Turkey fight club...

[fuzzymonkey]

My Jenny beat the crap out of her mate. I don't know why, we saw one of her eggs were broken and have speculated that he broke it and she's ticked.
She hurt him pretty badly, we are nursing him back to health to the best of our abilities and finances. She sits at the fence as if waiting for him, but we don't want to put him back in there and have her pick on him being weak and injured and all.
My question is would she beat up her mate over something like the egg?
Do they mate for life?
Will I be able to put them back together?
They are our pets, really all the animals including all 40 chickens are and I enjoy the eggs but I don't think I can eat any of them.

Candy

 

[ivan3]

Older tom, or jake of the same age as jenny? How big is their run? Does the jenny have an area to nest that is difficult for the male to access? I'd guess first season hormonal attitude, or the jenny finds the male to be unacceptable. Usually, if the turk being attacked has a place to retreat to (behind straw bales, fly up on roost, etc.) the out-of-sight-out-of-mind principle seems to limit damage (between sexes). Hoping she just chawed his caruncles and didn't do any damage to his eyes.

You should be able to keep them together if the have plenty of room to get away from one another (works most of time). No, they do not mate for life. Unless she was already broody on a clutch of eggs I'd doubt she'd attack the male (they'll not become extremely possessive of nest until the magic number of eggs is reached). If he was chuffing around inside the zone of the `dragon', yes she'd probably object with more than a hiss.

Observe them together. Sparring between sexes is usually fairly limited. If she's not going for his eyes I'd probably just daub pine tar on his chawed on/abraded/lacerated self and let them work it out on their own (if a big older tom and jenny, I'd be less sanguine).

 

[fuzzymonkey]

Albeturkey is the same age as Mable. They are under a year. They may possibly be related, that shouldn't matter should it? I will make the nesting area she has chosen less accessible for him. They have a huge living area although I can't convince them to go in their house when it's cold/raining or snowing. The first time he tried to mate with her she pinned him, wrapped his waddle around his beak and stuffed it down his throat. She's kind of dumb about staying on her eggs, by the time I find them they're cold. I think next time I will slip out a warm one to incubate and slip in a dud to keep her happy.

I'm fairly new to fowl life, this is my first year.

 

[ivan3]

She won't stay on her eggs until the count is `right'. There might be anywhere from 10-20 in the nest before she'll start setting (have been marking/adding/subtracting eggs from ours for years in an attempt to predict the trigger - more research needed...).

From your description of the attempted mating it sounds like she's simply exercising her prerogative (jakes/toms heal up pretty quick).

Porter has good info on varieties and breeding: http://www.porterturkeys.com/inbreedinglinebreeding.htm

 

[Frosty]

Quote:
I'm sorry... I read your description and just had to laugh!

I'm not sure where you are located, but she may simply not be ready yet.