turkey assault?

[flocksalot]

My Big Ben - breeder Naragansett (sp) tom started trying to push me around this past summer and I put a stop to that - I simply grabbed him and carried him over to a bale of hay and sat there holding him - hold the wings down or it feels like your nose is broken from getting hit - I did this every day and it didn't take him too long to realize I am the alpha. Now my husband is another matter. Every time he goes out to the barn, Ben comes after him and my husband will not listen to me and he keeps trying to push him with his foot which only makes Ben more aggressive toward him. All I have to do is yell "Ben" and he gets an innocent look on his face and backs away from my husband. Not sure which is harder to train, the husband or the tom..............

Bunni your husband and mine must have similar genetics! Can't teach them a thing. My husband swears the turkeys are doing that cause they like him. Yeah uh huh.

You are doing exactly the right thing with a turkey. The more you fight with them the more ornery they get back. It's like poking a rattler. Yet once you get them all calmed down they are as sweet as can be.

 

[flocksalot]

MsMoss hens will do that to a tom that isn't doing his job. Maybe they think of him as a non productive tom. Right now we have two toms in with our Midgets. One week they will be all lovely dovey with Frankie and kick the snot out of Mr Schnod, and the next they chase Frankie and beat the snot out of him. There is a reason a group of turkeys is called a murder I guess.

When we've had this problem with our BBW pets we just sat and hugged them til they behaved. It is hard to hug them huge girls when they get a burr up their bum about something or other though. For my 9 year old I have him give them treats like apples or berries. Soon enough they love him again.

And as for that stupid rooster he stays as far away from me as the snow allows. A good thing too cause the next step is a pen away from all the available girls.

 

[Celie]

Wow, I never knew turkeys could be that aggressive! My toms just come running to get fed whenever they see Hubby or me outside, along with chickens ducks and sometimes a goose joining in. They seem to be ringing the dinner bell! I have never had an aggressive animal like I hear reported here, maybe just lucky? Maybe because we hand raise them and incubate all of the eggs? Maybe, they sense that I am not afraid of or am intimidated by any animal? Don't know, but summer before last, the toms would surround our 2 part lab pups and try to bump them with their chests. The pups were about a year old then. I had to go rescue the dogs from the "killer turkeys"! LOL But now, that the dogs are 3 and a lot bigger, the turkeys just ignore the dogs. It could be that the dogs run around so fast and rassel with each other more now, that they don't try to mess with them? The dogs aren't intimidated by the turkeys anymore and the turkeys know it! I sure hope your toms start behaving themselves, soon, or I agree, they would be freezer camp bound!

 

[WarrenHound]

what gets me is the guy i bought him from had nice friendly birds it seems like he is the rotten apple male chinese goose is more affectionate... but i did try grabbing him and that seems to be working though he did have my poor brother struggling to escape the pen in terror

 

[KrisH]

what gets me is the guy i bought him from had nice friendly birds it seems like he is the rotten apple male chinese goose is more affectionate... but i did try grabbing him and that seems to be working though he did have my poor brother struggling to escape the pen in terror

might have thought you were a pushover.

so far ours are sweet, but I frequently pick up the closest, (or slowest) turkey near me, boy or girl. the girls like it, the boys don't. they kind of burp and deflate like a whoopie cushion. but they still come back and strut.

RobertH