Turkey breeding question

[Sneekee]

Hi, i am new to BYC and raising turkeys. I have a blue slate gobbler and a bourben hen. I had another hen but unfortunatly she died, this made my gobbler freak out, so in a rush to calm him down i went and got him the only hen i could find at the time, a bourbon. He calmed right down and became happy happy happy again. She is a young hen, not sure exactly how old she is, maby 1 yr. Anyway, i hadnt planned on keeping her, was going to get another slate hen. Problem is he is trying to breed her. I dont know enough about this yet, should they breed this time of year? My main concern is his size compared to hers. I am afraid he will hurt her when he stands on her. I seperated them and she wouldnt leave the fence he was in, and of course he ran back and forth trying to get back into her pen and this can scrape his waddle, so i put them back in the same fence. She doesnt try to run from him and i figure nature knows what to do, should i be worried about her getting broken ribs or wings, does that happen? And should i let the 2 cross breed? Again she was just suposed to keep him company till i found a slate hen. I dont know when she would lay eggs, i am not set up for that at the moment either. I have a large pen, approximatly 150 by 100 feet with an 8x10 barn that my chickens roost in. I have about 20 chickens in with the turkeys and they all seem to get along just fine.The turkey roost in a pole roost i made about 20 feet high outside of the chicken roost. I dont have any nesting boxes for the turkey yet. Any advice would be appreciated, thanks!

 

[KrisH]

are you in the southern hemisphere, or northern? If you collect eggs and not hatch, it probably won't matter if you get fertile eggs, check out portersturkeys for feather genetics for what you might get.

RobertH

 

[Sneekee]

I live in north georgia. I havnt seen an egg from my turkey yet but today she was in the hen house for the first time looking around. I havnt made a nesting box for her yet. My main concern right now is trying to figure out if she is old enough to let the tom try to breed with out hurting her, he is a heavy bird and she seems small. Thanks for the info.