Do turkeys make good flock protectors?

[BirdLady6t8]

I got 2 poults at the End of march. Turns out I have a Hen and a Tom. I was hoping for a tom since I cant have a Rooster. I was hoping that they would protect my flock of chickens and ducks. Well, they haven't had any serious Run ins that I have seen but they do try to chase the egg stealing Crows away. (I dont mind the crows around-- they chase the Red tail hawks and eagles away)

I do have an Odd Protection Story though. I also have Tortoises and it turns out they are considered part of the flock. Most are small and kept in Pens but two have free range of the back yard , coming and going out of a Heated/ACed "barn" when the weather permits. One day I went outside a couple of weeks ago to change the hose from one fruit tree to the other and Reno, my Hen Bourbon Red Turkey met me and followed me out into the yard. She is definitely my baby. But Rude, the Tom was not in sight. As I returned from the fruit trees I could Hear Rude calling desperately "PEEP!, PEEP!, PEEP!". I thought oh maybe he jumped the fence but as I got closer I could tell the sound was coming from the "barn". I walked inside and immediately Rude took a step towards me then turned and headed in the direction he was trying to get my attention for....and there was Exxon, my 26 year old African Leopard Tortoise on his back. I went over to him and put him back on his feet...and walked out with Rude walking right along side of me gently "peeping". I told him "good boy" as we left the barn together.

 

[ivan3]

I got 2 poults at the End of march. Turns out I have a Hen and a Tom. I was hoping for a tom since I cant have a Rooster. I was hoping that they would protect my flock of chickens and ducks. Well, they haven't had any serious Run ins that I have seen but they do try to chase the egg stealing Crows away. (I dont mind the crows around-- they chase the Red tail hawks and eagles away) I do have an Odd Protection Story though. I also have Tortoises and it turns out they are considered part of the flock. Most are small and kept in Pens but two have free range of the back yard , coming and going out of a Heated/ACed "barn" when the weather permits. One day I went outside a couple of weeks ago to change the hose from one fruit tree to the other and Reno, my Hen Bourbon Red Turkey met me and followed me out into the yard. She is definitely my baby. But Rude, the Tom was not in sight. As I returned from the fruit trees I could Hear Rude calling desperately "PEEP!, PEEP!, PEEP!". I thought oh maybe he jumped the fence but as I got closer I could tell the sound was coming from the "barn". I walked inside and immediately Rude took a step towards me then turned and headed in the direction he was trying to get my attention for....and there was Exxon, my 26 year old African Leopard Tortoise on his back. I went over to him and put him back on his feet...and walked out with Rude walking right along side of me gently "peeping". I told him "good boy" as we left the barn together.

Our problem with turtles (Box turtles) is that our then "young" flock of turks would become so interested in the turtles that they would follow them off into the woods. Our turks can also remember "where" the preds "were" and will check the traps pretty closely when they're let out to range. So, they're pretty curious and have a pretty good memory for what's what, where "it" goes and how it "should" look.

 

[iklynn]

I have a Tom that we raised with our other birds. He is definitely their watch guard! He constantly puffs up and drags his wings to frighten off anything that comes close to them! I have loud geese too. I was letting them all free range and a fox got 2 of my hens, twice, that were away from the flock. I no longer let them free range unless I'm outside to watch them and keep them near their coop. I haven't had a problem since. They put themselves up at night and come out at daybreak. I don't close the door on the fenced in coop.

 

[ivan3]

I have a Tom that we raised with our other birds. He is definitely their watch guard! He constantly puffs up and drags his wings to frighten off anything that comes close to them! I have loud geese too. I was letting them all free range and a fox got 2 of my hens, twice, that were away from the flock. I no longer let them free range unless I'm outside to watch them and keep them near their coop. I haven't had a problem since. They put themselves up at night and come out at daybreak. I don't close the door on the fenced in coop.

Definitely keep an eye out (foxes will dart right in even if humans are around). Our neighbor had a big Black Spanish tom that stood its ground against a fox. As their daughter was watching their place that weekend I got a call and went down to doctor him up. Though there were numerous puncture wounds the worst injury was to his neck muscles (crown of head dragging ground while standing - managed to get him "betadined-up" & got a dose of Cephalexin down its poor throat. For weeks he just laid about, as I'd seem him as I drove by (neighbor's had to hand feed/water him).
About two months later he was out strutting around.
They are pretty tough but that tom was just lucky.

