Turkey Talk for 2014

[Blarneyeggs]

Just curious, does the "Mohawk" usually mean female? I have a 6ish week old that I was just laughing about its Mohawk the other day.

Looking forward to the answer to the Mohawk question. Also, just to demonstrate my complete lack of knowledge in regard to turkeys, we have a few that are gobbling, does that mean they are male? And as long as I'm asking, does Jenny indicate immature female and Jake indicate immature male?thank you Turkey Gurus!

 

[Jryan18]

Just curious, does the "Mohawk" usually mean female? I have a 6ish week old that I was just laughing about its Mohawk the other day.

I have been told (this is my first turkey) that toms will be bald and hens will have Mohawks, I don't know at that age if it is a good indicator or not but if you search seeing a turkey this seems to be an indicator that most people mention.

 

[Jryan18]

Looking forward to the answer to the Mohawk question. Also, just to demonstrate my complete lack of knowledge in regard to turkeys, we have a few that are gobbling, does that mean they are male? And as long as I'm asking, does Jenny indicate immature female and Jake indicate immature male?thank you Turkey Gurus!

I think jenny and Jake are similar to pullet and cockerel, that is what turkeys are considered until 1 yr, then they become toms an the females I am not sue but I believe are just hens at that point. But I am no expert by any means just did a lot of reading g before getting into turkeys.

 

[Sydney Acres]

Beautiful pictures Jryan18. It's still way too young for me to tell via pictures. At that age I could only tell on mine based on behavior between them, but with only one that may not work for you. Others with more experience may be able to give you a guess.

Why do you think your hatch rates are so low? Are these shipped eggs that arrived in bad shape, in which case 8% and 25% are par for the course? If the eggs aren't shipped, do you think there's a fertility issue, or an egg storage issue, or an incubation issue? If you think it's an incubation issue, here's some links for turkey egg incubation:
1) https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/turkey-incubation-and-hatching-guide
2) http://www.porterturkeys.com/egghatchingtips.htm

Sonderah, yes, a mohawk is typical for an adult female, as the adult males have a featherless head. But the transition between poult down and full adult glory has many, many stages, so you have to be careful not to place too much importance on a single characteristic during this stage of growth. There's also a lot of subtle differences between individuals of the same gender, so that can mess up your predictions also. With my seven poults, I changed my mind several times when they were 1-3 months old when I just looked at appearance. But when I looked just at their behavior with each other, there was never any doubt -- my original suspicion of 2 toms and 5 hens held out.

 

[Sydney Acres]

Quote:
I could be wrong about this (don't you just love answers that start this way), but I don't think Jenny and Jake are "official" terms. I think they're more farm terms, and are somewhat regional, commonly used in England and some areas of the U.S., but not used at all in other areas. Kind of like the term "rooster." Everybody uses it, and everybody knows it means a male chicken, some people even feel that it means a mature male chicken, but it's not an "official" term. And don't even consider using the term "roo" around high-end breeders -- many of them won't think twice about correcting you!

But you got my curiosity going, so I got out the books. The American Standard of Perfection, 1998 edition, lists standard weights for an "Old Tom," "Old Hen," "Young Tom," and a "Young Hen." I could not find the terms Jake or Jenny anywhere. I also could not find a cut-off point where a hen or tom goes from being "young" to "old," unlike with chickens where the transition from pullet to hen or cockerel to cock occurs at 1 year of age. With turkeys being larger birds and (hopefully) growing a bit slower, I assumed that they went from young to old at sometime later than 1 year of age, but don't know for sure. (Anyone on this thread show their turkeys? Do you know what the official transition age is?)

I also looked in the 6th edition of British Poultry Standards (2008). There it lists standards weights for a "Mature Stag," "Mature Hen," "Young Stag," and "Young Hen." Again, no documentation as to when a bird transitions from "young" to "old," and no reference to the term Jake or Jenny.

 

[Sydney Acres]

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Looking forward to the answer to the Mohawk question. Also, just to demonstrate my complete lack of knowledge in regard to turkeys, we have a few that are gobbling, does that mean they are male? And as long as I'm asking, does Jenny indicate immature female and Jake indicate immature male?thank you Turkey Gurus!

