Problems with pet turkeys...

[ThracianHorse]

I wish this were a funny thread, but sadly, this isn't.

I hand-reared two turkeys last year. One wound up being a very sweet (but dumb) bronze breasted tom, and one wound up being a beautiful chocolate tom.

I had hopes that one would be a tom, and one would be a hen, or that they would both be girls... But no such luck. Both grew up to be toms, and until recently, my boys could share a pen in peace. I suspected that might change come spring, and boy, have they. My boys had a knock-down, drag-out fight this afternoon that left one with a bloody head, and the other with some badly bent feathers, and a pen that was totally thrashed from one end to the other. Knowing what I already know about bird behavior, I am expecting this behavior to worsen the farther we get into spring.

So... I need one of two things. I need suggestions of how to keep my boys from killing each other until the springtime hormone surge is over... or I need to get rid of my boys. Normally, I don't have any qualms about killing animals I raise... but these two were raised to be pets and I do make a distinction between my animals that are kept as pets, and those I keep to make into food.

Thanks!

TH

 

[SED]

They should work out a pecking order soon. Once that happens, it should quiet down. Most of the time it looks worse than it really is.

 

[jasonm11]

time to put them n seperate pens and givethem a couple girls to attend to. If nothing else the turkey eggs are good.

 

[farmerlor]

It's pretty rare for them to actually fight to the death but once they figure out who's alpha tom you might want to get a couple of girls in there for them to keep them occupied in other ways.

 

[lilchick]

Raised together they usually work it out. I have several toms and occasionally they jump up in air at each other and grab and hold around face but no real damage. Nothin prettier than a bunch of toms strutting their stuff..

 

[Steve_of_sandspoultry]

Just let them sort it out, if you break up the fight or seperate them they will go right back to it.

Steve

 

[kangababy]

I had the same problem last year and they worked it out after a week or two. This year I have everything seperated so far except for 4 blue Slate Toms that are still together and they never fight!

I did however try to move a Bourbon Red Tom from 4 of the blue slates hen and change toms out and the hens attacked the Blue Slate Tom.. So Bourbons and Slates in that pen there will be!

my Other Pen has 6-8 hens and 1 Tom all Slates plus one turkey we have had since it was born but it is blind and I am afriad to put another tom in there with him for the fighting reason.. He is a good looking tom and I know that the eggs were fertile last year!

 

[ColbyNTX]

They also seem to fight more when they are penned. You said one was a bronze breasted, is it a broad breasted bronze? If it is, you might need to eat it because they have a shorter life span.

 

[D'Angelo N Va.]

I wish I had that problem. Each time I get turkeys, I can never get them to live more than 2 months...I will try it again one day, now that I am a member of BYC and I know you all can help me do it right.