Turkeys For 2013

[Arielle]

Reminder Turkeys for2014 is well underway. So if you don't find us here, we'll be over there. THe plan was to close this thread end of December 2013 . . . .

 

[Sydney Acres]

As you only have 2 toms, this is my advice assuming you plan to breed them--- separate ONE tom out completely into another pen, and give him one hen for company.

I have not had fights go on this long, but in shorter events it has resulted in a death of one of the toms.

I know this is very stressful to watch-- I hated watching it and as I'm still new to turkeys the only other suggestion is to butcher one, but then if you want to breed, keeping 2 toms, with one as back up is best.

Thank you for replying. Luckily they stopped shortly after my previous post. They are exhausted, and their heads are bruised and bloodied, but there's no life threatening damage.

The fights don't seem as violent as with roosters. How did one of your toms end up killing the other? Was it infection from the head wounds, or did something else happen?

 

[Arielle]

Quote: That there was a fight at all was surprzing as they had been friends for a long time, but I think once" girlfriends" are in the mix their male hormones also rev up.

One guy had just a few noticable wounds, but clearly wasn't feeling well in the following days. I pulled him out of the group and started treating him, but he passed away within 24 hours. We were very sad as he was one of my first poults I ever hatched and was kept as a pet.

Maybe your boys have figured out who is boss and will live in peace together now . . . . time will tell.

 

[Turkeytruff]

has anyone else had their hens make the same trilling sound that the toms make when they fight? My blind blue slate hen (8 months old now) walked up to 2 toms and started trilling. They both pecked her a couple of times, and then I stopped it by grabbing a tom and putting him in the tractor for the night (it was time

). But I'm wondering why she would do that, especially as it got her pecked. She does miss social cues from the others, being blind....

 

[Sydney Acres]

has anyone else had their hens make the same trilling sound that the toms make when they fight? My blind blue slate hen (8 months old now) walked up to 2 toms and started trilling. They both pecked her a couple of times, and then I stopped it by grabbing a tom and putting him in the tractor for the night (it was time

). But I'm wondering why she would do that, especially as it got her pecked. She does miss social cues from the others, being blind....

Yes, I have had my hens make the same sounds, rarely. They have a pecking order just like the boys, but they tend to establish dominance quickly so the fights typically only last a few minutes, and rarely cause any bruising or wounds. In my group, the trill is also answered quickly by the challenged hen, so the prelude doesn't last long either. The toms tend to trill for a long time before a (much longer) fight.

I also have a partially blind hen, Isabella, a black, and she frequently misses social cues. But so far the toms have used good judgment around her. That's not to say that they haven't pecked her, but they've never pecked her hard or seriously frightened her. It's more of a "cut that out!" kind of response. Sometimes the other hens get very frustrated with her, and one day there was a major fight between her and another hen. I wasn't there for the start of it, but when I got outside all the birds were gobbling and the two toms were doing their best to break it up. Isabella's face and snood were pretty bruised and later swollen a bit, but nothing more serious. She's quite a girl. She doesn't look for trouble, but when it finds her she doesn't back down. When I broke up the fight, she wanted to keep going. And being almost blind, she was striking at everything, including me, as I carried her away. It took 15 minutes to calm her down, and all that evening when she detected the other hen around her she would puff up with her head held high to try to bully the other girl. But she was back to her sweet self the next day. She's my husband's and best friend's favorite, and they would both disown me if I culled her. So she's a pet for life!

As long as the two toms don't continue picking on your blind hen, I wouldn't worry about what happened. Even though she's disabled, she still has to learn how to live in the group properly, and she will need more "correction" than any of the others because she will make more mistakes. It was a huge mistake for her to thrill a challenge to the two toms, and they pecked her to let her know that she shouldn't do that. If it didn't go any further, then the toms behaved properly, and hopefully she learned not to do that (although it may take several instances for her to make the connection). If it happens again, I would see if the toms stopped on their own after a few pecks. If it's just a quick correction and then it's over, then the social order is maintained and your boys are doing their job. If they start hurting her, or don't stop when she backs down, then that's different. (And if she doesn't back down, well, she's just a stubborn blind hen, like Isabella, and needs a bit of time out.)

 

[chickadoodles]

I'm new to turkeys and need some advise. I have 7 heritage birds (3 blue slate, 2 blacks, one bronze, and one Royal Palm) which are all 6 months old. Two of the blue slates are toms, and all the others are hens. They live in a 15 X 30 foot predator-proof pen with seven chickens (also 6 months old, all brooded together), and have a one acre fenced yard to range in during the day.

The two toms have always had their little standoffs, but after it's all over they're back to being best friends. They have had a few long fights, longer than an hour, but a few favorite treats and separate yards out of each other's sight for an hour and it's forgotten.

