This is too funny. Male turkeys are mostly gentle compared to their chicken counterparts. Those guys virtually rape their ladies all the time!

My 8 month old tom is gentle to a fault. He can strut all day and forget to eat. The hen are always hard to get. The only exception is when the hen are on heat. Any other day, the tom is left so horribly lonely that I feel for him.

There is a reason why the female turkeys will not want the tom to mate with her all the time. After each bout of sex, the female comes out worse. They are mostly left with messy scratches on the upper part of the body.

I don't have personal experience but I have met farmers who lost a hen or two after mating. This is due to the massive weight of the male. The weight can lead to internal injuries to the female leading to death.

The mating ritual of turkeys take quite a long time. However the actual intercourse is supposed to last for just a fraction of a second. This though is not always the case.

The male sometimes have a hard time positioning himself probably on the hen. This increases the time that the tom stays on the female. This can lead to suffocation.

Losing an adult turkey is one of the difficult times as a farmer. As much as possible,  try and keep an eye on the mating pairs to avoid unnecessary loss of flock.

rastamouse:

http://turkeyview..com/2015/10/strutting-tom-running-hen.html?m=1

samshoz:
my Tom aint gentle, it chases me and my younger ones, i have to wooz a suma-tumbling to know the boss feeding it. Sometimes it tries to challenge me but i scare it or beat it till it runs into hiding.

rastamouse:


That is quite an aggressive one. A friend's tom was killed by a dog when the tom attacked the dog. Can you tell me more about your tom?

samshoz:
nothing much to say. Here is a pix of him.

Roseey0:
I have 3 tom with one hen. I don't know how to handle them now, their noise, am even scared they will suffocate the hen.

I was just rearing them for xmas meat, didn't really prepare for this mating, breeding, hatching and brooding.

Any help from here pls

rastamouse:


Hi Rose. That is interesting. However 3 toms and a hen is not such a good combination. I will rather suggest that you take two toms away and they will do just fine.

Don't panic on breeding them.

Just subscribe to my threads as we go along and you will love the journey

Roseey0:


Thank you.
I will separate them by the end of the day. What other steps should I take after the separation. I just watched a YouTube video of mating behavior of turkey, where they have to stand for sometime on the hen before copulating. My fear is that the tom is heavier than my hen and she's the only one I have. Pls advice.

rastamouse:


Yea Rose you are very right. The average male weight twice as much as the female. That is the challenge during mating. There are a few things you can do to help matters.

For a start, try and cover the claws of the tom. They can really cut deep into the hen. You should also be concerned with the mating time.

It's weird but the tom sometimes just climb on the hen and just stay there! No interest in mating at all! That is dangerous and you must get it off.

With regards to the separated toms, I will suggest that you sell them off if they are of age. If they are not, let them keep their distance from the other couple as much as possible.

Do the turkeys free roam?

Roseey0:

Yea. It does roam but the rain keeps them inside most of the time.

As for the other two tom, Xmas is almost here. They will be useful soon.

rastamouse:
Nice boy there. Do you have hens around it?

samshoz:
yes, its brooding already. I lost a hen 2 months ago while it was brooding, i still dnt know cause of death. I like that hen because it usually lays up to twelve eggs. But this layed abt 9. And i have been pondering wether or not to seperate hatched poult from hen, after reading your blogg, i decided am going to seperate them.

samshoz:
I now force my hen to feed and drink. rastamouse: you need to educate us on candling you mentioned to us here.

samshoz:
yes, its brooding already. I lost a hen 2 months ago while it was brooding, i still dnt know cause of death. I like that hen because it usually lays up to twelve eggs. But this layed abt 9. And i have been pondering wether or not to seperate hatched poult from hen, after reading your blogg, i decided am going to seperate them.

Roseey0:
I have 3 tom with one hen. I don't know how to handle them now, their noise, am even scared they will suffocate the hen.

I was just rearing them for xmas meat, didn't really prepare for this mating, breeding, hatching and brooding.

Any help from here pls

stanvesco:
@ rastamouse,
do u know of floatation technique to determine fertile eggs?

I kant clearly remenba evrytin,but weneva i took my eggs to d hatchery,

dey placed each eggs in water,
i cant clearly remenber how dey determine d viable eggs,
try google it,
it helped alot?

Bro hope u dey fry or cook your turkey eggs sometimes,
kai mehn,
dat tin is swit.
Broda,u making me wanna start my farm again o.

Did u name all ur birds?
I had 35birds in all,and each had a name?

Weneva i come bak home day all pratikaly came to greet me,
except d dominant male(yes o, i was d alpha male,and i made it clear to it,after kicking it off d females like 1milion times)
and doing artificial insemination.

I had dis whistling i normaly do ,dat makes all tom strut n gobble at 1ce,

hahahahahb,
raising dose birds was 1daful.

I intend raising ova 500 for december nxt year

stanvesco:
@ rastamouse,
do u know of floatation technique to determine fertile eggs?

I kant clearly remenba evrytin,but weneva i took my eggs to d hatchery,

dey placed each eggs in water,
i cant clearly remenber how dey determine d viable eggs,
try google it,
it helped alot?

Bro hope u dey fry or cook your turkey eggs sometimes,
kai mehn,
dat tin is swit.
Broda,u making me wanna start my farm again o.

Did u name all ur birds?
I had 35birds in all,and each had a name?

Weneva i come bak home day all pratikaly came to greet me,
except d dominant male(yes o, i was d alpha male,and i made it clear to it,after kicking it off d females like 1milion times)
and doing artificial insemination.

I had dis whistling i normaly do ,dat makes all tom strut n gobble at 1ce,

hahahahahb,
raising dose birds was 1daful.

I intend raising ova 500 for december nxt year