Turkey Terror!

[lkellogg]

I have one Tom turkey in with 10 hens and a Roo, I recently added three younger pullets which I did slowly leaving them in a seperate area so they could get use each other with a see through barrior. But my tom seems not only peck but chase them all over and terrorize them, I know turkeys can be very mean but is there anything I can do to before I remove him totally????

 

[ivan3]

If I'm reading your post, correctly: You have 14 chickens and one tom turkey in a run? If that is right, what sized run? Was this tom raised with the first 11 chooks? Turkeys are very `social' and any changes to the `society' can be upsetting. We have chooks and turks but they've never shared a run (size differential alone dictated separate runs - that we've always had more than one tom and the boys spar in an indiscriminate fashion, i.e., crush anything in their way) as it just seemed safer, overall.

How does your roo get along with the tom? When free ranging, our roos will attempt to `herd' the turks but, if one of the roos corners a tom the tom will turn and stomp the roo.

I'd separate out the tom, for the time being.

 

[lkellogg]

We have 12 chickens I know its worded funny but our rooster coexists with him fine they tend to actually hang out together, most of the time they are all free range and do great! And our run is a little smaller than I like but its a 12 by 16 foot run.