Aggressive Tom

[perolane]

We have a tom & 2 hens all grey in color, in the petting zoo where I work. The animals are fed/petted over a low wall...the public has no access to the actual enclosure.

As the park vet tech, I have to go in there on a daily basis to check the animals, feed, etc. I've never had a problem with the tom, but for the last few weeks he's gotten super aggressive with me & only me...not with anyone else. He will come running across the enclosure to chase me. Today was the worst...he literally launched himself at me while I was carrying a 50lb bag of feed. If it would not have been for the bag I was carrying in front of me, he would have gotten my chest/neck.

My questions are: why is he doing this, how do I handle it, & will it end (as in is this breeding behavior)???

Please advise before the poor thing has a "horrible accident"!!

 

[Randy]

I don't know but if you find out let me know. Been messing with turkeys since the mid eighties and I've never had a real mean one until this year. This sucker bites, kicks, flogs and does whatever he can do to put a hurting on you. If I didn't have so much $ in him and a breeding plan for him he would be long gone.

 

[Sir Birdaholic]

They are Blue Slate turkeys, from your description. He is challenging you. From my years of turkey raising, they are hard to change if they start. Did you, & only you change your appearance?, As in different boots, clothes, hair, etc.? Sometimes this will set them off. My Royal Palm tom was ok with me, until I started wearing my snow boots. Now he makes the mistake, quite often, to challenge me.

 

[perolane]

Randy: that's pretty much what this one does (bites, kicks, flogs) & he means business!! He took a push broom away from me!

Birdaholic: I haven't changed anything about my appearance that I can think of except that I alternate between a regular cap & knit cap depending on the weather...he doesn't like either one apparently

.

Last year it was an emu...now a turkey! I don't want to hurt him, but I have drop-kicked him a few times in self defense....he just gets up & comes right back at me. I'm a small woman & really don't want this 30 pound missle launched at my face every day. If he's challenging me, what the heck do I do about it?

 

[thekid]

take a stick or rake or shovel and take it with you were you go and if it attacks hit it in the back and that is what i would do just hit him hard enough to sting him so then he will know you could hurt him maybe he would stop i am not sure that is what i would do just taking a guess sorry if it is wrong

 

[Sir Birdaholic]

Yes, at this point, it sounds like there are 2 options. Win the fight, or.......

 

[jasonm11]

Quote:
TURKEY SANDWICHES mmmm

 

[Frosty]

What color are the caps that you are wearing? Some colors (especially blue) can set a tom turkey off. I have heard that fighting back can actually make them worse, especially if you leave shortly after (that means they won and drove you away). I think your best bet would be to strike first and pin him to the ground until he quits struggling. I had a 5 year old Narrigansett tom start hitting me from behind, and I suspect it started because one day I carried the blue water jug in to water them (I usually am very careful to use the green jug in there). Like somebody else said, though... once they start, it is difficult if not impossible to get them to quit. The mean ones taste better

 

[Breac]

I have found that carrying a broom around and giving the bird a good whack or two when he tries to attack works well.

 

[mbnewby]

if you are the only one that gose in the pen then he thinks you are another alpha and tyring to bein control so he see you as a threat to his girls my hens think im alpha and come and try and submit to me by laying down in front of me then they spread there wings and i just step back and let the tom have at her