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vawolfmom said:
Egg questions. Is it possible to sex the eggs by shape? And does temp play a role in sex of the hatchling?
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Definitely not. It doesn't work on chicken eggs either. With turkey eggs they only have one shape which is pointy on one end.

The sex of the developing poult is determined at the time the egg is fertilized.
 
There is a way you can "estimate" sex starting at a week old. Get a good gram scale like one for measuring dry ingredients for cooking and obtain their weight weekly in grams. The males will begin to weigh more than the females starting at one week of age. This may not prove to be 100% but it will be pretty accurate when you start seeing large weight differences in them. There have been a couple of studies I've read about it and I will link the articles. Mind you, the turkeys in the articles I believe are BB but it is still applicable to Heritage varieties as well. I am currently trying to prove or disprove this theory with my own poults. I weighed them at 10 days old and will weigh them every week or two (as I get time, I'm in grad school) and have made my predictions on gender based on their baseline weight. For example, my largest poult is 142 grams and my smallest is 77 grams which is the "runt." The next two smallest are 102 and 104 grams. I will continue to weigh them until they can be sexed based on their phenotypical appearance and will post my own study results to BYC in the end. I am a huge nerd. lol

https://www.researchgate.net/public...rences_in_body_weight_between_male_and_female

I will look for the other article, I'm on my way out the door to work now.

Thoughts on this @R2elk and @casportpony ?
 
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kfelton0002 said:
There is a way you can "estimate" sex starting at a week old. Get a good gram scale like one for measuring dry ingredients for cooking and obtain their weight weekly in grams. The males will begin to weigh more than the females starting at one week of age. This may not prove to be 100% but it will be pretty accurate when you start seeing large weight differences in them. There have been a couple of studies I've read about it and I will link the articles. Mind you, the turkeys in the articles I believe are BB but it is still applicable to Heritage varieties as well. I am currently trying to prove or disprove this theory with my own poults. I weighed them at 10 days old and will weigh them every week or two (as I get time, I'm in grad school) and have made my predictions on gender based on their baseline weight. For example, my largest poult is 142 grams and my smallest is 77 grams which is the "runt." The next two smallest are 102 and 104 grams. I will continue to weigh them until they can be sexed based on their phenotypical appearance and will post my own study results to BYC in the end. I am a huge nerd. lol

https://www.researchgate.net/public...rences_in_body_weight_between_male_and_female

I will look for the other article, I'm on my way out the door to work now.

Thoughts on this @R2elk and @casportpony ?
Click to expand...
It is something I am not going to even try. First is that the size of the poults has more to do with the size of the egg they came out of than anything else. By the time they are old enough for the males to start showing how much bigger they are than the females, there are already other indicators present.

As a long time turkey raiser I have an excellent record sexing my own poults at a very young age. Close observation and having both sexes to compare against each other helps.

If a person feels they have to know the sex of their poult at a young age, DNA testing will give positive proof.

There are physical differences right from the start and no I do not mean the size of the snood.

If you have both sexes of the same age poults, the males will begin their wattle development at 2 months old and have a full wattle by the time the hens start their wattles. It is a brief time period that shows this difference because the hens quickly catch up once their wattle growth begins.

The problem is that people want their poults identified from photos at a very young age. Sexing young poults from a photo is not the same as close observation of your own poults. My method is so subjective that I can't really describe what all I am looking for.

When it comes to selecting for my replacement breeders, many of the traits I am looking for don't manifest until they are nearly 6 months old. The only time being able to sex them while young can matter for me is when a buyer specifically wants males or females.
 
R2elk said:
It is something I am not going to even try. First is that the size of the poults has more to do with the size of the egg they came out of than anything else. By the time they are old enough for the males to start showing how much bigger they are than the females, there are already other indicators present.

As a long time turkey raiser I have an excellent record sexing my own poults at a very young age. Close observation and having both sexes to compare against each other helps.

If a person feels they have to know the sex of their poult at a young age, DNA testing will give positive proof.

There are physical differences right from the start and no I do not mean the size of the snood.

If you have both sexes of the same age poults, the males will begin their wattle development at 2 months old and have a full wattle by the time the hens start their wattles. It is a brief time period that shows this difference because the hens quickly catch up once their wattle growth begins.

The problem is that people want their poults identified from photos at a very young age. Sexing young poults from a photo is not the same as close observation of your own poults. My method is so subjective that I can't really describe what all I am looking for.

When it comes to selecting for my replacement breeders, many of the traits I am looking for don't manifest until they are nearly 6 months old. The only time being able to sex them while young can matter for me is when a buyer specifically wants males or females.
Click to expand...

I'm curious of my poults gender just because I have an inquisitive mind and I'm a control freak. lol I have 12 so it will hopefully be safe to say that IF they survive to maturity I will at least get a few females and can cull through the males to choose the best few to keep and breed forward. If I were to have all males and only 1-2 females, I would definitely want to get a few more poults so I have more females. I would like to know sooner rather than later, but that's just me.
 
kfelton0002 said:
I'm curious of my poults gender just because I have an inquisitive mind and I'm a control freak. lol I have 12 so it will hopefully be safe to say that IF they survive to maturity I will at least get a few females and can cull through the males to choose the best few to keep and breed forward. If I were to have all males and only 1-2 females, I would definitely want to get a few more poults so I have more females. I would like to know sooner rather than later, but that's just me.
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If you can post pics I can help !
 
R2elk said:
You can always try this.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/turkeys-for-2013.725829/page-276#post-11833820

Be sure to read her second post for clarification.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/turkeys-for-2013.725829/page-276#post-11836985

I have had 100% success using her method and I have had 100% failure using her method.

@Quarterhorses1's method IMO is more valid than weighing them. Hens and toms have different shaped heads.
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I just bought two 2.5 week old Naragansett poults today and there is a very obvious distinction between them. One is easily about 3/4 the size of the other and has a much smaller head and more slender neck. I'm guessing that one to be a female. The other has a block looking head and is wider and bigger overall. I'm guessing that one to be a male. Didn't get time to weight them as I had to throw them in a brooder and dash back out to get my son from school. I will take pictures as I get time, probably when I wing band them.

I have had decent luck sexing turkeys at around 1-2 months old in the past, as you said there are early differences in the genders even if they are subtle. My best friend raises them so Ive had some experience with turkeys, despite my own personal turkey experiences have proven to be a flop historically. I've raised poultry all my life and am just fascinated with learning new things about anything really. I just thought my experiment with the weights would be interesting. And if I'm right, win. If I'm not, still fun. It doesn't take a few minutes to weigh them each week. I will be wing banding them anyway next week so I will kill two birds with one stone. I'm just excited to have some new poults. Pardon me if I seem a little eager. Lol
:wee
 
Quarterhorses1 said:
If you can post pics I can help !
Click to expand...

Here are my Sweetgrass poults. There are 12 of them and they are still small. They were born 4/22. There are too many to try to get individual pictures of. I am simply enjoying them and hoping for at least a pretty even split of males/females.
20230502_164211.jpg
20230502_163531.jpg
:love
 
kfelton0002 said:
Here are my Sweetgrass poults. There are 12 of them and they are still small. They were born 4/22. There are too many to try to get individual pictures of. I am simply enjoying them and hoping for at least a pretty even split of males/females.
View attachment 3492805View attachment 3492817 :love
Click to expand...
They’re beautiful! Is there a way to get a pic of the back of their heads? Individually that is ?
 

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