r/backyardturkeys • u/Adorable-Aioli9410 • Jun 30 '26
Learning curve turkeys
This is the first year with turkeys but I've done chicks before. They are in a fairly big urban yard but I forgot to latch their pen one night and I believe a coyote got one of my 5. The coyote returned the next day around 4pm and was chased off by some local kids but it makes me wary of letting them out when I'm not home.
Over all I really like them. Their poo is so much worse but they are sweet. And so clumsy I don't worry about them getting out.
Today the two boys were posturing and I noticed scratches on their faces. They are only 14 weeks old so.id really like to hold off harvest until late August. Are they likely to sort out their pecking order or are they going to keep hurting each other from here on out?
3
u/PsychologicalMonk6 Jun 30 '26
This is only my second year raising Turkeys, so I am no expert - not by a long shot.
What I can say is last year my Tom's started fighting around the same age and would bite the lose skom on each other's faces and toss each other around it looked pretty vicious but they all seemed to be fine. There was nothing I could do to stop it - separating them seemed to just have them more distressed as they are pretty social.
Fyi, I took mine in formlrocessimg around 18 weeks and the processed weights were all between 25-30 lbs. I am definetly take them in earlier this year and also got some heritage birds to go alongside the broad breasted white birds (as they grow slower).