My tom is pretty well behaved, just kind of annoying. It looks tiring constantly being in a state of showing off lol. If I sit anywhere he's there circling me and trying to sneakily stare down at my shoe for an opening. If I sit on the other side of the fence away from him he displays right up against the fence. I got lucky with him not being generally aggressive, unless you're my mom. He's nice to me and my sister and usually strangers. He kicked my mom for the first time the other day when she was helping me herd them into the pen lol
His brother was way worse. He was my baby, but got extremely obnoxious and would constantly try and mount me if I sat down. He got to 2 years old when he was starting fights with his brother constantly, pushing up against me and trying to climb on me, and he would relentlessly chase and attack my mom. I loved that dude, but he had to go for the safety of me, my mom, and his brother. It took 2 years for his bad behavior to come to a head. Before that he was harmless.
The hens have stayed mostly fine. They like to follow me around and watch what I'm doing, but don't really want to be touched. One of them sees me as a pecking order hurdle and is afraid I'm going to attack her or something? Even though I babied her growing up. She'll alarm chirp if I reach out for her, and then turn around and try and challenge call me. Her sister puts her in her place every time though. Her sister follows us around but doesn't want to be touched, unless she's in "the mood" where she'll just walk up and stand really close to me and be stiff. She doesn't sit for me, just stands there and walks into my lap and stares.
My 2 "best" imprint outcomes were my lilacs. They both get really close and like to interact. Budgie less so, but she is pretty funny and is also the only one who will sit for me. Her sister, Sparrow, is my baby and the one who probably imprinted the best. She'll walk up to me, walk into my lap, perch on my lap, sit near me, let me pet her and scratch her, let me carry her around and is genuinely interested in me. She's also never tried to sit for me or want me to breed her, which makes me think she recognizes that I'm not a turkey but maybe like, turkey-adjacent lmfao.
Unfortunately though that's only about 1/4 successful imprints on the ladies. My tom is very easy to mess around with and love on, but there's the whole "he hates my mom" thing which kind of fails him from passing the "successful imprint" qualification. I've got these 5 growing up now, 2 fully imprinted from birth and then the other 3 I got around 6 weeks in, so I'll see how they develop and if they act any differently then some of my other girls.
His brother was way worse. He was my baby, but got extremely obnoxious and would constantly try and mount me if I sat down. He got to 2 years old when he was starting fights with his brother constantly, pushing up against me and trying to climb on me, and he would relentlessly chase and attack my mom. I loved that dude, but he had to go for the safety of me, my mom, and his brother. It took 2 years for his bad behavior to come to a head. Before that he was harmless.
The hens have stayed mostly fine. They like to follow me around and watch what I'm doing, but don't really want to be touched. One of them sees me as a pecking order hurdle and is afraid I'm going to attack her or something? Even though I babied her growing up. She'll alarm chirp if I reach out for her, and then turn around and try and challenge call me. Her sister puts her in her place every time though. Her sister follows us around but doesn't want to be touched, unless she's in "the mood" where she'll just walk up and stand really close to me and be stiff. She doesn't sit for me, just stands there and walks into my lap and stares.
My 2 "best" imprint outcomes were my lilacs. They both get really close and like to interact. Budgie less so, but she is pretty funny and is also the only one who will sit for me. Her sister, Sparrow, is my baby and the one who probably imprinted the best. She'll walk up to me, walk into my lap, perch on my lap, sit near me, let me pet her and scratch her, let me carry her around and is genuinely interested in me. She's also never tried to sit for me or want me to breed her, which makes me think she recognizes that I'm not a turkey but maybe like, turkey-adjacent lmfao.
Unfortunately though that's only about 1/4 successful imprints on the ladies. My tom is very easy to mess around with and love on, but there's the whole "he hates my mom" thing which kind of fails him from passing the "successful imprint" qualification. I've got these 5 growing up now, 2 fully imprinted from birth and then the other 3 I got around 6 weeks in, so I'll see how they develop and if they act any differently then some of my other girls.
yep they are my first turkeys ever.
I knew then that he didn’t know what he was talking about.
