Baby turkeys - really bummed :(

[CrealCritter]

I lost 2 more baby turkeys today. One was cold and stiff when I found it. The other was flopping around. I picked it up and brought it in the kitchen. My wife and I gave it an eye dropper of water but it died while I was holding it. Only thing I can figure is may these 3 were Jake's and my Tom killed them. They all are healthy so it's all I can figure might have happened to them.

I have 3 baby turkeys left.

Any insight would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

 

[baymule]

We butchered my rooster today. I hated him and he hated me. He is resting in the refrigerator right now. I'll cook up a pot of rooster soup for my 2 year old grand daughter. He'd crow and she'd say, "Eat that mean rooster!" LOL

 

[frustratedearthmother]

I would never have thought of that....just proves that you can learn a lot just watching your critters!

 

[CrealCritter]

Well I decided to separate the babies and the two hens. My wife helped me get them into the center yard. The Tom and roosters are in their own yard. The babies and hens into the center yard.

I went looking for the 4 roosters to put them in with the turkey tom. Just then my wife said there's three of them in the chicken layer yard. No sooner she said that all hell broke loose in the layer yard. My layer yard rooster was going after the 3 roosters and the three roosters where jumping on hens. I didn't close the door all the way in between the layer and turkey yard and they got in.

It took me a good 5 minutes to catch the three roosters and put them in with the turkey tom as my wife was laughing her ass off...

Those 3 roosters were on a rape and pillage mission and my layer yard rooster was like I'm gonna kill the all. All because I didn't close the door all the way. the excitement is all over now thank God - did you know roosters can really run fast when they don't want to be caught?

 

[CrealCritter]

We butchered my rooster today. I hated him and he hated me. He is resting in the refrigerator right now. I'll cook up a pot of rooster soup for my 2 year old grand daughter. He'd crow and she'd say, "Eat that mean rooster!" LOL

Mean rooster soup is the best chicken soup there is Next weekend I'm going to butcher my older hens and a few roosters. My first batch of hatchlings from last winter have started laying this week, so it's now time to refresh the flock.

 

[NH Homesteader]

Ugh... Roosters. I can't let any of my younger roosters near my main roo or they would probably be dead. That must have been chaos! Hope the mamas and babies do well now!

 

[CrealCritter]

Ugh... Roosters. I can't let any of my younger roosters near my main roo or they would probably be dead. That must have been chaos! Hope the mamas and babies do well now!

Utter chaos... I said to my wife as we were walking back up to the house - at least they are small easy to handle animals. She laughed at me and said small yes but that sure didn't look easy :lol

 

[CrealCritter]

I wanted to let you all know - I finally figured out what was happening to my baby turkeys. I seen my Tom step on one, i marked it's leg with a black sharpie and two days later I found it dead. I'm now down to 2 baby turkeys But at least I found the problem.

The tom didn't do this intentionally that I could tell... But he's a big bird and a little baby turkey really doesn't stand a chance when he steps on them.

Next brood I'll know to separate the Tom from the hens and babies when they start to hatch.

Just thought you may find this helpful...

 

[Beekissed]

It may or may not have been intentional....I had a rooster that would step on the little ones when they came to the feed trough. Looked all like an accident but I would watch and he would just keep stepping on them over and over whenever he moved around the feed trough. No other chickens stepping on chicks, just him.

He's gone now and tasted good, but it was definitely intentional. When he was flockmaster I found a few young cockerels with broken necks but no other marks. Never had that before in all the flocks and all the roosters I'd had, so he was definitely targeting the young ones and especially the males.

 

[NH Homesteader]

No external injuries? My husband said ours that were killed by our old tom had some injuries but it wasn't immediately obvious that was what had happened, we just caught him going after one so we figured he killed the others also.