Turkey troubles

[cdraft]

Hello everyone, I am glad to be back on BYC after a few years abscence. Here is the story in a nutshell, lets just say I feel like an idiot. We are a small farm that sometimes takes in unwanted farm animals. 2 years ago we were brought a very sweet young turkey hen, she followed the kids around town, they did not want her butchered. She really does act dog like. Her name is Tessa. She is our first ever turkey and is a royal palm.
Well Tessa has been an only turkey, lots of chickens, ducks though. She was spending more and more time in the coops instead of out and about and was gaining weight, acting depressed. My mind says maybe she needs a turkey friend so when a tom needing a home was brought to our attention, this guy also very friendly we thought "perfect friend" uhhhh NO! Tessa has no interest really in King Leo, a bourban. We have kept them seperate but the pen door was left open, he nearly killed her. Feathers and blood everywhere. I had thought maybe they would get to know each other but had been fence to fence for 2 months before this. Is this normal behaviour and if so good grief I know this is stupid but how do any survive??? We are treating Tessa and she is recovering, in retrospect a more fitting friend would have been a hen?
Our birds free range on our fenced property. Hate to see either have to be locked up, is this what we have to do and if so maybe we should find ole King Louie another home. We should have done more research...uggg!

 

[hinkjc]

Are you certain Tessa is a girl? Has she ever laid an egg? My first guess would be they are the same sex, which explains the inability to get along.

 

[cdraft]

Yes, she has laid eggs. Someone told me that tom turkeys sometimes breed the hens to death??? Is this true at all? I may have been wrong in her breed as well, possibly a broad breasted? She is all white and a very broad bird, I will post pics to get clarification on that once it stops raining. Her injuries are on her sides from his talons, they do not appear sharp to the touch, but must be as he ripped her open good on the one side.

 

[ohiofarmgirl]

Is this normal behaviour and if so good grief I know this is stupid but how do any survive???

wowza! normal? um... maybe only b/c tessa and your tom havent known each other??? i can tell you that our Tom, TZ, is not aggressive with our hens (but he has tried to peck my eyes out!)... and he actually takes care of them. they have all been raised together.

and

you need to keep the toms away from the hens while they are setting b/c he will try and mate her while she's on the nest. TZ did this and we gave him to boot from the brooding coop. yikes!

and

my buddy had a passel of turks and he called me all in a dither b/c 2 of his toms where basically tearing one of his hens apart. to the point where he kicked the toms off her - then quickly had to put her out of her misery.

so as for normal.. not sure thats the right word. but maybe not entirely unexpected.

post the pix tho - if you have a BBW its a miracle she is still alive but she may be weakened and maybe THATS why he went after her.....

anybody else???
ps sorry to hear - i'm sure it was very upsetting for everyone!​

 

[ivan3]

Do you know if the injuries were the result of an attempt at mating, or of the tom trying to spar with her, e.g., grabbing her neck and pulling her around, etc. ?

A Bourbon tom mating a Royal hen (wt./size difference) is iffy. Our 30+lb. Slate tom successfully mated with our Royal ~10lb. hen, but she was huffing and lost some feathers. If she is BB then her activity level (kinda slow) might just be normal to the variety (even the BB hens don't, in general, live as long as heritage turks/ CornishX of the turkey world).

Since she's always been around chooks she probably thinks she's a chook (had a BB jake that would have nothing to do with the Slates and Royals - was brooded with and flocked with the chooks).

But the variation in behavior can run the gamut. Below is our Royal Tom usurping the Slate hen's nest (he has since taken over the nest and she is currently busy presenting to the Slate tom). We have a predator proof nesting enclosure for the hens, but the Slate decided the back of the turkey shed would suffice (might have something to do with it).