Sexing poults by shape of poop

Frannabelle

Songster
10 Years
Jun 1, 2009
307
4
121
MI
Does anyone know about being able to sex poults by the shape of their droppings? A local turkey lady said you can tell....males poop in the shape of a j, females a plop.
The two turkeys in the yard do have different shaped poop, and the little boy (I can tell now because he's displaying) has "j" shaped and the girl is ploppy
 
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LMAO!! That is hilarious!

Welcome to BYC!!

Edited because I sounded rude. Welcome to BYC, but sorry you cant tell that way...
Good Luck!
 
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Below are the known and excepted ways to sex a turkey:

sexing of turkey chickens

1. Vent sexing
The Cloaca is examined shortly after hatching, and experienced sexer can have up to 99% accuracy in this
method. But experienced turkey sexes are fewer then there is Chickens chick sexers.

the below article has some photo's of vent sexing of chicken chicks:
Journal of Experimental Psychology:
Learning, Memory, and Cognition
1987, Vol. 13, No. 4.640-645

You may be able to search the internet for Biederman_Shiffrar_1987.pdf

2. wing feather sexing:
This method really only works if a certain gene has been introduced into the turkey breed. But from
the paper I read there is certain disadvantages to have this gene present. It appears that some of
the Big Breasted turkeys may have this gene present so some turkeys can be feather sexed for about the
first 16 days.

http://jhered.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/reprint/88/3/238.pdf

3. DNA
If you really want to know there is several services I have come across for Zoo's that will do
a DNA test to determine the sex. But it's not cheap.

4. sex characteristics.

Usually for most turkey breeds you can use what's called secondary sex characteristics.
Some will start to appear in the second week other around 7 to 9 weeks.

a. strutting
This can start as soon as 2 weeks, the males will spread there tail feathers. Pull there heads back
to there body. The wing tips will drop. Feamles can and will mimic this behaviour.

b. the snood
At around 7 to 9 weeks the snood or bump just behind the beak will start to change.
For males it will start to become larger and softer.
For females it may receded in size and become

c. appears of the Neck (Caruncles)
The males will usually start to develop what looks like blister. But they are not.
female normally don't have Caruncles. These may start to appear at 5 weeks or so. By the 7 or 8 weeks the
differences will be obvious.

d. size and weight:
If you have both male and females the males will be larger and heavy if hatched at the same time.

e. Mating Behavior:
Some of male poulets appear to by trying to mate with the females .
about 8 to 9 weeks.

f. Beard:
This is a flap of skins the develops on male turkeys at 9 weeks it is not yet readily visible

ref: http://www.cpdosrbng.kar.nic.in/TURKEY%20FARMING%20GUIDE.pdf
ref: http://www.ansi.okstate.edu/resource-room/general/poultry/turkey.htm
show diagrams of male and female turkeys.

5. Color sexing:

I have not seen this introduced into turkeys.

6. Testing of the Turkey embryo.
from day 5 to hatching the embryo can be tested to determine the sex of the turkey. This method is usually only used in large scale commercial farms.

Here we just wait untill they get old enough to show sex charestics.
 
For the turkey hunter

Sex and Age of Wild Turkeys

Determining the sex and age of wild turkeys is easy
when you know what to look for.


Signs

The middle toe on a gobbler leaves a track at least 4 1/2 inches long, while the track of a hen or juvenile tom is shorter. Droppings of a gobbler are about the size of the little finger, with a slight crook at one end. Hen droppings are much smaller and shaped like a corkscrew.

Beard

Older mature gobblers usually have beards that average 7 to 10 inches in length. Many juvenile males taken during the fall hunting season have beards that are shorter than 2 inches. Juvenile hens rarely possess beards, but a portion of the adult females may be bearded. Beards on hens seldom exceed 5 inches and are sparse compared with the beard of a mature tom.

Head

Hens and juvenile males have small, dark heads covered with black hairs and miniature black feathers. The wattles, fleshly lobes that hang from the throat or chin, are dark and uncolored. A mature tom has a larger head with more wattles and less feathering. A tom's head is pink to pale red when the bird is relaxed, changing to hues of scarlet-red, and bright blue with a white cap while strutting.

Spurs

Mature toms have prominent spurs on the backs of the lower legs, which become longer and more pointed with age. On an old bird, spurs can exceed an inch in length. Hens and juvenile toms have only rudimentary, inconspicuous spurs.

Outer Primary or Flight Feathers

Primary feathers are the stiff, barred, black and white feathers on the wings. The 2 outer primary feathers on each wing are retained for a year. The tips of those feathers on juvenile birds appear sharp-pointed and worn, while the ends of outer primaries on adult birds are rounded and bars extend to the outer tips. On juveniles, the bars are absent from the outer inch or two of the feather tip.

However, strutting toms usually wear off the last inch or 2 of these feathers.

Tail Feathers

On a juvenile bird, the middle 4-8 center feathers are longer than the other tail feathers. Tail feathers on adults are equal in length.

Weight

The weight of a turkey depends on its sex, age, condition, and subspecies. An average mature tom weighs between 17 and 21 pounds in late fall; a mature hen, 10 to 13 pounds. Juvenile toms weigh 12 to 16 pounds and young hens about 7 to 9 pounds.

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Thanks to Wilds of PA
you confirm what I was told!
 
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The Wild Turkey By James G. Dickson, National Wild Turkey Federation (U.S.), United States Forest Service

Try reading this article, and try googling the phrase "sexing turkeys by shape of droppings"

I just did that, and there are several articles that state this, so, maybe it's true for chickens, but it looks like that you can tell by turkey poop. Not all of the time, but it's true.
 
Yup, Ive taken many mature gobblers off the blue mtn by using all the signs in the above..

It does hold true for the most part on mature Wild birds..if one never hunted and study there habits and tall tail signs one wouldn't know what to look for, there diet plays a big part in droppings shape size..

~Wilds~
 

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