Help! Turkeys living with poultry

[feathergoatfarm]

A friend recently asked if we wanted a Turkey. It is a heritage Turkey, it is about waist high and is about 1 -3 years old. We have ducks, chickens, and geese in big separate pens. I an wondering if the Turkey could live with one of the other poultry varieties. We raise Embden geese, kaki camble and pekin ducks, and a ton of different chickens.

 

[feathergoatfarm]

The turkey is as big as our geese too

 

[R2elk]

A friend recently asked if we wanted a Turkey. It is a heritage Turkey, it is about waist high and is about 1 -3 years old. We have ducks, chickens, and geese in big separate pens. I an wondering if the Turkey could live with one of the other poultry varieties. We raise Embden geese, kaki camble and pekin ducks, and a ton of different chickens.

It is best to have more than one turkey. They are very social birds.

If it is a tom, you do not want a lone tom with your other poultry.

 

[feathergoatfarm]

It is best to have more than one turkey. They are very social birds.

If it is a tom, you do not want a lone tom with your other poultry.

It is a tom, sorry I forgot to mention that. It currently lives with other poultry, though. They want to get rid of it because there dog just killed its mate

 

[R2elk]

It is a tom, sorry I forgot to mention that. It currently lives with other poultry, though. They want to get rid of it because there dog just killed its mate

A lone tom with other poultry will end up killing some of them when breeding season arrives if he doesn't have his own turkey hens.

 

[feathergoatfarm]

A lone tom with other poultry will end up killing some of them when breeding season arrives if he doesn't have his own turkey hens.

Thanks, good to know

 

[GeeseMama]

A lone tom with other poultry will end up killing some of them when breeding season arrives if he doesn't have his own turkey hens.

We have a lone Tom. We have Guineas, ducks, and geese all housed together with no issues. He breeds the Guineas but we have had no aggression issues or instances of him killing anything other than rodents. He's actually the flock protector. I have actually watched him grab ahold of a Cooper's hawk that had landed on the ground near the Guineas. No body and nothing comes in the property without us knowing. Good babysitter for the kids too lol

 

[R2elk]

We have a lone Tom. We have Guineas, ducks, and geese all housed together with no issues. He breeds the Guineas but we have had no aggression issues or instances of him killing anything other than rodents. He's actually the flock protector. I have actually watched him grab ahold of a Cooper's hawk that had landed on the ground near the Guineas. No body and nothing comes in the property without us knowing. Good babysitter for the kids too lol

If he keeps trying to breed the guineas, he will eventually kill some of them. A tom is too big to not cause harm to such small birds.

Be very careful of a tom around kids. They can go off for no apparent reason without any forewarning.

 

[GeeseMama]

If he keeps trying to breed the guineas, he will eventually kill some of them. A tom is too big to not cause harm to such small birds.

Be very careful of a tom around kids. They can go off for no apparent reason without any forewarning.

He's been breeding the Guineas for three years. We actually had crossed but they died in the egg unfortunately. I'm not worried about him around my kids. He is always with them and chooses to be. I understand Toms can be aggressive and he is aggressive towards strangers but he "asks" for the attention from the kids. Plus they're not little $#!?heads like most kids these days. They're farm born and raised and although feral have respect.

 

[R2elk]

He's been breeding the Guineas for three years. We actually had crossed but they died in the egg unfortunately. I'm not worried about him around my kids. He is always with them and chooses to be. I understand Toms can be aggressive and he is aggressive towards strangers but he "asks" for the attention from the kids. Plus they're not little $#!?heads like most kids these days. They're farm born and raised and although feral have respect.

What you don't understand is that tom turkeys no matter how wonderful they can be for a very long time can suddenly turn without any forewarning.

There is a thread in this forum where a member talks about his tom that was for years a great father until the day he found him killing the poults. They can change at any moment. When they do go bad, it is too late then.