i have 4 turkeys who are about 5 months old . . . now i am wondering how to tell who is a she and who is a he. no one is gobbling but they are making distinct noises and acting different. Any help will be greatly appreciated.
Your Welcome and WELCOME to BYC!!!!! I have 6 turkeys myself and I'm still trying to figure out what mine are too. I'm pretty sure 3 of them are toms and the other 3 are about 1 month younger and pretty sure 1 of those also is a tom, maybe 2 of them. Jayare
Try gobbling? Interrupted raspberries? Those two almost invariably get my toms gobbling.. although sometimes young toms are slow to start gobbling although sometimes while things are quiet, suddenly doing a gobble causes the young toms to respond in a knee jerk before they can stop themselves. Your birds are old enough for the toms to show an ability to bring a deep red color to their heads and necks. If you've noticed this, there's at least one tom. Boys also have much more bare faces and necks with bigger wattles.. also the snoods(bump on top close to beak) also gets thick and they can visibly extend and draw it in although at this age they are still very small- about an inch. Snoods stay very small and very thin on girls and they normally don't show any kind of control on it. If you have noticed an snood that gets long enough to hang over the beak or flop down side of face, that's a tom.. BTW I have one baby from this year.. the only way I know he's a he is because his head and neck are bare(not fuzzy) and has turned a deep solid red.. he has never gobbled or even tried to strut.. not even once.. sure enough his snood has just started to grow..
One of them has a slightly thicker snood and has a redder head. one seems to be redder and sometimes i think his snood looks thick, But this one is the smallest one. The other two have thin blueish/grey snoods. when they were little 2 of them would strut but haven't seen any strut in months.
ok first off thank you so much for all your help. Today has been quite interesting. . . trying to get good photos (they did not want to cooperate with us - of course). We examined each turkey individually from snood to toes (and every where in between). oh and before we went outside i downloaded turkey sounds to my cell phone (we are on a mission). got some pictures and i am working on trying to get them posted. Any help on posting here would be great. Sorry new here and having trouble figuring it out
ok here are the details and the link to the photos (as I have not figured out how to post them on here). http://picasaweb.google.com/EvermoreBG/Turkeys?authkey=woeWhqDGeno# Tom Tom - that is just what we would call them up to eat. She now comes running when we call for "Tom Toms" I bought her from the feed Store and she is a Broad Breasted Bronze who is right at 7 months old. Turkey A - This one I kinda think is a tom. When we played the gobbling ring tone this one did some weird step and head went red!!! I also watched very close and i think he may have been doing something with his snood. sometimes when you watch him his snood is off to one side and he seems to be getting spurs (tiny but definitely more than the other 3). He likes to be near people, but would rather us not actually touch him. Checked for beard and NONE so far. I also checked them in the back door and in this one we may have seen testis. oh yeah has very thick legs. Turkey B - This one i just have no clue about. with ring tone this one was interested and head went red but not like turkey A. has thick legs but no sign of beard or spurs. Very friendly and will jump up onto bucket at feed time. Red Turkey - i change my mind on this one every day. Snood is thicker than tom tom or turkey B, not really any longer but thicker. No sign of beard or spurs and has very thin legs. It does seem to fan out its tail more often and tends to hang out in pasture farther from the others. Turned Blood red when ring tone played oh and this one is our smallest one. Turkey A, B and red all came to live with us when they were only a few weeks old. I do not know their hatch dates and we told that A & B were broad Breasted bronze and that red was a broad Breasted Bronze / Bourbon Red Mix. I do not think they are all the same age but very close!!! When we got them they were showing signs of being sick. Ended up with many sick Chickens and Turkey. Finally after lots of reading on here and other sites we treated them with tylan and every one seems to be making a great recovery just still under weight. I had some concerns on the slow weight gain so wormed them with Ivermectin also. With in a few days everyone was eating more and being much more active. Tom Tom still is on our concern list as her feet became severly swollen. one foot is still swollen and i have hunted for a plug (which is easy with her she is such a lap pet). The swelling has greatly reduced and she is getting lots more exercise, but their is a part of me that thinks she may have ended up with Gout She does not seem to be nearly as uncomfortable and is actually grazing with the others now so I am hoping for the best and preparing for the worst.