Turkey Attacked and Killed a chicken and I cannot understand why

[Thanera]

My Tom broad breasted turkey attacked and killed my favorite chicken yesterday morning and I cannot understand why and maybe you guys have some ideas. I have a 2 yo BB Turkey who has been raised with chickens (I know not the best idea but it happened) and he has NEVER shown any aggression towards them or even me unless he was really scared. He has been the best boy and I love him dearly but this shook me.

Just a bit of back story for this week, I've had one emergency after another this week with family in the hospital to myself having to stay overnight for tests, etc. So only time I've had for my chickens is to do a quick once over, make sure they have food and water, then off to fix my crumbling life. So I am not sure if my chicken was sick or what leading up to this attack. I have a camera in their large coop and it didn't catch her going in or out before being overwritten so I have no idea how long she was in there to begin with. With it being so cold my tom and a few other chickens have chose to stay in the coop and nothing has been wrong or happened. I had been in the coop just an hour before making sure everything was good for the cold spell coming up and I didn't even know a chicken was in there with my tom.

So the incident; I have two sets of nesting boxes, one ground level and one sitting on top of that, each one covered by a curtain so you cannot see whats really going on in there. My turkey was acting naturally all morning and then out of a small gap on the side of the curtain he must spot the chicken in the ground level nesting box(it's not divided so it's an open rectangle ~3'x1'), he puffs up and then just slowly goes over to where she must be and pecks at her behind the curtain once and waits and basically keeps doing that until after a minute he drags her out and kind of keeps going after her body. She was never held down at any point. She made hardly any noise. The whole thing maybe lasts 2 minutes and then he leaves her alone. She wasn't cornered or held down, she should have been able to escape and leave the situation at any time, after the first peck she should have just burst out and left. I can only think there was something wrong with her for her not to have just left the situation. There was even another chicken in there who seen the whole thing and came over to investigate it all happening but he showed no aggression towards her. What do you guys think? Was it a case of a sick chicken and the tom getting carried away with seeing her sick?

 

[R2elk]

My Tom broad breasted turkey attacked and killed my favorite chicken yesterday morning and I cannot understand why and maybe you guys have some ideas. I have a 2 yo BB Turkey who has been raised with chickens (I know not the best idea but it happened) and he has NEVER shown any aggression towards them or even me unless he was really scared. He has been the best boy and I love him dearly but this shook me.

Just a bit of back story for this week, I've had one emergency after another this week with family in the hospital to myself having to stay overnight for tests, etc. So only time I've had for my chickens is to do a quick once over, make sure they have food and water, then off to fix my crumbling life. So I am not sure if my chicken was sick or what leading up to this attack. I have a camera in their large coop and it didn't catch her going in or out before being overwritten so I have no idea how long she was in there to begin with. With it being so cold my tom and a few other chickens have chose to stay in the coop and nothing has been wrong or happened. I had been in the coop just an hour before making sure everything was good for the cold spell coming up and I didn't even know a chicken was in there with my tom.

So the incident; I have two sets of nesting boxes, one ground level and one sitting on top of that, each one covered by a curtain so you cannot see whats really going on in there. My turkey was acting naturally all morning and then out of a small gap on the side of the curtain he must spot the chicken in the ground level nesting box(it's not divided so it's an open rectangle ~3'x1'), he puffs up and then just slowly goes over to where she must be and pecks at her behind the curtain once and waits and basically keeps doing that until after a minute he drags her out and kind of keeps going after her body. She was never held down at any point. She made hardly any noise. The whole thing maybe lasts 2 minutes and then he leaves her alone. She wasn't cornered or held down, she should have been able to escape and leave the situation at any time, after the first peck she should have just burst out and left. I can only think there was something wrong with her for her not to have just left the situation. There was even another chicken in there who seen the whole thing and came over to investigate it all happening but he showed no aggression towards her. What do you guys think? Was it a case of a sick chicken and the tom getting carried away with seeing her sick?

If you raise and keep a lone tom with chickens, it will eventually start trying to breed them which will end up with flat (dead) chickens.

The turkey was imprinted by the chickens which removed his ability to understand that chickens are not turkeys. He treats them the same as he would turkeys.

If you don't want more dead chickens, immediately separate the tom from the remaining chickens.

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

So very sorry. Unfortunately turkeys can and will kill chickens. It makes it worse to be raised with them because they don't know they are separate species. Turkeys are relentless. We just culled an older turkey hen who wasn't doing well. The rest turned on her and we had to remove her, or they were going to. It is why I always recommend not housing turkeys and other poultry together. Turkeys are just too strong, and will continue until the target is dead.

 

[Thanera]

If you raise and keep a lone tom with chickens, it will eventually start trying to breed them which will end up with flat (dead) chickens.

The turkey was imprinted by the chickens which removed his ability to understand that chickens are not turkeys. He treats them the same as he would turkeys.

If you don't want more dead chickens, immediately separate the tom from the remaining chickens.

That's what I thought it could be but he wasn't holding onto her in any way shape or form. It was a peck and then pause for 10 seconds, it was ample amount of time for the chicken to leave

 

[R2elk]

That's what I thought it could be but he wasn't holding onto her in any way shape or form. It was a peck and then pause for 10 seconds, it was ample amount of time for the chicken to leave

Turkey mating is not like chicken mating. A tom does not grab the hen's neck while mating. A tom does stand on a hen's back and treads on her until she raises her tail for the mating.

Your hen was just as likely to be turkey imprinted as well and was showing her willingness to breed.

 

[Thanera]

Turkey mating is not like chicken mating. A tom does not grab the hen's neck while mating. A tom does stand on a hen's back and treads on her until she raises her tail for the mating.

Your hen was just as likely to be turkey imprinted as well and was showing her willingness to breed.

Wish I could show you the video. I totally believe what you say about this and when toms try to breed with chickens but he in no way tried to stand or be near her for mating. I've seen the sort of stomp mating thing before with turkeys when he thought a shoe was a good girlfriend. It was a peck/beak only involved ordeal.

 

[tlcmurphy]

Is it possible your hen was dead in the nest box before he pulled her out?

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

Is it possible your hen was dead in the nest box before he pulled her out?

Turkeys will continuously peck at a dead or dying bird. So that's possible.

 

[Thanera]

Is it possible your hen was dead in the nest box before he pulled her out?

That's what I think could have happened. I know she wasn't dead before he attacked her because I went in there to do something and found her body and she was still a little warm but should could have been sick or dying over the past few days while I was dealing with emergencies. I didn't see any other injuries on her other than the fact he pretty much scalped her. She would not have been cornered in that box there were a ton of exits since he came at her from the very edge of one side, not even blocking the front of it at all