side lol

 

[R2elk]

Mine cornered my Buckeye roosters and started to beat the bloody hell out of him! It's a good thing Mr. T is a good boy and chased the Guineas away before I got there! He is quite the good boy and doesn't attack any of my birds. Whenever somebody starts fighting he breaks it up.

These Guineas will not see the inside of the coop come spring. I am kicking their sorry butts out side lol

Just kicking the guineas out of the coop will not solve the problem. Now that they have learned how much "fun" it is to pick on the other poultry they will continue to do so. Mr. T will eventually become one of their victims. Guineas are feather pullers and greatly delight in getting dragged for a ride by latching onto a tail or wing feather of a turkey. If you plan on showing any of your poultry, you are really going to get mad once the serious feather pulling starts.

While a turkey could beat a guinea quite easily if it could catch the guinea, guineas are so much faster that the turkeys can't get them. The fact that guineas prefer to attack from behind also gives them an additional advantage.

You haven't been through a breeding season with your guineas yet so you have a new experience coming. I recommend that you eat this batch of guineas and start over with guineas that are raised away from the rest of your poultry. Of course if you don't want to eat them, you can just leave them outside at night and the owls will take care of them for you.

 

[holm25]

Just kicking the guineas out of the coop will not solve the problem.  Now that they have learned how much "fun" it is to pick on the other poultry they will continue to do so.  Mr. T will eventually become one of their victims.  Guineas are feather pullers and greatly delight in getting dragged for a ride by latching onto a tail or wing feather of a turkey.  If you plan on showing any of your poultry, you are really going to get mad once the serious feather pulling starts.

While a turkey could beat a guinea quite easily if it could catch the guinea, guineas are so much faster that the turkeys can't get them.  The fact that guineas prefer to attack from behind also gives them an additional advantage.

You haven't been through a breeding season with your guineas yet so you have a new experience coming.  I recommend that you eat this batch of guineas and start over with guineas that are raised away from the rest of your poultry.  Of course if you don't want to eat them, you can just leave them outside at night and the owls will take care of them for you.

I really don't want to start over. Mine sleep outside quite a bit and have never been eaten by an owl. Three of them decided to sleep outside in our -30 cold we had and even they are still alive. We have never seen or heard an Owl here. I THINK they will be just fine but who knows.

 

[duluthralphie]

Guinea problems are just starting for the year too..I wonder how those people that insist their Guineas are sweet lappers from the Guinea thread are fairing.


As much as I like them I am not sure I have the room or stamina to do another year of them.

 

[R2elk]

I really don't want to start over. Mine sleep outside quite a bit and have never been eaten by an owl. Three of them decided to sleep outside in our -30 cold we had and even they are still alive. We have never seen or heard an Owl here. I THINK they will be just fine but who knows.

It took a while for the owls to find my first flock of guineas but they eventually found them and completely cleaned out that flock before I realized that it was owls that were getting them.

 

[R2elk]

Guinea problems are just starting for the year too..I wonder how those people that insist their Guineas are sweet lappers from the Guinea thread are fairing.

As much as I like them I am not sure I have the room or stamina to do another year of them.

If you follow those type of threads, the threads that appear after the start of breeding season usually start with Why are my guineas being mean, etc. The other thing that usually happens is that they just quit posting about their darling guineas. The same thing happens with most of the ones that claim their guineas and chickens get along great.

 

[memphis]

You got that right R2elk! For amusement I will read some of the guinea threads.. Holm, I hope she'll be ok. Poor girl.

Ralph, come on! Snitch was alerting you to the fact the water was dry! What a good girl! MNnice, you ought to go snatch Snitch! I beginning to think Ralph doesn't appreciate his little buddy!!