HELP - Tom Turkey suddenly killed poult

[Kaeridae]

Hello. This is my first time raising Turkeys. Originally our tom and hen had a clutch of their own but unfortunately they did not make it. So we got some poults similar in age. Over the past couple weeks our Tom has been very attentive and protective of the three poults we introduced, while the hen has wanted nothing to do with them and went off to sit on a new clutch.

Fast forward to today when I go out to check why one of the poults was calling:

I came out to see our Tom stomping and biting at a dead poult. I was very shocked and confused. It appeared as if he was attempting to mount it?

I have put up the remaining two separate from the Tom. I have heard of Tom's being aggressive but ours has been great at caring for them until today. What happened???

 

[R2elk]

Hello. This is my first time raising Turkeys. Originally our tom and hen had a clutch of their own but unfortunately they did not make it. So we got some poults similar in age. Over the past couple weeks our Tom has been very attentive and protective of the three poults we introduced, while the hen has wanted nothing to do with them and went off to sit on a new clutch.

Fast forward to today when I go out to check why one of the poults was calling:

I came out to see our Tom stomping and biting at a dead poult. I was very shocked and confused. It appeared as if he was attempting to mount it?

I have put up the remaining two separate from the Tom. I have heard of Tom's being aggressive but ours has been great at caring for them until today. What happened???

This is why I tell people to keep the new poults separate from the toms. Some toms can seem to be very good with poults right up until the day they aren't. There is no way to foresee what day they will change their attitude.

It.s also one of the reasons I recommend that people keep multiple hens per tom. They don't all tend to go broody at the same time leaving the tom to have some hens to keep his attention.

I n the wild after mating the hens go off to their hidden nests. They are hiding the nests not only from predators but also from the toms. They do not return to the flock until the fall when their poults are nearly mature.

 

[Kaeridae]

This is why I tell people to keep the new poults separate from the toms. Some toms can seem to be very good with poults right up until the day they aren't. There is no way to foresee what day they will change their attitude.

It.s also one of the reasons I recommend that people keep multiple hens per tom. They don't all tend to go broody at the same time leaving the tom to have some hens to keep his attention.

I n the wild after mating the hens go off to their hidden nests. They are hiding the nests not only from predators but also from the toms. They do not return to the flock until the fall when their poults are nearly mature.

Thank you. I wish our hen had taken to them but it's entirely my fault for not knowing and trusting his behavior instead. We also should've bought some more adult females instead of poults.

 

[R2elk]

Thank you. I wish our hen had taken to them but it's entirely my fault for not knowing and trusting his behavior instead. We also should've bought some more adult females instead of poults.

When I try to get a hen to adopt poults, I do it right after she has hatched and I have taken her poults from her.

I place her and the poults in a separate pen. I watch her to see her reaction. If she starts cooing and pleading with them, I leave them alone. If she starts pecking at them, I remove her immediately.

This year the first hen I tried, wanted the poults but they didn't respond to her the way she wanted them to. She couldn't convince them to accept her so she started pecking them to force them to obey her. All she did was terrorize them.

The second case was a hen that had gotten a severe breeding injury. I had nowhere else to separate her from the toms and put her in the grow out pen with the poults. She had not even been broody yet this year but she got the poults to accept her. She is doing a fine job raising 3 different ages of poults.