In my small flock of 5 hens and 2 toms, my hens have never gobbled, and my toms won't stop! If they're not gobbling, I know there is absolutely NOTHING going on within their earshot. Luckily my neighbors think it sounds like the birds are laughing, and love to hear them. I don't know if it's possible for turkey hens to gobble or not, but I've never seen them do it. I know that it's possible for chicken hens to crow, and that it most frequently happens in a flock with no rooster, especially when there's only a single hen by herself. It's a weird, almost strangled sounding crow, but still a crow. So maybe a turkey hen could gobble, if there was ever a need to do so. Has anyone ever seen a hen gobble?

 

[sonderah]

Beautiful pictures Jryan18.  It's still way too young for me to tell via pictures.  At that age I could only tell on mine based on behavior between them, but with only one that may not work for you.  Others with more experience may be able to give you a guess.

Why do you think your hatch rates are so low?  Are these shipped eggs that arrived in bad shape, in which case 8% and 25% are par for the course?  If the eggs aren't shipped, do you think there's a fertility issue, or an egg storage issue, or an incubation issue?  If you think it's an incubation issue, here's some links for turkey egg incubation: 
1)  https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/turkey-incubation-and-hatching-guide
2)  http://www.porterturkeys.com/egghatchingtips.htm

Sonderah, yes, a mohawk is typical for an adult female, as the adult males have a featherless head.  But the transition between poult down and full adult glory has many, many stages, so you have to be careful not to place too much importance on a single characteristic during this stage of growth.  There's also a lot of subtle differences between individuals of the same gender, so that can mess up your predictions also.  With my seven poults, I changed my mind several times when they were 1-3 months old when I just looked at appearance.  But when I looked just at their behavior with each other, there was never any doubt -- my original suspicion of 2 toms and 5 hens held out.

Out of the 2 she was raising, before the other one was killed or died (not positive which), this one was very noticeably larger, so I've been thinking tom (young Tom) lol Guess I'll know eventually! Won't really matter til next sprig anyway I suppose.

 

[Sydney Acres]

Out of the 2 she was raising, before the other one was killed or died (not positive which), this one was very noticeably larger, so I've been thinking tom (young Tom) lol Guess I'll know eventually! Won't really matter til next sprig anyway I suppose.

How old were they when the other one died?

In my group of seven, the two toms were numbers 2 and 4 in weight at 2 weeks old; numbers 1 and 3 at 2 weeks, 4 days old; and numbers 1 and 2 at 3 weeks, 3 days old, but there were no significant gaps in weights at these ages yet. Then at 5 weeks, 1 day old there were two groupings of weight, with the two males clustered together a bit heavier than the female cluster. At 8 weeks, 6 days old, one of the males really pulled out ahead, being one pound heavier than the other male, and one of the females pulled slightly ahead of her pack, being only 1/3 lb smaller than the smaller male. So if I were judging gender just by weight AND I knew that there were 2 males in the group, then I would have been accurate at that age. But if I didn't know that there were 2 males in that group, the weight clustering would have indicated only one male, because at that point there was a much larger gap between male #1 and male #2 than there was between male #2 and female #1. So judging gender by weight isn't always accurate, but certainly can be a piece of the puzzle, starting between 3-5 weeks, and assuming that all poults are equally healthy. In this situation, where there's only two and the smaller poult died, I would not use size as a factor at all. A male poult with an underlying health issue, especially one severe enough that it eventually leads to death, could easily be smaller than a healthy female at any stage of growth.

 

[austinbndr28]

My hen turkey went broody on a few of her eggs 28 days ago but my tom died 4 weeks and 4 days before she started to go broody. So i put chicken eggs under her a week later and i just checked and seen chicks and a turkey poult. I was surprised the hen could stay fertile for over a month!

 

[Arielle]

My hen turkey went broody on a few of her eggs 28 days ago but my tom died 4 weeks and 4 days before she started to go broody. So i put chicken eggs under her a week later and i just checked and seen chicks and a turkey poult. I was surprised the hen could stay fertile for over a month!

Glad you got a few.

THis is why people do need to be a bit understanding when a wrong chick or poult is hatched-- I've heard the old timers talk of upwards of 6 weeks, though most only segregate for 3 weeks and then start collecting for hatching.

Mohawk-- is also a rhode Island Red line that is very famous.

mohawk -- is definitely the hed dress of a girl turkey. lol

Jenny and jake seem to be a region al term.

Sexing-- see the old posts by Celie. She ran an experiement and came up with pretty definitive methods to sex the poults. I reposted it at the beginning somewhere of this new thread, but it appears in the fall of the 2013 thread as I remember. ANy one good at ferreting out specific posts??