Turkey ratio ?

MillersFarm

Easily distracted by Chickens
5 Years
Jun 3, 2016
4,920
15,012
757
Lewiston NY
This is our first year with turkeys and I have a few questions to ask. I currently have 8 turkeys. Started out with a rescue named Dorthy. Decided to look for a friend for her ended up getting a half wild half black Spanish tom. He was 7 weeks old when we got him so he wasn't breeding with her but the thought of over-breeding came to mind a couple months later we got him so we went and bought 3 royal palm 'hens' one turned out to be a tom so we had 2 toms and 3 hens. defiantly not enough. So when we took some of our chickens to a friend they offered some turkeys since they had too many and we went and took 3 hens. So now we have 6 hens and two toms. My friend said that they could take the royal palm tom but i'm starting to grow close to the lil' bugger so my question is do we have enough hens? Or should look for more? I really would hate to see him go and well... they people who said they'd take him really don't have the space for it and now they're saying they don't let their turkeys free range which made me not want to give him away even more.. So any replies would be greatly appreciated any if you have some tips on raising turkeys i'd love to hear em'!
 
This is our first year with turkeys and I have a few questions to ask. I currently have 8 turkeys. Started out with a rescue named Dorthy. Decided to look for a friend for her ended up getting a half wild half black Spanish tom. He was 7 weeks old when we got him so he wasn't breeding with her but the thought of over-breeding came to mind a couple months later we got him so we went and bought 3 royal palm 'hens' one turned out to be a tom so we had 2 toms and 3 hens. defiantly not enough. So when we took some of our chickens to a friend they offered some turkeys since they had too many and we went and took 3 hens. So now we have 6 hens and two toms. My friend said that they could take the royal palm tom but i'm starting to grow close to the lil' bugger so my question is do we have enough hens? Or should look for more? I really would hate to see him go and well... they people who said they'd take him really don't have the space for it and now they're saying they don't let their turkeys free range which made me not want to give him away even more.. So any replies would be greatly appreciated any if you have some tips on raising turkeys i'd love to hear em'!
If you are going to keep both toms, I recommend that you get four more hens. I try to keep at least four to five hens for one tom. I know that one tom can easily handle 6 hens and probably more. I also recommend separating them into two groups as the hens can get severely hurt when one tom knocks the other tom off of a hen.
 
If you are going to keep both toms, I recommend that you get four more hens. I try to keep at least four to five hens for one tom. I know that one tom can easily handle 6 hens and probably more. I also recommend separating them into two groups as the hens can get severely hurt when one tom knocks the other tom off of a hen.
Thank you so much for your reply. I might just get rid of the one tom in exchange for another hen or two. I don't want to go through the trouble of separating them since I've been a bit busy building another coop for our chicks. Thanks again.
 
When we started w/turks. 2 toms & 8 women..
One tom became dominate. Outcasted the weaker Bronze Tom. He wound up on his own living away from the group until his time was up. They really never competed for the ladies such as my Roosters do.. more of a territorial kind of bout. We are down to 3 Turks these days.. Thomas and the Bronze Twins. Kinda took a shinning to them and spared them from the purpose of obtaining them. They spend most of the day pastured, far from harm. Living the good life.
 

New posts New threads Active threads

Back
Top Bottom