Sexing 10 week old poults....

[hilaryhake]

I have 3 10 week old poults, that I was told were Bourbon/Bronze crosses. I have done the poop test on them and it indicates all 3 are girls. But I was told the snod (snood?) would be close to the beak in boys and all 3 have snods close to the beak. But their snods are small and round. They also have no growth on their necks. 2 are getting nice tail feathers, but don't display them much. ! is not getting it's tail feathers in just yet. The 2 with the tail feathers are very docile, the 1 who hasn't got it's tail feathers yet is VERY aggressive.None of them appear to strut....







Any guesses on sex?

 

[hilaryhake]

Also, I know that people say to not put turkeys in with chickens, but these guys have been together since they hatched and when I separate them, the chickens and the turkeys just freak out lol

 

[Lagerdogger]

A couple of responses.

First, 10 weeks can be a little young to properly sex. Having said that, the head shots do look hennish, but again 10 weeks can be young. When the next set of plumage comes in, the breast feathers of hens will have light margins, and the breast feathers of toms will have dark margins.
Second, they don't look 10 weeks old. They still seem to have a lot of fuzz on their heads for that age. They look more like 8 weeks old, which is definitely too young to tell, unless you breed something sex linked. Even if they are 10 weeks, I usually don't feel comfortable with ages until 12 weeks or unless they develop something obvious (trukeys do not seem to all develop at the same rate. Some are easier to tell at younger ages than others).
Third, they don't look like Bourbon Red X St. Bronze. If they were, they would be Red Bronze. Red bronze have brown tails with metallic green tail stripes and tan margins. The overtail coverts should also be coming in tan and green. The last picture doesn't look like a red bronze. They secondaries look more like Narragansett, but the tail looks more lie a palm. I'm not saying the color is either of those, I'm just saying they are not red bronze. The parents may have looked bronze and BR, but they may have been carrying some other recessive genes.

 

[hilaryhake]

They hatched Feb 11th, so that puts them at approximately 10 weeks. I have had them since Feb 16th. As for their breed, well, I've thought they looked more like Narrgansett myself. Since I am not showing them or breeding them for a pure stock, I don't mind if they are mutts LOL. I realize it's hard to sex them at their age but have heard several theories on how to do it and was curious what people thought. Thanks for replying!

 

[Lagerdogger]

Things that I think work in order of reliability are
1. breast feather margins in adult plumage
2. caruncle and snood development
3. darker coloration (in palms, calicos. Actually I would rank this as number one for palms and calicos)
3.5 along these same lines, if you cross something to get sex linked traits, these can be detectable very early. For example, the red bronze tomes can be separated from golden narri hens at about 3 weeks when you cross a RP tom to a BR hen.
4. growth rate (toms are bigger faster)
5. foot size (boys have big stompers)
6. beard development around week 12 to 14 (you can feel it before you can see it).
7. feather up the back of teh neck in hens
8. gobbling (this is very reliable, but put at the bottom because you can look at all the other traits before this begins).

I believe you about the age, but I still think their heads are fuzzy!

 

[hilaryhake]

I wonder if their heads being fuzzy still could be due to our weather? Just 3 weeks ago we had 18 inches of snow lol. It hasn't exactly been warm on a regular basis. I still keep a heat lamp in their coop for them, probably spoiling them, but I can't help it lol. So far all 3 look identical except for their tail feathers. One has more brown in it than the others. But their size, head shape, snoods, feet size etc all the same. I will post more pics as they grow so we can see what I got. Thanks for the tips! This is my first time having turkeys. We also have chickens and guineas so we aren't new to fowl, just new to turkeys.

 

[ken-t]

if i was to play od's i would give 80-89 percent they are hens. I had five broodbrested whites. now i had them in a small place, a 4x4 pallet with sides and a floor. at six weeks one was just laying out enjoying the heat lamp when one of the smaller ones came up and started bugging him. well he got up and stared struting at the other one. with in a few days the three bigger ones were struting quite offten.

 

[dolphin28]

it looks like a female to me

 

[hilaryhake]

I'm thinking they are all female as well. I was hoping for 1 tom, but I guess if I don't get 1 that just means I get to add another turkey to the mix. Always need a good excuse to add more fowls! So yesterday, the aggressive one must have decided it was going to play nice after all. It wanted held and stroked. Before it would have just charged at me and started attacking me lol. The other turkeys and chickens won't let it roost by them at night because it picks on everyone. Well last night when I went to do a head count before locking them in for the night, it was roosting with everyone else. Hoping it will stay nice and it wasn't a 1 time thing. Thanks for everyone's input! It's interesting to learn so much about them.

 

[hilaryhake]

I have 1 tom and 2 hens! LOL, the super aggressive one turned out to be a tom.