Eastern Wild and Ridley Bronze sexing lessons....whew!

[girlsaint]

Sexing turkeys is soooo confusing!

I bought some Ridley Bronze turkeys last spring, and have enjoyed watching them grow. Mid July last year, I bought a couple of Eastern Wild turkeys and they have been all together and quite a cozy little flock. I realized recently that all of the birds looked, well, the SAME.... and after a little research decided that I had all hens. Since I was hoping for some baby turkeys, I put an ad on Kijiji, and asked if anyone had an Eastern Wild Tom. My ad was answered by a nice young man who had 4-H projects on the go, and the Tom that I got is very nice, can be handled, and seemed to be just what I was looking for.

So I brought home "Squidward", as my daughter named him. As soon as we got into the pen, all of my turkeys doubled in size and proceeded to attack Squidward. I removed him , and put him into an adjacent pen so they could get to see each others, and then went home and told my husband that I must be the stupidest turkey owner in the world, because now I thought that I had all males. I told him about the turkeys fluffing their feathers and attacking Squidward. He thought maybe I was right, they are all males.

So this makes for a huge dilemma for me. What does a person do with so many Toms? Hubby was ready to help me out by reserving a day to cull evreyone but Squidward, who is so nice he will be a pet. I asked him to hold off until I looked into this a little deeper.

After reading the posts here on the forum, and watching videos on youtube, and following links to various Wild Turkey websites, I an hour this morning gawking at my turkeys, and decided that my gut instinct was right in the first place. Squidward is the only bald turkey, and he is the only turkey I have with Black edges on his breast feathers. So before I started watering and feeding, I turfed him in with the others. When I came back with the first waterer, he was being chased and agitated by the other turkeys. By the time I brought in the Yokohamas water just 20 minutes later, he was perched and everything had simmered down a little.

I am glad the information was here to double check, or I would have to buy another freezer.
Thanks for all the stories and pictures

 

[turkaholic]

Whenever a new turkey is introduced into an established flock, feathers are going to fly! Whether it is a tom or a hen, the dominant bird will quickly challenge the newcomer and the others join in. Most of the time the new bird submits after some chasing and pecking and, things as you said, settle down. But be prepared for the tom to challenge any other male in the group when the urge develops. Its all part of their social structure, and for all the turkey fights I've witnessed over the years (and some quite bloody) they have never killed one another.

 

[call ducks]

Quote:
It is so confusing , glad to hear that he is behaving him self.

 

[Boggy Bottom Bantams]

yep, with any wild turkey or bronze domestics, to sex them all you have to do it look at the brest feathers, males will be black, hens will be lighter but the main thing is, ALL hens will have a buff lace to each breast feather.
Here's a pic of some of my wild rio grandes to show what I mean.
Strutting, pecking order, voice (other than a gobble) none of that matters, we even have 2 rio hens that are bearded.

 

[Struttn1]

Quote:
Correct me if I am wrong but your strutting tom sure looks like an Eastern Wild to me and the other tom not strutting does appear to have the markings of a Rio.

 

[Struttn1]

Never mind, my son has convinced me it is a Rio.

 

[Boggy Bottom Bantams]

I was gone say....

they sure are 100% rio grande.
Easterns arent buff tail tipped, they are brown tipped (look just like the rest of the tail, no contrast just a black band seperating the tip and main tail feather secondaries have no contrast either )and they are duller in body color. The one not sturtting is almost white tipped , you can kind of see it in the second pic. They come in various shades, but it has to be buff of some form