tom to hen ratio?

[spish]

just wondering how many hens per tom he should have, i have at the moment 3 toms 3 hens, but have someone interested in a couple, or just a lone tom.

of course selling as a couple id get more money, but if i held that extra hen back (making my group 2 toms 3 hens) would that be better?

 

[jasonm11]

TWO OR THREE HENS TO ONE TOM IS GOOD BUT A MATURE TOM CAN COVER OVER A DOZEN HENS WITHOUT A PROBLEM. You should keep an second tom if you want to breed them. Unless you really don't want the second tom in the mix you can leave them in a group and the dominant tom will keep the secondary in line as far as breeding his girls.

 

[junglebird]

I currently have 10 22-week old turkeys (Spanish Black and Blue Slate) - 1 Tom and 9 females. I plan on butchering most of the females in late winter, keeping 2-3 females for breeding with the Tom.

They live together all the time with about 30 chickens, including 4 roosters. They all live in the same coop and share a couple of acres of woods/grassland with 2 donkeys. Will the Tom exhaust the 2-3 female turkeys and start pursuing the chickens? Will I end up with barebacked turkeys? Should I keep more of the hens?

I'm only producing for our own use, so I don't want to keep more breeding stock than I have to, but I also want my birds to have both healthy bodies and healthy society.