turkey raped and killed chicken.........

[home on the range]

I have some meat chicken that I keep with my young turkeys. I have 2 red Bourbons one male and female and one royal palm that I didn't know what it was. I let the turkeys and chickens out of the pasture to let them go into their house an hour before dark. As I was making dinner I noticed that my royal palm was picking at something white on the ground. At first I though a dog killed a chicken, but as I was running out the dogs were now where in sight. As I started to walk I saw the turkey holding the back of the head and mounting the chicken that was now dead...great...what can I do?

 

[Celie]

Roosters are notorious for mounting everything he comes in contact with, so I guess some toms are too. A roo or tom will pick up a baby chick and mission impossible but they will try. I even had a roo try to mount a colorful plastic bag bellowing in the wind. Small meat birds and large male birds are not a good combination, but the chicken could have died and since it was in the ground, still, like a hen presenting herself to a tom, the tom mounted it. Examine the bird, before you draw a definite conclusion about how it died.

 

[ircer]

May need FBI to investigate this murder case

 

[TamTurkey]

Wow. This is why my Birds are in the freezer before all that hoopla goes on! Just WOW!

 

[kuntrygirl]

WOW!!!! So sorry to hear that this has happened. Sounds like you need to keep them separated at all times. If this has happened one time, it will happen again. I have never experienced a turkey mounting a chicken. I guess because they have enough turkeys to keep them occupied with their own kind.

 

[frank53061]

I agree with Celie break out the rubber gloves and interview all the suspects before condemning the Tom it might have been a simple thing of the Tom being in the wrong place at the right time.
A cursory Exam of the Victim is needed was there any teeth marks or tearing of flesh or any other marks on the body that would lead you to question that maybe another predictor was the cause of the death and not by the the Tom.
was the Hen in question old did she have any prior Illnesses what was her eating habits could she have choked.
Please let us know what findings are.

 

[flocksalot]

I agree with Frank and Celie, but the first thing I would have noted was temp of the dead bird. Was it still warm as if it had just died? Was the chicken still limp or had rigor set in?

As previously stated young toms will mate whatever is handy. I had a pullet die and had set it on top of the lawn mover with the intent to start a fire and dispose of it. I ended up having some customers show up and while I was busy with them the turkeys all came down the hill to see what I was doing. In the melay that can only be 50+ turkeys of which only 12 were female, the chicken got knocked onto the ground. And wouldn't you know it every single tom/jake attempted to mate her. They also would take turns on a big sponge my husband left outside, and now no longer wants.

All our birds are free ranged, but there is a distance of around 800 yards between the chickens and turkeys, ducks, and geese. Occasionally they intermingle on their own, but usually it's because one group or the other feels I may have something they want. So where ever I am they all need to congregate. There are the occasional spats, but never anything that draws blood. I raise my meat chickens up the hill near where the turkeys are and have never had any issues. Well almost none. My Broad Breasted pet girls think the babies are all theirs and want to take care of them. Although they are 40 and 50 lbs and could keep a lot of babies warm, I'm afraid of how many they would squish with each step. It is funny to watch them start grabbing chicks and tucking them up under their wings though.