today's the day

[mamamage]

goodmorning everyone! today's the day that i want to try and integrate my two 7 week old turkeys in with my 15 week old chicken flock! i just have one little problem..i have a very early maturing rooster. he started crowing at around 5 weeks old and has turned into a great protective rooster! but i'm worried that he's gonna hurt my turkeys, he will come up and peck anyone that enters our yard..he also will challenge my husband and i occasionally. he's no problem at all with our family so i don't want to get rid of him or eat him. i just want to know what i should do if he's too rough with the poults, should he be confined? should i wait until the turkeys are bigger than him? any suggestion is welcome! thanks so much!

 

[Amer]

goodmorning everyone! today's the day that i want to try and integrate my two 7 week old turkeys in with my 15 week old chicken flock! i just have one little problem..i have a very early maturing rooster. he started crowing at around 5 weeks old and has turned into a great protective rooster! but i'm worried that he's gonna hurt my turkeys, he will come up and peck anyone that enters our yard..he also will challenge my husband and i occasionally. he's no problem at all with our family so i don't want to get rid of him or eat him. i just want to know what i should do if he's too rough with the poults, should he be confined? should i wait until the turkeys are bigger than him? any suggestion is welcome! thanks so much!

My turkeys held their own in our flock, though they stayed segregated by species. Any toms? Those will go out and show anyone who comes near who's boss. (Other than humans.)
My young turkey toms "protect" me from our poor pet cats and small chickens. (The small chickens are the only ones who are friendly enough to walk up to me.)

 

[mamamage]

so everything went well! my husband and daughter and i were all in the run standing around waiting to break up a brawl but nothing happened!! i mean a couple of the ladies grabbed the back of their heads and the rooster in question was very typical (made them submit and backed off) and got over them being out very quickly! im so happy. i put them to bed separately for tonight. Tomorrow i look forward to letting them free range together for the first time! the turkeys are SO ready!

 

[Amer]

so everything went well! my husband and daughter and i were all in the run standing around waiting to break up a brawl but nothing happened!! i mean a couple of the ladies grabbed the back of their heads and the rooster in question was very typical (made them submit and backed off) and got over them being out very quickly! im so happy. i put them to bed separately for tonight. Tomorrow i look forward to letting them free range together for the first time! the turkeys are SO ready!

That's how ours were. Just prepare for them to jump on every piece of equipment and fly into the rafters and poop on everything like ours do.

 

[BirdGirl2004]

YAY!