I Was Convinced This Was a Hen, And Than It Gobbled

[oldhenlikesdogs]

Just as the title says, up until yesterday I believed this to be a big mouthed hen. It's always making hen noises, it has fought with the older hens, and I generally got a Hen vibe from it, until it gobbled a bit yesterday when separated from it's turkey friends. Now all I can see is a big leggy Tom. The white on the chest feather edges was throwing me too. It's a mutt out of mottled, and bronze perhaps, with some sweat grass and bourbon, and blue in it's background.

Just looking for confirmation. It's around 4 months old.

@R2elk can you share your thoughts.

 

[R2elk]

Just as the title says, up until yesterday I believed this to be a big mouthed hen. It's always making hen noises, it has fought with the older hens, and I generally got a Hen vibe from it, until it gobbled a bit yesterday when separated from it's turkey friends. Now all I can see is a big leggy Tom. The white on the chest feather edges was throwing me too. It's a mutt out of mottled, and bronze perhaps, with some sweat grass and bourbon, and blue in it's background.

Just looking for confirmation. It's around 4 months old.

@R2elk can you share your thoughts.

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Sorry, he looks all tom to me. If you look at the breast feathers, all the dark feathers have black lower edges. The feathers with light colored lower edges, are patterned, multi-color feathers and will not necessarily follow the rule.

My Sweetgrass tom has breast feathers with a white lower edge and his breast feathers are multi-color patterned feathers.

Not all varieties of turkey get the really big snood at the same rate. My Sweetgrass toms tend to have a smaller snood than what would be considered normal until they are fully mature. My adult Sweetgrass hens have tiny snoods.

If you can figure out how to develop a turkey with those multi-color feathers all over, it would be gorgeous.

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

Sorry, he looks all tom to me. If you look at the breast feathers, all the dark feathers have black lower edges. The feathers with light colored lower edges, are patterned, multi-color feathers and will not necessarily follow the rule.

My Sweetgrass tom has breast feathers with a white lower edge and his breast feathers are multi-color patterned feathers.

Not all varieties of turkey get the really big snood at the same rate. My Sweetgrass toms tend to have a smaller snood than what would be considered normal until they are fully mature. My adult Sweetgrass hens have tiny snoods.

If you can figure out how to develop a turkey with those multi-color feathers all over, it would be gorgeous.

I appreciate your impute. There may be some pencil palm in him too, I don't know who the mom was. I'm glad it's a Tom, I needed another. I think he's gorgeous, and I'm interested in seeing how his color continues to come it. I'm not generally a fan of bronze, but he's a bit beyond just a bronze I think.

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

I also noticed in the third picture there's my young rooster who joined up with the turkeys after his two siblings were taken by a Fox. He chooses to stay in the turkey pen mostly. He can come and go under the door. I'm not sure if he will ever go back to the chicken shed at this point.

 

[memphis]

Wow...those breast feathers are pretty amazing! Love them!
Same thing happened to me. We all thought my mottled was a hen until he grew a snood overnight!

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

Wow...those breast feathers are pretty amazing! Love them!
Same thing happened to me. We all thought my mottled was a hen until he grew a snood overnight!

Thank you. I even clipped "her" wings because it was flying out of the pen. Something I don't need to do with toms. So you have a Tom now?