How to sex BR poults

[emvickrey]

I have no idea how to tell the sex of my young poults. They are 2 and 3 months old. I took some pics in hopes somebody could help. Also would it be safe to add them to the turkey pen. I have 1 pair of adults and the hen is broody.

Their first day out of the cage and they wanted to hang out with the chickens. lol I've kept them in a cage up off the ground. I read that was what to do somewhere on BYC. I didn't have any problems with any dying either. I kept them in the grown pen with a heat lamp till just a couple weeks ago. Now their in a cage. I'd like to put them in the turkey pen with the pair of adults I also bought. The hen is broody so I don't know how it would work. The Tom is a big fella and I really don't want to have to go rounds with him to keep poults safe.

As far as these youngsters, the oldest one is alot tamer than the other 3 but it is more used to being handled. I don't know if that has any connection to if it's a hen or a tom but thought I would toss that tid bit in just in case.

 

[mrgreenjeans53]

I was told that a Tom would have a knot in its breast and the hens won't. The knot is where the toms' beard will start to grow from. Not sure if this is true or not. My Bourbon Red's (4 each), Royal Palm's (4 each) and Black Spanish (8 each) are only a couple of weeks old and I don't feel any knot on them at all. But then, all of mine may be hens....lol.

As for putting the poults in with your adults.......you should be safe doing that but you may want to put the poults in a small cage and place the cage in the coop with the adults for a few days so they can get used to one another. This will keep the poults safe in case the adults intend to do them harm. The adult Tom may try to mate with any young hens you have and from looking at your pics your poults are small enough to get hurt if the Tom tries.


Good luck!!!

 

[emvickrey]

Thank you. Yes my poults are small still. Leggy but small. The tom's foot would break bones much less if he tried to mount them. They would be dead and with the adult hen broody he just may try. Thanks for the info. I'll look for the bump today. Hopefully they're all girls.

 

[TV]

Check the poults breast feathers. The hens will have a white or lighter edge and the toms will have a dark edge. The beard thing may or may not work as some hens will have beards.

 

[emvickrey]

Thank you

 

[frank53061]

TV

Is right as I was reading the above blogs I was thinking that all my Toms Red Bourbon have darker feathers than my Hens and also the heads of my Toms are brighter colored than the hens and more and bigger carnucles the wort looking things on there neck bigger snoods also that worm looking thing above the beak.
Picture supplied.

 

[emvickrey]

My Tom don't have that snood but it looks more like a Pelecans neck. It does turn red when he gets excited but there's nothing hanging. He molted and his feathers came in darker than what they where when I bought him. Now he's darker than the hen. The poults I checked out real good yesterday when we moved them to a larger pen. The 3 yourger ones have the white on the edges of their breast feathers and are lighter in color than the older one. The older one's feathers don't have the white or lighter color on the feather edges. They all seemed to have the bump on the breast but I think I was feeling the breast bone. So I"m guessing I have 1 tom and 3 girls. Do the young boys and girls have different names like chickens have? I'm all new with turkeys. I bought them some different feed yesterday. I got All Flock pellets for them. I mix a little scratch in with it. They always turn their feeder over. I was thinking about nailing it to the wall up high enough they can reach their heads in but not their feet. Is that a good idea or does somebody else know of a better way. I don't normally like to make a feeder a permanent. I can't clean them out if they get nasty.

TV

Is right as I was reading the above blogs I was thinking that all my Toms Red Bourbon have darker feathers than my Hens and also the heads of my Toms are brighter colored than the hens and more and bigger carnucles the wort looking things on there neck bigger snoods also that worm looking thing above the beak.
Picture supplied.

 

[mrgreenjeans53]

If your feeder has a handle on top you can tie a rope or wire to it and hang it from the ceiling high enough for them to eat and not be able to reach it with their feet. You can do the same with their waterer.