I have two bronze turkeys that are 3 1/2 months old. I bought them as babies, intending to raise them and butcher them for Christmas and Thanksgiving, hence their names are Christmas and Thanksgiving... I'm pretty sure at this point that Christmas is a tom and Thanksgiving is a hen. He has a larger snood and is much more aggressive, not to us, but around other animals, like the horses and the dogs.
The one on the left in Thanksgiving. The one on the right is Christmas... What do you think??
The turkeys are allowed to free range during the day and I put them back in their coop every night. All day long they sit outside my dogs' outdoor kennel and tease them. They stick their heads through the kennel sides and when the dogs run over, they pull their heads out and peck the dogs' noses... I have mostly Aussies and Aussie crosses, so you can imagine how it drives them nuts!!
Yesterday morning, I let the turkeys out of their coop and put the dogs away in thier kennel. I have let them interact a bit when I am right there, and they will chase the hen because she will only run away, but the tom will fight back. They seem to do a little playful biting at him and he pecks their noses... But yesterday, I didn't realize that the other door to the kennel was not latched and they got out. By the time I saw it, 3 of them had the tom surrounded. He was holding his own and wasn't hurt, but one dog and the hen were missing. The dog eventually came back into the yard, but we couldn't find the hen. We had put the tom back into his coop, and he was having a fit. I let him out and he ran into the yard and started calling. I heard a faint call from the long grass near my horse corral, and there she was, crouched in the long grass. She had a large laceration through the skin exposing her entire left shoulder and another large laceration through the skin of her right wing. The only deep puncture wound is near her tail. The dog that got her is an Australian Shepherd, Australian Cattle Dog mix. He is a 62# dog, and if he had wanted to kill her, he had plenty of time and opportunity to do it. I really believe he was trying to get her to run so he could chase her...
I am a vet, although not a poultry vet, so I took her into my clinic with me and anesthetized her and stitched her wounds. When she was recovering from the anesthetic, she went through an excitatory phase and some of the sutures ripped out, but there is less exposed muscle than there was before...
I now have her in my basement bathroom. The tom was so sad this morning, still calling for her, so I brought him in to show him that she was ok. She seemed so happy to see him and be with him that I Ieft him in there with her. I have had people stopping in to check on them to be sure he isn't traumtizing her wounds...
It may be a bit difficult to eat her after all of this...
The one on the left in Thanksgiving. The one on the right is Christmas... What do you think??
The turkeys are allowed to free range during the day and I put them back in their coop every night. All day long they sit outside my dogs' outdoor kennel and tease them. They stick their heads through the kennel sides and when the dogs run over, they pull their heads out and peck the dogs' noses... I have mostly Aussies and Aussie crosses, so you can imagine how it drives them nuts!!
Yesterday morning, I let the turkeys out of their coop and put the dogs away in thier kennel. I have let them interact a bit when I am right there, and they will chase the hen because she will only run away, but the tom will fight back. They seem to do a little playful biting at him and he pecks their noses... But yesterday, I didn't realize that the other door to the kennel was not latched and they got out. By the time I saw it, 3 of them had the tom surrounded. He was holding his own and wasn't hurt, but one dog and the hen were missing. The dog eventually came back into the yard, but we couldn't find the hen. We had put the tom back into his coop, and he was having a fit. I let him out and he ran into the yard and started calling. I heard a faint call from the long grass near my horse corral, and there she was, crouched in the long grass. She had a large laceration through the skin exposing her entire left shoulder and another large laceration through the skin of her right wing. The only deep puncture wound is near her tail. The dog that got her is an Australian Shepherd, Australian Cattle Dog mix. He is a 62# dog, and if he had wanted to kill her, he had plenty of time and opportunity to do it. I really believe he was trying to get her to run so he could chase her...
I am a vet, although not a poultry vet, so I took her into my clinic with me and anesthetized her and stitched her wounds. When she was recovering from the anesthetic, she went through an excitatory phase and some of the sutures ripped out, but there is less exposed muscle than there was before...
I now have her in my basement bathroom. The tom was so sad this morning, still calling for her, so I brought him in to show him that she was ok. She seemed so happy to see him and be with him that I Ieft him in there with her. I have had people stopping in to check on them to be sure he isn't traumtizing her wounds...
It may be a bit difficult to eat her after all of this...
