Aggressive Tom

[nznelson]

Seven months ago we purchased 2 hens and a tom. All are free ranged. Nearly 8 weeks ago both hens successfully hatched eggs in a communal nest. Now they are nesting again so Thomas is looking after the chicks. We've noticed that he is getting aggressive with our daughters and will start to go after them if we are not around. They aren't even around the chicks (or bothering them) and he is going out of his way to get to them. He will not bother me or my husband. He's never been an issue with them before. The chicks are super friendly too. I cannot stand having him be so aggressive and worry he will attack one of my kids who are 6 and 8. So we were thinking of keeping one of his offspring for breeding but not sure if this will work or not. We don't plan on selling our birds, they will be used for personal consumption nor will we ever have a big flock, 3 is enough at the moment. Can anyone suggest something we can do with this Tom? I'm happy to slaughter him but we do need another one so will his offspring work? TIA

 

[Sir Birdaholic]

Yes, his offspring can "line-breed" Mean ole tom will be delicious.

 

[MandyH]

We have been through this a couple times. We have had a couple toms that were hell bent on attacking my 5 year old. SOme of them are just full of piss and vinegar. We had to get rid of each one. I can tell you it only gets worse in the Spring.

 

[nznelson]

I just cringe with this one. And he's attacked another 5 year old boy that has been here visiting and we think cause the boy was wearing red. He really feels threatened by that color. We didn't get them as chicks either so I'm hoping his offspring will be less aggressive since they've been around us since being hatched? It's summer here (in New Zealand) at the moment. He's not been too bad with them up until a few weeks ago. Hmmmmmmmm, maybe we'll have turkey for Christmas after all! I guess keeping a male for this clutch could prove tricky though since we have a white female that we were hoping to keep. But reading you shouldn't breed brother and sister so we may have to think about this a bit more. If they weren't so expensive here we would just get another tom.

 

[ivan3]

We don't trust either toms or the rooster to be predictable enough to allow them out of their runs when either visitors or the grandkids are here. Our toms have been perfectly fine with the two of us for over 5yr's. But, like the roo, who only attacks when I'm wearing the mudboots with the yellow stripe above the soles (change into the solid black boots and he completely ignores them), one just never can be sure what will set them off and eye surgery is expensive.

If one of our toms went `blood simple' he'd be introduced to the business end of the ax.

 

[Guitartists]

Am having similar issues with my tom being aggressive....especially when I wear my brown coat and/or red gloves. I want to keep him, but we do free range. He is easy enough to catch each day...so I think I will build a pen for him this spring and round him into it each morning and then turn him loose each evening to roost with the hen....... maybe this will work???? We will see. Otherwise it's early turkey dinner!

 

[bjo_6]

I realize your post is from last winter but I just came across it.... my story is kind of the opposite of yours but now that I am older I can appreciate how special the situation was at that time.

When I was about 3 we had a huge tom(I think he was a standard bronze, he could fly) who was just plain mean! He chased people, jumped on their car hoods, he was very protective or something, he was mean to eveyone but me, I was only 3 or 4 but he loved me, he never chased me or anything I have pictures of me hanging on him in my diaper, all struted out. I loved that turkey! I can remember pulling feathers out of his fan and he would just keep strutting around me. I really have such a wonderful memory of him that I have always wanted to get more turkeys(I finally did) I actually remember my grandpa bringing me home one time and that turkey wouldn't let him out of the car, and I had go out and take the turkey in the back so my grandpa could get out of the car.

The only reason I am telling you all that stuff is that the turkey absolutely hated flannel patterned shirts. My parents kind of had it figured out why this ended up happening. My dad ALWAYS wears flannel shirts. Let me clarify my story...
Before we had any turkeys my dad wanted to raise and then butcher a bunch of white turkeys, I guess when my dad ordered the white turkeys he ended up with 2 dark colored birds by mistake and said I could keep them for pets, and of course I wanted a white one too... I got to keep the tom for a pet along with 2 hens(a white one and one like the tom), So my dad raised a whole bunch of them white turkeys along with my pets...

Ok, so the next part sounds stupid and it may just be a coincidence, but it kind of makes since...

So I guess when he butchered all the white hens my tom was there and must have saw him killing them or something like that, But pretty much he saw the flannel shirt becasue he wasn't really too bad to my dad afterwards, but if he saw flannel he would literally shred it. No Lie, shred it.

So maybe for whatever reason Guitarists turkey was associating that brown coat and red gloves with something he doen't like... It's just a guess.