A century of Turkey talk 2000-2100.

[Molpet]

My peas and turkeys are spoiled... Chickens and ducks get the "leavings", and they have a choice to eat them or go hungry.

I have been feeding FF since 2015.. no problems and back then it cut my feed costs by at least 1/3.. maybe 1/2 if you count waste.. Hard to tell now since chicken math is including subtraction every other week...They are in the poultry yards which still has grass/brushes/ bugs ...also and get meat/garden scraps so it is not all they eat.. in the summer I ferment a day or 2.. longer in the winter.. Have three 5 g buckets going right now.. go through 1 to 1 1/2 buckets a day depending on the weather... 7 turkeys and 60+ chickens of various ages .. I use this method w/milled feed https://tikktok.wordpress.com/2014/04/13/fermented-feed-faq/ .

 

[AnneInTheBurbs]

Is my little love a boy? Will my lap be squished eventually? He is just 4 months now, same age as the Bourbon Reds.

 

[casportpony]

Is my little love a boy? Will my lap be squished eventually? He is just 4 months now, same age as the Bourbon Reds.

From what I learned on this thread it looks like you have a hen.

 

[R2elk]

What a stunning girl! Hopefully she isn't gone for good but if she is, that's a pretty long life for a wild turkey. What color tom? There may be all sorts of different colored wild turkeys parading the forest lol

The first year she showed up I still had a Bourbon Red tom and her poults that year appeared to Red Bronze. In the following years I only had a Blue Slate tom and later a Self Blue tom. She never brought any of her poults back with her so I have no idea what those turned out like or if any of them ever survived. No other wild turkeys have showed up either.

She hasn't been here for two years in a row so I doubt she survived but as you say, that was a long life for a wild turkey since it would have made her at least 7 years old the last time she was here.

 

[OneMountainAcres]

Is my little love a boy? Will my lap be squished eventually? He is just 4 months now, same age as the Bourbon Reds.


View attachment 1139705 View attachment 1139706

Still looks girly

 

[R2elk]

Is my little love a boy? Will my lap be squished eventually? He is just 4 months now, same age as the Bourbon Reds.

For tom/hen IDs, it is helpful to have a view of the top of the head, a full side view and a full view from the front of turkey.

You got the first one very well showing a good view of the "mohawk" top of the head. She does appear to be a hen.

There are more traits that help to determine the sex of the turkey such as the breast feather trick, the size and shape of the snood, the size of the caruncles, the size of the beard if there even is a beard, the size of the legs, etc.

It can be very difficult to tell the sex of a turkey by looking at a photo before they are mature. Mannerisms differ between hens and toms that make it possible to determine the sex at a very early age if a person is observant and has been around turkeys for a long time. This year I marked a Royal Palm poult as a hen at two weeks of age. I still have her and she is clearly a hen at 4 1/2 months old.

 

[memphis]

Ann...your little love is a little hen! Nothing better than a lapper!! That's what we call our lap turkeys around here! My Daisy will hop in my lap & settle in for a nap. I usually park my Notebook on top of her & answer emails. She's like a lap desk!!

 

[duluthralphie]

I like to chase my turkeys to see if they are boys or girls.....after all, the girls all run like girls...

They fan their tails and scream..LOL... The WWD thinks saying a turkey runs like a girl is sexist...BUT they run different than the Toms at that age.


I think the one Anne showed now is a girl, BUT I need a better picture or two to be sure.

 

[casportpony]

Has anyone ever done a picture of picture of a male and female poult side-by-side?
here are a couple that pea folks did:

 

[R2elk]

Has anyone ever done a picture of picture of a male and female poult side-by-side?
here are a couple that pea folks did:

Doesn't work on turkeys unless you have sex linked poults. I have seen it claimed but not proven that Narragansett female poults are lighter colored than Narragansett male poults. One person made the claim that his Bourbon Red poults looked different and followed them into adulthood with a correct prediction of their sexes.

I personally have raised a fair number of Bourbon Red poults and never saw any color or pattern difference in the poults. Guaranteed it doesn't work on Slate poults or Royal palms.

After all they are turkeys.