Can 3 toms and a hen live together?

[duluthralphie]

It would be better to have more hens than Toms.

There is always the chance it will work out, albeit a slim chance.

I have too many Toms. But mine spend so much time fighting with each other the hens escape being mated to death.

However, during breeding season I separate my hens into breeding pens and pick the Tom I want in with each group.

I have no idea of your experience level, and this warning may not be necessary..

but,,,, beware of Toms as pets especially if you have kids around. Toms raised with people and treated as pets lose some of their wariness towards us.

They can be dangerous. A turkey Tom can do damage to a person if they catch you unaware. Toms like to attack from behind so you don’t see them coming.

I have had great lapper (pet) Toms. But I always make sure they know I dominate them. I have a Jake right now that is a lapper, but I do not trust him. He has tried to nip/bite/attack my wife and I have caught him behind me attempting to attack.

He walks alongside me, I can hold him, carry him and so forth, but he is a Tom.
I have had several Snood pulling sessions with him. I have held his head down and moved his head where I want to all in an attempt to stop the bad behavior.

I still like him as he is cool, but I will take his head off and send him to the freezer if he actually attacks someone.

It can be hard to tell a friendly Tom from an aggressive one..

Good luck.

 

[duluthralphie]

I'd certainly either keep the genders seperate, or get rid of two toms. Toms can get aggressive, especially during breeding season. I had one tom last year that was particularly aggressive (even toward a male duck he grew up with) during that time of year. The poor drake's face had a big chunk taken outta it. So yea, when it comes to that, id do one of those two options.

A dux eating Turkey is worth its weight in gold!!!

 

[duluthralphie]

Also if you weren’t so far away I could get you some hens. I have about 15 I am afraid I will have to send to the freezer.

 

[Victimtopoultrymath]

If it makes you feel any better I was hoping for hens and ended up with 7 Toms instead...Two may be bearded hens, but i doubt it. They look like late developing toms... which means I went 7 and 0 lol.

Oh no! That is most unfortunate. Lots of turkey dinners?

 

[Victimtopoultrymath]

Try checking out the state threads in the Where am I? Where are you! forum. I believe that Cackle runs a special on sexed poults about every other year when their breeders are getting rid of excess replacement turkeys. The only other place that sells sexed poults only deals in broad breasted turkeys.

If you got rid of all of your toms, and replaced them with one Chocolate tom, you could make your own sex linked poults. A Chocolate tom over a Black hen will produce both Black and Chocolate poults. All the Chocolate poults will be hens and all of the Black poults will be toms that are carrying a hidden recessive brown (e) color gene.

That could be fun!

 

[Anime2lover]

A dux eating Turkey is worth its weight in gold!!!

Not fun. That injury would have killed him if I hadnt noticed.

 

[Anime2lover]

Out of 10 turkey poults we got this year, only one of them is female. That poor female is always beeing faught over.

 

[OneMountainAcres]

Not fun. That injury would have killed him if I hadnt noticed.

Ralph has crude humor and doesn't like ducks. Don't take him too seriously

Glad you noticed him!

 

[Anime2lover]

Ralph has crude humor and doesn't like ducks. Don't take him too seriously

Glad you noticed him!

Ok. Though the point is that toms can be aggressive, and do quite a bit of damage.

 

[Skipper7410]

Oh no! That is most unfortunate. Lots of turkey dinners?

2 Tom's get to live the rest become dinner I'll let the 2 questionable live long enough to decide for sure then if Tom's like I think...they get to go in the smoker