Tom or Hen???

[Daisy1998]

I'm very new to turkeys and I absolutely love them. But they are driving me crazy! So if y'all have any guesses let me know haha.

I was given a young male and female pair at first. I had them a few months and they were doing great. Then the guineas got into their pen and attacked and killed the Hen. The poor male was so sad and lonely that after a while I went out and bought two new "hens" for him.

I drove an hour away to pick up one white Holland hen, and one large standard bronze hen. We were told they had just turned a year old and already started laying for the season. But when we introduced them to my lonely Royal Palm male, the standard bronze puffed up like a male and tried to fight him. So I separated them again leaving the "girls" on one side and my male on the other so they could see each other. They still continued to fight.

Then a week or so later I randomly found my Royal Palm male dead with nothing wrong with him

 

[Daisy1998]

So now I am down to my two "hens". I have gathered one egg every other day, and watched my standard bronze sit on the nest with the eggs. But it sometimes struts around and tries to gobble. Then other days it squats like it would for a male to breed it.

She\he is driving me crazy! It has no spurs at all, it's large like a meat bird, has a very tiny beard, and it's snood is the same size as my other hen (but it brings it down sometimes)??? If anyone knows anything I'm open to any information at all. Thank you!

 

[Daisy1998]

Update...I just got a 3 year old blue slate male and put them all together. To make this less confusing I'll just refer to the he\she as "It", the blue slate as "new male", and the white Holland hen as "hen"

So when I put them together "it" puffed up and started strutting and trying to fight the new male. 20 min later and the new male was standing on "its" back (so I assumed "it" is a hen). I left then went back later and "it" and the white hen (which were good friends) were fighting each other. So I took "it" out and separated her to the other side of the fence. Then "it" started to display again and even let out a few small gobbles.

So now I'm back to having no idea what this crazy turkeys gender is!

Hen:
-She sits on a nest of eggs
-has no spurs
-squats like she wants a boyfriend
-was bought as a female

Tom:
-displays
-fights
-has been known to gobble
-has a hen sized snood but will lay it flat like a male
-has a beard smaller than one inch
-large legs and feet (but its a meat bird breed)

Im so confused! I just wanted some turkey eggs for the incubator.

 

[JadedPhoenix]

It could be an extremely dominate hen. Though pictures could help.

 

[feedman77]

Since you had them seperate has the bronze given you an egg.

Pics would help with the id.

1 egg every other day sounds like only one hen is laying.

 

[BlessedCountry6]

I agree pics will help. I also think it's most likely a dominant hen.

I have 2 hens and I mostly get 1 egg a day. I got 2 for a while then back to 1.

 

[Daisy1998]

I've been trying to post pictures for the past few days but my phone email won't send them. I'm not very good with technology.

Since my last post "It" has laid a egg, which she has smashed ( any tips for breaking eggs? She broken about 3 this week) So she is definitely a girl.

She is still gobbling (now sounding just as loud as a tom) and whenever I let her back with the tom she attacks him and all they do is fight, I've left them alone for hours and check on them evey few minutes because I think they are going to kill each other. I've had to break them up plenty of times. And when the tom stops fighting and strutting, she keeps on chasing him around or just bumps and pushes him around. And she and the other hen fight through the fence all day, so I had to move her again so they couldn't see each other since the fence was cutting them up.

I don't know what to do? She was as tame as a dog and like my pet, but now she's acting crazy? Should I just get rid of her or should I just leave them all together and let them figure it out?