It is a really bad idea to keep a lone tom with chickens. In the end it normally means dead chickens. Of course if you live in an area where blackhead is an issue, keeping turkeys with chickens can be a death sentence for the turkey.Hi everyone! I got a beautiful 3 yr old bourbon Tom ( choc colour) to keep as pet. He will be kept with my chickens when he is out of quarantine and so I’m wondering if he needs the high protein food that most people feed them if he isn’t going to be ate? I imagine his growing days are long over, So this would be just a maintenance.
thanks in advance!!
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I try to keep at least 4 to 5 hens for one tom but just getting a pair of hens will help. If he only has one hen, it can be hard on her.Thanks, I kinda thought that but the women I got him from said she only had chickens and that he didn’t need a turkey hen.
How many would I need to get to keep him happy? And would he become aggressive to me then?
really appreciate the info
Grown turkeys do NOT need a high protein feed, only about 16-17% max. I recommend a good game bird whole seed mix as half his rations and then any pellet or feed in that protein range. I like a gamebird/ game rooster pellet but not to exceed 20% protein in the pellet. The grain mix will be lower and balance it out.Hi everyone! I got a beautiful 3 yr old bourbon Tom ( choc colour) to keep as pet. He will be kept with my chickens when he is out of quarantine and so I’m wondering if he needs the high protein food that most people feed them if he isn’t going to be ate? I imagine his growing days are long over, So this would be just a maintenance.
thanks in advance!!
Couple of hens will do. Some of my breeding pens are pairs when I am aiming for a particular trait and the one hen is just fine. My turkeys do not bother my chickens, but I hear of that happening. I have successfully advised people who have a tom that attacks their chickens to keep at least two toms so they occupy themselves sparring with each other rather than bothering the chickens. The roosters I have running the yard with turkeys will not back down from a turkey and can hold their own. It is because they were raised around turkeys and learn how to cope with them.
You do what you want to do. Toms can easily handle up to ten hens. The more hens a tom has, the easier it is on the hens especially when the hens star going broody.
Oh I have other toms with 10-15 hens. I keep three lines of Blacks and my breeding pens can vary from a specific pairing to one tom with 15 hens. I decide what I am breeding to what each year. This is not a difference of opinion but a difference in what we are trying to accomplish in breeding. I have been very successful in my breeding of my Blacks.