 

[gpeters3]

"I seem to have some kind of a knack for detecting 'python nights' when the temperature, wind, weather etc is just right and I go out between 9pm and 2am, generally, and find one, two or more pythons in the poultry cages. So I'm out there at night fairly often, and I usually check to make sure all is well once the pythons are removed. Early on into having turkeys for the first time I was making sure a hen hatching her eggs was covering the babies that had hatched, and I heard a hiss, exactly like a snake hiss. I looked around, didn't see anything, went back to checking that the chicks were all accounted for. Something struck my hand and I looked off to the right (using a hand torch because there's no power in the coops) and there was a little baby turkey with its wings partially open and partially spread, its head weaving around on its neck like a snakes', dancing back and forth. Don't know why it wasn't under its mother or how it got out to the side there, whether that was deliberate on its part or not, but it wasn't calling for its mother, it was focused on frightening me away."

RE: The point about snakes hissing. I collected snakes during my high school biology days and lived in a swamp where there were a variety of species and never encountered one that hissed. Hog nosed snakes can to protect themselves but most species are unable to make any sound at all other than rustling through the grass etc.. I get a kick out of Sc-fi movies that have crocs growling like bears or lions and snakes making all sorts of sounds. AFAIK, they don't have vocal cords and only a few species are able to blow themselves up so that they can release the air making some sound. I am so happy that I live in Michigan where there is only one venomous species (native) and no constrictors large enough to be interested in a chicken (except the ones my son has in a terrarium) I never thought much about it but it only takes 10-12 feet to be deadly to adult humans if caught unaware in their sleep. (rare but it happens). Sorry for deviating, just couldn't resist

 

[GRNNYSGRL]

Anything you've read any species, breed, or gender will do is often more based on how their most recent progenitors were kept than on what type they are.

Our ancestors used to keep them free range for the most part, in mixed flocks, and they would protect chooks, they were known and used for it and I dare say at least partially selected for it when it came time to choose which ones were breeders or 'eaters', lol. After all many old farming texts show turkeys kept as flock protectors.

Then many turkey breeders adopted intensive modern keeping practices, and the most recent ancestors of many turkeys you can get today come from overcrowded commercial farming backgrounds, with no chickens and no predators, so nothing to stimulate and then reinforce this old protective behavior trait. That many generations of not fulfilling any behavioral trait or instinct pattern can dull it down or actually nullify it, and it's a safe bet it's the latter.

If yours are heritage turkeys, or any breed or strain kept with chickens, it still depends on what background they and the last seven or so generations of their family lived in. Just putting them into a different environment won't change their inherited behavioral adaptions to what was the norm for their most recent ancestors, at least not for a good half dozen generations to come, and even then it generally takes some careful culling and selection to get the behaviors you want. There is not necessarily any inherent instinct in turkeys to protect chickens or even their own kind from predators, and even inherent instincts like broodiness we have bred out of some breeds.

Some turkeys I've bought were bred for generations in separate environments from chickens, and they were ok with them if raised with them, but wouldn't protect them. There was some aggression towards the chickens, but that was it, and I soon stamped that issue out.

I did have one turkey hen from this background who charged the only hawk that ever took one of my chickens, but the hawk merely sat there on the newly dead chook and raised its wings in challenge, and she turned tail. (The males were long gone, hiding in the coops as soon as the hawk took the chook in the middle of a paddock where the main flock of turkeys and chickens were foraging.) My chicken hens will attack predators too, not so much the males, but I so rarely have predator problems I haven't selected for the traits of protectors because I never get to 'test' most of them out against predators.

I reared turkeys from backgrounds where they lived with chickens, as well as had them reared by chicken hens, and most were fine with chooks but again would not protect them. One male, however, became sexually attracted to chicken hens, and kept trying to mount them. He almost killed one of my hens. I had to cull him to protect them.

Despite viewing the hens as mates, he didn't attempt to protect them either.

If you want a turkey to protect chickens, your best bet is to buy from someone whose turkeys are known to do that. Just raising them with chickens, which I've done for many generations, won't guarantee anything.

Best wishes.

I’m having a hawk problem do you have any turkeys that you are willing to sell and where are you located? I’m willing to drive. I love my hens and a hawk killed my rooster. He was protecting. one of the hens.

 

[FrostRanger]

This thread and many of the posters haven't been active for several years.
In any case, if hawks are a big issue it might be best to keep your birds penned in a covered run. As stated earlier in the thread the effectiveness of turkeys against hawks is debatable at best and toms can be outright dangerous to chicken hens