One of my three turkeys is just timid beyond belief. She gets the stuffing bitten out of her at every turn. Their enclosure is big enough for all of them to get along but it got so disgustingly muddy after last night's downpour (I mean hours of sheeting rain that no one had predicted even the ground under the shelter was two inch mud) that I had to move them to our "infirmary" coop for at least a few days.
Two of the turkeys went into the coop without issue but timid turkey wouldn't follow their lead. I herded timid turkey in but the other two attacked her immediately. I let timid turkey hang out free range for the afternoon then finally put her in an enclosure with our six elderly hens. Once locked up, she kind of freaked but we have a fox running around and I couldn't let timid turkey just hang out.
What would you do? Would you keep her with the elderly chickens so that she can socialize and maybe learn to hold her own? Put her back in with the other turkeys when the ground in their enclosure dries out? In my experience, separating them then putting them back together makes the hierarchy problems worse. Dominant turkey gets more dominant and timid turkey gets even more timid.
Anyway, maybe this doesn't seem important but timid turkey is looking pretty beat up at this point and I would prefer that her quality of life is a bit better than being subjected to the bullies who peck her bloody all of the time.
Two of the turkeys went into the coop without issue but timid turkey wouldn't follow their lead. I herded timid turkey in but the other two attacked her immediately. I let timid turkey hang out free range for the afternoon then finally put her in an enclosure with our six elderly hens. Once locked up, she kind of freaked but we have a fox running around and I couldn't let timid turkey just hang out.
What would you do? Would you keep her with the elderly chickens so that she can socialize and maybe learn to hold her own? Put her back in with the other turkeys when the ground in their enclosure dries out? In my experience, separating them then putting them back together makes the hierarchy problems worse. Dominant turkey gets more dominant and timid turkey gets even more timid.
Anyway, maybe this doesn't seem important but timid turkey is looking pretty beat up at this point and I would prefer that her quality of life is a bit better than being subjected to the bullies who peck her bloody all of the time.