Turkey Newbie has question...

[NorthTexaschick]

I'm a noob, so sorry if this is a silly question. I have 5 BR poults right at 8 weeks old. I'm trying to figure out what sex they are. At first I thought they were all females but now I'm thinking the opposite. Do only the males' heads change color or will the girls do that too? Any other clues as to gender at this age?

 

[A.T. Hagan]

Eight weeks old is about four weeks before I can begin to get a good idea with my Midget Whites. At sixteen weeks I can be certain.

 

[rfwombat]

At eight weeks you can band/mark the largest of your poults and those may turn out to be your Toms. I like to band my largest poults at about 8 weeks and try and guess which will be Toms. Then if any of the poults I banded turn out to be hens, I know that those have a good growth rate that I want to encourage, and if they also look good I'll keep them for breeding.

Between 10-12 weeks the Toms start developing a snood and that will tell you if you were right in your banding. By 14-16 weeks you'll be sure. But until then, I'm afraid it's all a guessing game!

 

[NorthTexaschick]

OK, I'll try to be patient!

Thanks for the replies!

 

[chicmom]

Quote:
It's so hard to wait, but it's so much fun to watch them grow. I have mainly chickens, but this year I bought one Royal Palm and one Blue Slate at a swap meet. I just love those turkeys! It was May 20th when I bought them, which makes them 9 weeks old tomorrow, and I still can't really tell what they are yet. j