All things Turkey poults

[Crazydoglady99]

The younger you start, the easier it is

 

[Crazydoglady99]

And these 3.. growing up quickly!
This is a dog bed on my pergola that they think is tops (beside their ladder perch).

No gobbling yet. Am still thinking the middle one is a hen, outer two are Tom's.

Kids have named turkeys after the characters from "how to train your dragon ". So the smaller middle one is hiccup, the outer two are rough-nut & tough-nut.
(The babies in previous pic are Astrid -yellow, and snot-lout)

 

[Crazydoglady99]

Aaaaaand we have gobbling.. at least our best attempts at gobbling anyway!
I love the sound, cracks me up

Pretty sure my 2 little ones are 1x hen and 1x tom. They're still walking around my house, getting into mischief and making a big mess!
(They are like puppies!)

 

[Crazydoglady99]

Question for the Turkey people..

Can you keep Turkey Tom's together (happily)? Seperate from the hens I mean.

Its looking like I have 4 Tom's and 2 hens so trying to work out the best way to keep everyone safe and happy.

I would love to move them out to my acreage, and I havent worked out how to fence them securely from predators (that won't cost and arm &leg)

 

[R2elk]

Question for the Turkey people..

Can you keep Turkey Tom's together (happily)? Separate from the hens I mean.

Its looking like I have 4 Tom's and 2 hens so trying to work out the best way to keep everyone safe and happy.

I would love to move them out to my acreage, and I haven't worked out how to fence them securely from predators (that won't cost and arm &leg)

It depends on the individual turkeys. It will be harmful to the hens to keep all of them together.

I very strongly urge that you reduce your toms to just one whether it is by rehoming them or by another method.

 

[Crazydoglady99]

Oh yes, I wouldn't keep them all enclosed in a pen together. But was wondering if 4 Tom's together would be happy. At the moment the 2x 4 month old Tom's are best buddies, but they arent yet teenagers! Yikes!

Better put my thinking hat on!

 

[R2elk]

Oh yes, I wouldn't keep them all enclosed in a pen together. But was wondering if 4 Tom's together would be happy. At the moment the 2x 4 month old Tom's are best buddies, but they arent yet teenagers! Yikes!

Better put my thinking hat on!

They are best buddies now but as time goes on they will have disputes over who is dominant. These occurrences may happen infrequently except when they are very equally matched. When that happens the dominance battles can go on for a very long time.

When there is one clearly dominant tom in the group, he can often prevent any fighting right up to the point where one of the underlings gets brave enough to challenge him.

Good luck.

 

[Crazydoglady99]

Thanks R2! I suspected that might be the case

 

[Crazydoglady99]

How much time do you think I have till the mayhem starts? 2months?

 

[R2elk]

How much time do you think I have till the mayhem starts? 2months?

That is a complete unknown. I have three 4 month old toms in with 7 hens and their father. They were all wound up this morning with all three of the boys going at each other while their father kept getting in good hits whenever he could.

Something must have spooked them this morning as three ended up in the field and two in the neighbor's backyard. I got more exercise than I wanted getting them all back into their free range area.

I have no idea if this had anything to do with it but once I got them all back where they were supposed to be, I found this.