boys, girls? Dying to know!

[thecityman]

I guess I'm rushing things here, but I'm a TOTAL newbie to turkeys and am dying to know if I have girls or boys and how many of each! Perhaps there is some way to tell that I don't know about. They are about 2.5 months old. Two of them all quite a bit smaller than the other 2, so I'm thinking the small ones are hens and the big ones Jakes.....is that a reasonable assumption, a near-certain assumption, or a flat out guess (ie is size a sure indicator of sex?)

PLEASE take a look for me! What do you all think???

OK, this very first picture shows my biggest turk and my smallest turk....as you can see, there is a big difference (all are exact same age, btw). So, can I assume big one is male, little female? Or not neccessarily???

the rest are group photos.....

 

[thecityman]

closeups

 

[turkaholic]

From what I can see, I'm saying two males and two hens.

 

[thecityman]

that would be PERFECT. Do you base that only on the fact that 2 are big and 2 are small? Are there any other characteristics that lead you to that conclusion???

Thanks, btw.

 

[Denninmi]

They look so good. Great job there, dad!

 

[turkaholic]

Quote:
If they are indeed the same age, the males will start to out grow the hens. Especially at the age your birds are . Their feet will get larger and when you've had turkeys long enough, you can see subtle differences in the shape of the head, snood development, and believe it or not, their eyes! Hens have a softer "look" around the eye that is hard to explain, but seeing the difference comes with experience.

 

[Lagerdogger]

Cityman,

You stated the age at 2.5 months. Did you mean 2.5 weeks? I think at that age its pretty early to tell, even by size. I have some bourbon reds this year that were all the same size until about 11 weeks, when the tom finally started getting bigger. My six-week assessment was that I had all tom bourbon reds, my 8 week assessment was that I had one bourbon red hen and two toms, and my 12 week assessment was one tom and two hens. I also have three royal palms that were different sizes when young, all toms.

I think it may be a little early to tell.

 

[turkaholic]

They look older to me than two and a half weeks....... that primary wing feather coming through would be too early for that age. I still will go with two hens and two males. Give us an update later when you know for sure.

 

[Lagerdogger]

I agree that they look older than 2.5 weeks, but they can't be 10 weeks either. By 10 weeks they should be bald and have developing caruncles, waddles, and snoods (oh my!). One of the benchmarks I use is that they lose a significant portion of their head feathers around 6 weeks. So I would guess their age at 4 or 5 weeks. My reason for mentioning that was that I'm not sure that size at very young ages is as good an indicator as size at, say, 12 weeks.

I hope you get the males and females you want. Let us know.

 

[thecityman]

Sorry I didn't check back sooner...and I very much appreciate all the comments, help, and interest. Turns Out my turkeys are neither 2.5 weeks OR months....I am sorry, but I miscalculated....though not by a LOT. They were born on June 14, so they are almost 2 months old. Two of them are quite larger than the other two, so as I said, I tend to think 2 boys, 2 girls.....but I understand that size is not a 100% accurate determiner of sex. These are wild easterns, btw. Thanks all, and I will keep you posted.