My 5 week old turkey poult is displaying! (And a few questions.)

[chicmom]

Hello!

I am not new to BYC, but I am new to turkeys. I have two turkeys that I purchased at the Mt. Hope swap meet in Ohio. I'm pretty sure they were just a day or two old when I got them. One is a Royal Palm and the other is a Blue Slate.

Yesterday, I had the two turkeys out in a little enclosure, so that they could enjoy some grass, and the white one actually strutted around with his tail fanned out! It was amazing to watch! He was really trying very hard to impress the blue poult, who paced back and forth inside the enclosure tooking very uninterested.

So I'm pretty sure the Royal Palm is a Tom. Is that right? Still not real sure about the Blue Slate. Is there any way to tell at five weeks?

Also, they fly pretty well. I'm wondering if I should clip a wing. And will they stay around like the chickens do so I can allow them to free range? I live in a pretty private area, and it's surrounded by woods. No traffic or anything. My chickens really enjoy free ranging. I hope the turkeys can too.

Any advice will be appreciated,
Sharon

 

[cowdogcadillac]

males and females will strut at 5 weeks. And clip the wings. My 6-8 week olds regularly fly over a 6' fence and I find them all over the place. Till I did alittle snippy snippy.Now they occasionally get over.

Good luck

 

[chicmom]

Quote:
OH RATS! Now I'm back to square one on who's a hen and who's a tom.......

Thanks for the info!

Sharon

 

[FarmMomof3]

It's true.... both sexes will strut... I had a 10 weeks old hen strut once.. we were SURE she was a tom... but she never grew the snood or the waddle much and would lay when a true tom started to strut.
I have Broad Breasted Bronze Turkeys and they are almost 8 weeks old (on the 5th) and Now only the males strut.
You'll notice that when they loose the feathers on thier heads, the males will have a redder head and thier snood with start to grow. My males started growing thier snoods at about 6 weeks.

Also... this is just for fun.. but you can encourage the struting by copying the sound they make. it's kinda a breathy HOOOO sound then add in a spitting sound and I can pretty much garrentee you that your male will strut.

 

[chicmom]

Quote:
Thanks, FarmMom! That little white poult was strutting again yesterday. Really doing it alot! They both have a little (well, it looks kind of like a pink mole) where the snood would be......They are both starting to lose their head and neck fuzz just a little bit.....

They are so much fun to watch. When I trim a wing, I should do one wing on each bird, right?

 

[cowdogcadillac]

Heres my group at early age males and female struttin it up!

 

[yinepu]

they are adorable!

 

[chichick]

Dang. I wish mine would do that.

 

[Kelsey2017]

I have 6 and have not yet seen them strut, they are 8 weeks. Four of them are more friendly and when I was filling the feeder this morning they gobbled at me! The other two are a little more stand-offish and smaller I think they might be the girls. I wonder if gobbling is enough of a clue to what sex they are?

 

[TimTurkey]

At 6 weeks, my turkeys (BBW & BBB) strut regularly. Sometimes it seems that they are trying to impress me! The little darlings.

To clip or not to clip? One wing or two? Good questions and lots of opinions.

I trim both wings. Little suckers still can jump 3 feet in the air with clipped wings. I imagine that they will be clearing the fences in the next few weeks. Oh well. I heard someone say that, "you fence out predators, you can't fence in turkeys." That's my plan...