My bronze turkeys are 2 months old. I have a boy and girl for sure now. This morning I noticed the tom ruffling up his feathers and sticking out his chest, looked like the thanksgiving turkeys we always see. Then the hen flapped her wings and jumped in front of him and squatted down. They carried on like this for quite awhile. Will I have fertile eggs this year? Will I have any eggs at all? I am in love with turkeys, they are so friendly and not nearly as nervous as the chickens. Thanks in advance.

-- tina shrout (clia88@newmexico.com), July 13, 2000

Answers

I suspect you will have to wait until next year when the turkeys are sexually mature enough to mate and for the hen to lay eggs. I only see my hen every couple of days so suspect she is on a nest in the fence row somewhere. Should have hatched out her poults by now but we had a couple of aborted nesting attempts. (She is new to this and I have only slightly more experience.) Stromberg's (800-720-1134 for catalog) has a couple of books on raising turkeys.

They do turn into friendly critters. I talk a little with mine and the tom will come up to rub against me like a cat. Guy who works for me a couple of days a week communicates with them.

On young courting signs, I've seen calves only a couple of weeks old riding each other. A bull calf a couple of months old is trying to ride cows when my bulls aren't watching. I'd loan him two five gallon buckets if he came up and asked.

-- Ken Scharabok (scharabo@aol.com), July 13, 2000.

Tina, the turkey people are carefully controlling conditions, feeds, etc. They feel that the best birds to use are in their first year. The pullets are supposed to lay more eggs, have less broodiness, and higher fertility. The young toms are smaller and have an easier time doing their duty. Plus after all that work, the breeding birds can still be butchered and sold at the end of the season. So you might get some egg laying, and even hatching attempts yet this year. But it isn't likely, nor likely to succeed if they try.

I'd plan on having them produce next spring. If you don't have a lot of hens, and your birds free range together, you may need to make or buy a saddle for the hen(s). Let me know if you do, and I'll try to describe it to you. I don't know of any commercial sources, but then I don't raise turkeys. Gerbil

-- Gerbil (ima_gerbil@hotmail.com), July 14, 2000.

Gerbil:

Stromberg's also carries turkey saddles, although I really don't understand what their purpose is.

-- Ken Scharabok (scharabo@aol.com), July 15, 2000.

Ken the saddles are to help protect the hens' backs. If you've ever seen what roosters can do to hens, you've got a clue what a buxom tom turkey can do to a turkey hen. The toms will really shred the hens because they're working extra hard to scramble up. Domestic turkeys are a lot heavier and have extremely large breasts. That makes the toms unpleasant to the hens who will more vigorously avoid breeding than chicken hens will. Good to know that Stromberg's carries the saddles. Gerbil

-- Gerbil (ima_gerbil@hotmail.com), July 15, 2000.

Thanks guys.

-- tina (clia88@newmexico.com), July 15, 2000.

Last year I raised bronze turkey's, and I too feel in love with them. I learned how to talk turkey with the flock. ha ha I bought mine on the 4th of July, and did they ever grow fast! We fed them turkey starter, then put them on turkey grow. We had one extra tom turkey so we butchered him for Thanksgiving dinner. He weighed in at fourty pounds, ready for the roasting pan, thank goodness I had a pan that was big enough!! This was the best turkey I have ever tasted, and all of our friends and relatives wanted to buy turkey from us. I really grew attached to them so I decided that if I had a turkey egg before the next holiday I would keep the turkey's that I had, let them breed, and raise our own. Three days before Christmas I was extremely happy to find my very first tan speckled turkey egg.My plan to breed them did not come to pass, an irresponsible dog owner that let her dogs run loose seen to that. All of my beautiful turkey's were killed. It was a financial loss, but more than that it was an emotionally devastating experience. Sorry I took the scenic route to answer your question, I just felt it was important to tell this story. While raising turkey's was the plan, I called and talked with several local poulty fanciers and found out several interesting things about turkey's. The mistake we made was feeding them so well, they grew very large indeed, but for breeders it made natural breeding impossible, because of the size of the tom's we were told that we would have to artifically inseminate the hens. What was funny was we were told that we would have to use a turkey baster, I am serious, this is no joke. I also learned that a hen will have from seven to ten eggs in her nest three times each year. I also found out that they really like to hide their nests, and are experts at this. So with all of this info it can calculate out that they will probably start their first nest aprox. nine months of age. And it is best to keep breeding stock from getting to large. A neighbor told me that he started his out with starter, then fed them nothing else, they had free range on a half acre. I hope that this information has been helpful, sorry it bacame a short novel. Good Luck to you. Sincerely Deborah Clymer (clymer@humboldt1.com) P.S. I didn't have the heart to try again this year but I might give it a go one of these days. Let me know how you do with raising yours, I am sure you will have lots to tell by then.

-- Deborah Clymer (clymer@humboldt1.com), July 19, 2000.