when can you tell if a turkey is a girl or boy?

[Erin Crawford]

Male turkeys leave droppings in the shape of an "L" or "J".... Females leave a spiral pile.

 

[Erin Crawford]

I thought it was a "load of crap" (sorry, had to be done) when I first heard it, but then I realized it was a valid observation...

 

[hyelaw]

Funny how everyone wants to know the sex of their birds, thing is it isn't going to change, and the bird knows what it is, wait long enough and you'll know too, and I've had hens with beards, just like I've had grandma's with mustaches

Well, that is true, but just like having a child or a litter of puppies or kittens, it won't change anything, but it's nice to know.

Here are my baby pics, they are about 5 weeks old here. I'm convinced the bronze is a boy and the self-blue is a girl. I go by how much they weigh, since he is only 12 hours older than her, but he weighs more, which by now should have evened out. Time will tell if I'm right or not, but I would like to know.

The baby fur seems to be rubbing off his head now too. My babies are growing up!

 

[R2elk]

So males droppings are J and L shape, female - spherical.. ? I was not able to find that post from Celie on sexing turkeys... something to do with holding them on their backs and looking if they will fold their feet? I am going to test this now on my chicken whose gender I know for sure

Female droppings are not necessarily spherical so much as they are dropped in a pile.

@Celie 's post on sexing pooults.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/turkeys-for-2013.725829/page-276#post-11833820

Be sure to read her second post for clarification.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/turkeys-for-2013.725829/page-276#post-11836985

 

[pkw]

The people that I bought my turkeys from told me that the knob at the top of their beak is how to tell the difference in poults. If It is bigger then it will be a boy and if it is small it will be a girl. These people are a local hatchery type business so I picked out my turkeys based on that. I hope they were right. By know I talking about that round thing above the beak.

Let me add that I am a newbie at turkey poults or turkeys at all. I just finally got mine a week ago but have been gathering info on here and those I know in person about turkeys.

 

[thekid]

the male has a beard growing out of its chest and the male fluffs up the female just stay kinda normal i guess

 

[MissTurkey4]

Sexing 2 week old is only a guess. Some things increase your odds of being right. You still are always going to have some at 6 months old suprise you. Oh, I thought that was a hen!!!! I do think many times the hens just look more feminine. There head is more triagle. The Toms have a square head if viewed from the top. Some of my 8 week old turkeys are getting some color to the head like a male. What I think are hens have more tiny fuzz on the top of the head. Tust me here it is only a guess. Never sale someone a turkey sexed when they are young. You will have someone ticked off at you.

This site I like that shows you how to sex turkeys will not come up for me. But this is helpful. http://webcache.googleusercontent.c...d=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us&source=www.google.com

 

[teresa-78]

Quote:
When I chose my turkey chick I went by the size of its legs, I wanted a Tom so I chose a chick with thicker legs than the rest... he turned out to be a Tom, but did keep me guessing for a very long time, as his bump on his nose stayed rather small until he was a fair few months old,

 

[farm n louisana]

I think I have 1 tom n 3 hens my tom is bigger then my 3 hens n his bumps on his head is a lot bigger my 3 hens r the same size n shape there all look the same I guess I got lucky when I picked them at a week old I just picked the 4 browns one the man had instead of all the whites ones he had

 

[retlaw]

Interesting observation.