My male turkey lays at my feet, why?

[Arevis2017]

We bought two white turkeys last spring. We thought they were both females and purchased a gorgeous male Tom to breed them with. Well, my sweetie pie turkey ended up also being a male.. the brown Tom and our one female have bred and she’s laying eggs. My white male (whom I love, he’s sooo sweet) is now walking to me when I come outside and immediately lays down at my feet. He is also doing this to my husband. He will try to fight the brown Tom but lays at our feet.. why is he doing this?

 

[R2elk]

We bought two white turkeys last spring. We thought they were both females and purchased a gorgeous male Tom to breed them with. Well, my sweetie pie turkey ended up also being a male.. the brown Tom and our one female have bred and she’s laying eggs. My white male (whom I love, he’s sooo sweet) is now walking to me when I come outside and immediately lays down at my feet. He is also doing this to my husband. He will try to fight the brown Tom but lays at our feet.. why is he doing this?

Please post images of this turkey. That is female behavior and not male behavior.

 

[yesterDAYNE]

The only remotely close thing I've ever experienced like this was with a young jake who would lay on the other babies that were slightly smaller then him and proceed to try and dust bathe on them, or just straight up lay down. He would do that a lot, just walk up to them and lay down on them, or try. He grew out of it though within a couple months. I am not sure why an adult tom would be doing that though. Pictures could definitely help this, lol.

 

[Arevis2017]

Here is a pic of him and the new Tom facing off. My white one is 13months old. He doesn’t gobble like the brown one yet. The 2nd pic is

him fluffing out and laying at my feet. He literally walks over to me, fluffs up and sits almost on my feet. He doesn’t try to “mate” with my feet. Just sits.

 

[Arevis2017]

Here is a pic of him and the new Tom facing off. My white one is 13months old. He doesn’t gobble like the brown one yet. The 2nd pic is View attachment 2626205View attachment 2626206him fluffing out and laying at my feet. He literally walks over to me, fluffs up and sits almost on my feet. He doesn’t try to “mate” with my feet. Just sits.

Oh.. he also has not mated with our female who is also 13months. We did see her mate with the brown Tom and she has now laid 8 eggs. My white male (Sweetie is his name because he’s just the sweetest thing) has been up with her and her eggs at night to keep him from the brown Tom and has seemed interested but has not bothered the eggs. She laid them in a small holding pen we had made when they were babies that protected them from the hawks (it is completely fenced in) which was pretty cool since it is so safe and they had not been in there since they were very little!

 

[yesterDAYNE]

That's a hen! She has a bunch of visible fuzz on her head and snood. She is presenting for you.

 

[R2elk]

Here is a pic of him and the new Tom facing off. My white one is 13months old. He doesn’t gobble like the brown one yet. The 2nd pic is View attachment 2626205View attachment 2626206him fluffing out and laying at my feet. He literally walks over to me, fluffs up and sits almost on my feet. He doesn’t try to “mate” with my feet. Just sits.

Those pictures are too small to say for sure but it looks like the white turkey in the pics is a hen. It is not uncommon for hens and toms to have pecking order disputes. Hens can and do strut and display and flare up too.

I had one hen that would go into full display and pick a fight with the tom before she would let him breed her.

The behavior also say hen as she is submitting for you to breed her. You aren't the first person to mistake the gender of their turkey.

 

[R2elk]

Tom on the left, hen on the right.

 

[Arevis2017]

That's a hen! She has a bunch of visible fuzz on her head and snood. She is presenting for you.

We thought so too but he tries to fight the brown male and he has some black feathers starting to come out of his chest like the brown male. The other white doesn’t have that or the little thing starting to come down his beak.

 

[Arevis2017]

We thought so too but he tries to fight the brown male and he has some black feathers starting to come out of his chest like the brown male. The other white doesn’t have that or the little thing starting to come down his beak.