Male or Female... HELP!!!

[newduckie]

I bought a bourbon red turkey last year because it was advertised as a male. My female has since gotten killed by a stray dog. I want to buy this one a mate, but I am not convinced that it is a male. How old before they get the little thing hanging on their nose? I will try to post a picture of him/her when I get home from work tonight. He/she has the WORST identity crisis ever. It thinks it is a guinea. It makes those chirp sounds like my female used to and it is not developing any nose thing or neck globs. Sorry I know there are correct terms for these things, but they escape me right now. It has also never strutted. I bought it last oct first and it was a couple month old then. shouldn't it be developing by now. one way or the other?

 

[Struttn1]

The nose thingy is called a snood. If it is a purebred Bourbon Red take a look at the feathers. If they are black on the tips it is a tom. If they are white tipped it is a hen. I have a young Bourbon Red tom that is about the same age and he is gobbling but doesn't do much strutting. I don't think the older toms approve of him showing off.

if the bird you have was a month old when it was sold as a tom it would have been vent sexed to determine the sex or somebody just took a wild guess so I would not be surprised if its a hen. Try to get at least one clear closeup pic of its feathers to post and someone should be able to help you out.

If your bird turns out to be a hen and you are willing to meet me in Cape Girardeau I would be willing to give you a good deal on a nice young Bourbon Red tom that is gobbling.

 

[newduckie]

thanks so much for the answer. I will check him out tonight when I get off work. I will take some pictures also. I only have the one turkey and I know it is lonely. Thanks...

 

[Struttn1]

No prob. Just check the breast feathers. I think this tom I have is around 7 or 8 months old and he is going to be a nice one. He really likes to gobble and if nobody buys him he will be Thanksgiving dinner. I will try to get pics of his breast and one of my hens to post tommorrow so u can compare them to yours.

 

[newduckie]

the weather is so nasty here right now that I havent had a chance to take pictures. WIll just as soon as the sun shines and it warms a bit. thanks

 

[newduckie]

mine just chirps. That is just like my female did.. the one that got killed..... I am leaning more and more towards a girl.

 

[littledel]

If it is a year old, it should at least have the start of a beard. You may have to look for it. Mine always started around 9-11 months with a very little beard. And at a year, the snod should be visible on a male as should the meaty area on the neck. If none of this is present, I bet you have a young hen.

 

[ccrawf]

I have two Bourbon Reds I got last year, hatched about 1 June. The tom has a good sized beard and struts all the time. The hen has no knobs on the neck, and just acts different. And the feather coloring is different. You can see some of it in these pictures.

This is one of my hens, you can see how far the feathers come up the back of her neck.

This is my toms and you can see the difference. You should be able to identify from these if it is a hen or tom.
Hope this helps.

 

[Struttn1]

Here are a couple of pics I got them to hold still for. The first one shows the black tipped feathers of the tom and the second pic shows the light tipped feathers of the hen.

 

[patandchickens]

If it makes you feel any better, I bought a pair of heritage bronzes last fall in which the tom really looked very henlike and underdeveloped. Since I could not find out how old they were, I just chalked it up to immaturity and figured he'd develop more in the next few months. Well, he didn't. All winter, although he was larger than the hen he was with, and had a bit wider snood, I never ever saw him extend the snood (it was always just a pale 1/2" nubbin, like a big puffy wart) and he did not develop the "neck globs" (LOL), his head/neck *barely* started to color up, and not a single gobble or strut or even just fanning of the tail. Hmph!

As recently as two weeks ago, I was seriously thinking he was probably defective, some sort of intersex or something.

And then. Two days ago, he quite suddenly started gobbling and strutting up a storm, his head and neck bright red and blue and his formerly-pathetic-looking snood hanging waaaay down just like any other tom turkey.

So clearly he IS a male

It just seems to have taken him a loooong time to (rather suddenly) come to terms with it! LOL

Hopefully yours will be a similar story,

Pat