This fight is worse. It started yesterday afternoon, and hasn't stopped. After a few hours they were both exhausted, and one had a long thin piece of skin torn from his snood. I went out to break it up and they both just laid their heads in my hand and panted for 10 minutes. I separated them out of sight from each other, and divided the hens between them. When it got dark I allowed them to both go back to their pen (luckily, they started roosting on separate roosts a few months ago). I picked them both up and put each one on their separate roosts, and they both jumped off to continue the fight, even though it was almost dark and all the other birds were trying to sleep. I had to stay out there with them until it was totally dark and they couldn't see at all before they would settle down.

And the fight has continued this morning. It's been light for 2 & 1/2 hours now, and they haven't stopped. They're totally exhausted, but neither will give up.

Should I just let them continue indefinitely until they eventually stop? Will they eventually stop???? One is a beautiful bird, appears to be breeding quality conformation with good size and color, although both his eyes are partially blue. The other is not breeding quality, has a "crow head" and is a bit smaller size. I was hoping to not cull that bird yet, but if they plan to fight to the death than I may have to. How long do these prolonged fights typically last, and is there anything I can do to stop it, short of housing them separately or culling one of them?

You might want to read up on Blue Slates. I had some and had to sell them due to the fact they both had blue eyes. Which is a sign they will go blind and one of mine did. But also the blue eyes are a DQ in showing according to the sop.
Sorry.
Cheryl

 

[uphilljill]

Our 2 hens were fighting this past weekend, and the Tom kept trying to break them up by getting between them. He would even cover them with his wings. Is that common?

 

[Sydney Acres]

Thanks for warning me. I know that blue eyes are a DQ, but because his are only partially blue and partially dark brown, I am hoping that I can selectively breed the blue eyes out of the line. He is otherwise an excellent quality bird (as much as you can tell in a 6 month old), so if I can eliminate the blue eyes I'll have a great line. I don't know about turkeys, but in most mammals that have problems because of blue eyes (cats, dogs, horses, many rodents), it is the very light blue eyes ("ice blue") that tend to have the most problems, and the deeper royal blue and bi-color eyes have significantly less issues. (That's not to say that all blue eyed cats, dogs, horses, etc have issues, but just that the ones that do have medical problems because of blue eyes are more likely to have ice blue eyes instead of darker blue or bi-color eyes.) If that holds true in turkeys, the bi-color may spare him, especially since the blue portion is a very deep intense blue (if you look at the bottom of this page where it says "BackYard Chickens is proudly sponsored by," look for the ChickenDoors.com advertisement. His blue portion is the same color as is used in the word "doors.com").

How old was your bird when it went blind? Was the blindness sudden or a slow onset? Did it develop cataracts, or did something else cause the blindness?

It seems that blindness is a frequent issue with turkeys, and not just from blue eyes. My own nearly-blind turkey is a black hen, has dark brown eyes, and has been "neurologically abnormal" in many ways since I obtained her at 2 days old. In her, I think it is either an inherited problem, or a non-heredity birth defect, based in her brain. Does anyone know the most frequent cause(s) of blindness in turkeys?

 

[Sydney Acres]

Our 2 hens were fighting this past weekend, and the Tom kept trying to break them up by getting between them. He would even cover them with his wings. Is that common?

My toms do the same thing. They don't tolerate fighting from anyone in the flock, except themselves. The last major fight they had started immediately after they stopped a young rooster in their flock from challenging a rooster in an adjoining yard. Once they stopped that, the dominant tom started trilling to the smaller one, and eventually a 2-day fight started between them. (Now that I think about it, almost every fight they've had started immediately after some other birds were fighting.) But all other fights they stop any way they can -- usually getting between the fighters, often gobbling, occasionally a disciplinary peck to make the fighters run away, and sometimes even covering them with a wing and physically moving them apart.

Something that surprised me more was the hens trying to stop the toms from fighting. The fight was on the second day and all the other birds (and me) were starting to worry. The smallest hen got between the toms during a period when they were circling each other and trilling but not biting. She put her head up beside the smaller tom and cooed and chirped and nudged him until he put his head down and seemed to relax. After 10 minutes I thought the fight was finally going to end. The smaller tom was staying calm, and the larger tom stopped circling and trilling. But then the hen gently pecked the smaller tom and he attacked her, grabbing her cheek and pulling her around. Then the larger tom intervened and the fight was back on! Eventually the smaller tom finally stopped fighting. The larger tom continued to trill at him for 30 minutes to try to bait him, and when the smaller tom didn't take up the challenge any more the fight was settled. Now their faces are bruised and a little swollen, but they're back to being best buddies. Hopefully this will settle it.

 

[desertmarcy]

You might want to read up on Blue Slates. I had some and had to sell them due to the fact they both had blue eyes. Which is a sign they will go blind and one of mine did. But also the blue eyes are a DQ in showing according to the sop.
Sorry.
Cheryl

Could you tell me what page in the SOP it states that blue eyes are a DQ for turkeys? Because I cannot find that. It does state Slates should have brown eyes, but I do not see anywhere where blue eyes are a DQ. I do not believe having blue eyes per se means they will go blind.