Suddenly aggressive hen!

[ElysianAcres]

I've got a big beautiful Bourbon Red hen, maybe 2 years old, and she's always lived in a mixed flock of chickens, ducks, and other turkeys with no incident. She's either kept to herself or happily mingled with the rest, until this past week. Suddenly, she's beating the living daylights out of our ducks, and almost killed the drake. I had to wrestle her into a large dog kennel to keep her from finishing the job, and she's still there now.
Nothing in her environment has changed, there have been no new flock members added. She DID go broody a few weeks ago and sat for about three weeks before abandoning her nest, so I'm wondering if this is some sort of hormonal issue making her ****** off and aggressive?
I'd rather not eat her, but if there's no hope of rehabilitating her, she'll be dinner.

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

It's always best not to mix other species with turkeys due to them being so much stronger. I've had them kill chickens. Turkeys are moody and when angry don't back down often for hours. She could be starting to go broody again. I would keep her separated. Her future is up to you. There's no rehabilitation for what is normal turkey hen behavior. She needs her own species as company.

 

[ravensgait]

Mixed flocks can get along well but this time of year everyone is looking for a date . We keep wild turkeys and in the past I have seen rooster pheasants go after gobblers and well they only did it once , I guess the pheasants had little guy complex and paid for it with their lives. I lost 2 roosters before I saw the third one fly up in a gobblers face, had to move the pheasant boys out. I have also seen Chicken roosters mess with hen turkeys , the hens would chase and beat on them some but no real damage but when the same Roster went after the gobblers it suffered the same fate as the rooster pheasants who messed with them. Turkeys from my experience don't seem to start trouble but will put an end to trouble real quick. Maybe the drake was messing with her or her hormones are getting her a bit crazy.