Tom or Hen?

[Lagerdogger]

Well, it's an interesting bird. How old is it? It looks pretty young.

Some of the breast feathers have white tips, and some have black tips. Most juvenile plumage is light tipped, so the light feather tips may not be good signs here. The caruncles are not so impressive as to rule out a hen, but the snood is pretty big. The feathers up the back of the neck works sometimes, but again, can be misleading in a young bird.

This may be one of those tough ones where you just have to wait it out. In teh meantime, I'm going to guess a tom based on the dark edges of the central breast feathers and the snood that is larger than any that I've had on my hens. But I don' feel real good about it.

 

[honda150]

here is one of my old bbb hens that i used to have i swore was a tom for the longest time but turned out to be a hen.Snood would elongate like this and shrink.

 

[retlaw]

Well I first thought tom but if you say it never gobbles and made an alarm call it sounds like a hen.
Also I see no beard that should be starting to grow on the chest.
So I say hen.

 

[chickenmomma16]

Well,  it's an interesting bird.  How old is it?  It looks pretty young.

Some of the breast feathers have white tips, and some have black tips.  Most juvenile plumage is light tipped, so the light feather tips may not be good signs here.  Ths caruncles are not so impressive as to rukle out a hen, but the snood is pretty big.  The feathers up the back of the neck works sometimes, but again, can be misleading in a young bird.

This may be one of those tough ones where you just have to wait it out.  In teh meantime, I'm going to guess a tom based on the dark edges of the central breast feathers and the snood that is larger than any that I've had on my hens.  But I don' feel real good about it.

I do not know how old this bird is. At first I thought it was and older hen because of size and feather tips + feathers up the head. But now that I read this I'm begining to think its a young tom.

Yesterday I had some time on my hands and I examined all 3 turkeys and when I got to the turkey in question I looked for the (i don't know what its called) thing that is on the chest, I call it their tie, they have to look their best right? I had to dig for it and move the feathers back but it was there. It was really small, only about half an inch long. My Burbon Red has a nice tie going already and he is only 9mo old.
Does this mean without a doubt its a tom? If it is I have to decide which one to keep as now I only have one hen and that will be way to much attention for her.

 

[Celie]

No, I have hens with beards, even though they will be smaller than their male counterparts. It is a young turkey, so I would wait until it is older to make a decision, but it's general appearance looks like a hen to me. A hen will also give out an alarming shrill sometimes and a tweet sound at other times, before they develop their adult bark.

 

[chickenmomma16]

It has to be a tom... I watched it posture for a long time and the other day I saw the Burbon Red and this guy in an all out fight (Burbon Red won, left an injured snood on the poor Bronze). It also gobbled today, poorly done but gobble it did. This is very disappointing. I really wanted 2 hens and a tom, now I have 1 hen and 2 toms that do not get along so one has to go.


Here is a picture I took this afternoon of the Bronze in question. Blue/red colored head thing is new and the snood was just starting to get big but it is injured as you can see so it may never get very big now.

Just for fun here is the Burbon Red. See how much more developed he is? This guy is said to be 8-9mo. How old does that leave the Bronze?

 

[Lagerdogger]

I agree with you. the posture is very tom like. The stub of a beard, the lame gobble, and the mixed feathering suggest its a young tom. It could be anywhere from 4 to 8 months based on just the photos. I have a 5-month Calico tom that has no visible beard yet. The beard on your 9-month red is just starting to show.

What is your hen. Depending on the color of your hen and what you would like to breed for, the choice of a tom may be simple. On the other hand, the bronze tom may not be old enough for you to use.

 

[kingrogue]

I was wondering if I have a Tom or a hen. Help me out.

 

[kingrogue]

 

[kingrogue]