Tom turkey started attacking me, what to do?

[reveriereptile]

We have a blue slate pair, a bourbon red pair, and a white hen. When we bought the slate and reds we thought we were only getting a blue tom but the other tom was acting like a female and didn't have a beard yet. So far this summer I haven't had any problems with the about 3 year old slate and he is big but doesn't get close. However the red tom would just strut around near me but never bothered me. Then one day he starts kind of running at me when I go to leave the area and then he stopped doing it for a while. I got realizing he would attack when none of the hens are nesting and when they started he stopped. Well now we had to throw their eggs out cause they were rotten and a skunk ate most. The last few days the tom has tried attacking again. He'd try to get me when I had to turn my back to get to the gate since I have to duck under a branch. Today I went out to let the chickens out of their coop and had a bucket with feed in it that I poured half out for them to eat. It had rained all night so the ground was like walking around in cow manure so it was slippery. As I was backing to go out the gate the gate fell over since I just had it leaning open so I couldn't back out if I wanted to for fear of falling and him getting to my face. The tom ran at me and I swung the bucket towards him to scare him off and he just kept coming. Not to sound mean but I was scared and defending myself I hit him with the bucket to knock him back. I hit him 23 times and he was still coming and I grabbed a hose next to me to use against him some how and it splashed some water out of their water bucket and it scared him off and I got out of there. I don't know how water scared him instead of a bright yellow bucket attacking. I have messed with roosters attacking which I'd just chase and hold for a while whenever they do it. Even been attacked by a male Chinese weeder goose which he thought I was his girl and I would just take my foot when he ran up and give him a push on his chest to knock him back a foot and he would stop doing it for a few weeks. I have no clue what to do. I have read not to back down from a turkey till you win the fight and are dominate over them but he wouldn't give up. The slate tom is actually dominate over him. I don't want to kill him cause we might sell him at the next bird swap or auction whenever it comes up which will probably be in September.

 

[jvls1942]

I grab geese,turkeys whatever by the neck if they do that to me..

put a little down pressure so they cannot jump and then push them backwards, lead them around a bit.... one dose usually does it.. they get the idea real quick..

 

[reveriereptile]

I've grabbed him by the neck before but that was during the winter when he got out of his pin in the barn and I had to get him back in. It was during the winter we found out he was a tom. He got out and then started struting cause the other tom couldn't get to him.

 

[jvls1942]

Quote:
well then, you got the basic hold down pat.. now use it on him..

come to think of it,,,, I think I would not wait for the next attack.. I would go out tomorrow morning and grab him first.. do it a couple of times after that and I'll bet real money that he starts to avoid you..

 

[Steve_of_sandspoultry]

In all the time we have been raising turkeys we have only had 1 agressive tom. I tried every trick in the book and nothing worked.

Steve in NC

 

[erthymom2]

Quote:
well then, you got the basic hold down pat.. now use it on him..

come to think of it,,,, I think I would not wait for the next attack.. I would go out tomorrow morning and grab him first.. do it a couple of times after that and I'll bet real money that he starts to avoid you..

This technique worked for us with a goose named Pete I had a few years. He finally settled down after a week of this,
I have tom turkeys now at 7 months who have been handled since day one and so far no male aggression, but i'm sure one of 'em will try to see who's top banana in the human flock some day.

 

[ma2babygurl13]

Our bronze tom is pretty aggressive... But we just use a rake and he is scared of that, we dont hit him with it, but it makes a good extension of your arm, you can just move him into a corner and as long as the rake is in front of him, he stays away...he is most aggressive when we are leaving his pen we just keep going back in there until he stays put in his corner when we leave...I guess we are trying to "train" him to do what we want. Oh and definitely watch what you are wearing in with him, we noticed that when DH wore his bright red work shirt near his pen he was twice as agitated! Sounds like he is trying to protect his girls, since they aren't nesting anymore, maybe he's trying to mate with them and you are his competition.

 

[Harp Turkey Ranch]

The best way to deal with an aggressive tom is to take him to freezer camp and find yourself a new one.

You can carry a stick with you and when he acts to attack you go first and challenge him, making sure to get him good a couple times in the head and they sometimes will bow down to you and call you big boy, but most of the time they will respect you only when you carry the stick !!! It is something that you don't want around on a farm for sure it will make your life hard.

 

[reveriereptile]

My husband went out last night and hit him with a stick (looks more like a club). Today when I had to feed them I took the same stick with me and when he looked like he was going to attack I hit him with it. Not real hard but just enough to know to stay away. I seen him look at me again and I pointed the stick at him and he backed away. I raised white turkeys from chicks and didn't have any problems with the males but it might of been cause most ended up to heavy then had leg problems and had to be eaten early. The last white tom started to strut after we got the other toms right before winter but he never attacked. Probably cause I spoiled him and he use to try to take a bath on my hand as a chick and still tried to as an adult. We ended up eating him though and he was the best tasteing. One worry I have is we have little cousins that come over here and they go into the pin to see the chickens even when we aren't here. I have warned them before about him but that was when the hens were nesting and he didn't bother them so they might not think he will attack. He might not with them since he doesn't know them enough to think of them as turkeys but with them being smaller I don't want to chance it. If I last till Sept. then we will probably sell him and his hen as a pair along with our chickens. We decided it would be best to sell our chickens and just get more next summer instead of trying to keep them through the winter. I may sell some on here if they don't have a bird swap/auction this fall.

 

[chickenannie]

I would not let small children near your tom. He could hurt them.

I had a mildly mannered tom that I needed to teach that I was "alpha" because he was trying to mate with people legs all the time. The training worked great, but I had to be 100 percent consistent in my show of "alpha". He became a great tom around the farm. I'll look for my previous post about the training and put the link on here.

Here's the post: https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=168398

making turkey stew might be your only option.