RP Gender

[Newchickenguy84]

When can you tell on turkeys what sex they will be? Mine are about 7 weeks old just now starting to get their black feathers in.

 

[R2elk]

When can you tell on turkeys what sex they will be? Mine are about 7 weeks old just now starting to get their black feathers in.

Experienced turkey raisers can often tell the sex on their poults by two months old. Most cannot be sexed from photos until they are 3 months old. The exception is a late developing tom that may not show its true sex until 6 months or later.

 

[Newchickenguy84]

Good to know. Yeah I'm still knew I know there is a way to sex them but a lot of people do not do it due to the fact you have a chance of hurting them

 

[R2elk]

Good to know. Yeah I'm still knew I know there is a way to sex them but a lot of people do not do it due to the fact you have a chance of hurting them

If you are referring to the method where idiots pick them up by their head, it does not work and can seriously injure them. The method is to actually support them under their wings allowing the legs to dangle freely. Apparently people that watched the original video thought they were being picked up by their heads. Either way, it has no merit based on facts.

 

[Newchickenguy84]

was referring to https://animals.mom.me/how-to-determine-the-sex-of-turkey-chicks-8575928.html

 

[R2elk]

was referring to https://animals.mom.me/how-to-determine-the-sex-of-turkey-chicks-8575928.html

The vent sexing part is correct and if you don't know what you are doing or what you are looking for you won't determine the sex and can possibly injure the poult.

The part about feather sexing sounds like it was taken from a manual for chickens. I have never heard of any fast feathering males or slow feathering females in turkeys. The broad breasted varieties have been bred to be able to be feather sexed but it is not like feather sexing in chickens. It is more that the males have a sparseness of feathers.

There are two sex linked color genes that with the right pairing, the poults can be sexed at the hatch.

One such example is mating a Chocolate tom with a Black hen. All of the black colored poults will be males carrying a hidden recessive brown gene (Ee) and all of the chocolate colored poults will be Chocolate hens (e-).