sexing broad breasted bronze turkeys with updated pics......

[honda150]

I think this one is a hen
i think these ones r my toms
also i had read in another post that the hens mature faster so would there tail feathers grow faster, cuz the one i think is a hen has more and evenly length tail feathers vs the ones i think r toms which r longer in the middle and not so uniform they will b 15 weeks tomorrow. thanks

 

[nitngl]

I have 3 broad breasted bronze hens & they look like all of yours. My broad breasted white tom started strutting @ 2 weeks. His snood started elongating @ around 15 weeks. As well as the face & neck changed colors with caruncles.

 

[honda150]

the 2 i think r toms there snoods will elongate and retract.And 1 of the toms has black tips on his breast feathers and really shows the bronze color.here r some pics taken during the day today.

this one i think is the most dominate as of right now.tom i think

same bird as top.tom i think

the other tom i think?notice the black tips on the back and breast feathers that show some of the bronze look

now this all three top bird on left,black tiped bird in middle,and the one i am sure is a hen on right.Any help on sexing them would b great.Thanx

 

[bucket04]

I have several turkeys, 2 of them are Bronze, and I happened to get one male and one female. Their colors seem to be identical to each other, so that wasn't helping me figure it out. At nearly 18 weeks old, though, there is no doubt which are male and which are female of all my breeds. I want to say that at around the 14ish week mark is when I was able to determine what I had. The telltale signs for me, were size of body- the males of any breed are larger than the females of the same breed. And the thickness and length of the snood. If it's the same thickness/width from the head to the tip, and is very short, it's a female. If the snood is flattened out where it joins the head, and it elongates and retracts, you have a male.

Hope that helps.

 

[honda150]

bucket04,When did ur tom start to gobble at what age?And thank u for ur input.

 

[TV]

White tipped feathers on the breast, it's a hen. Black edged feathers on the breast, it's a tom.

 

[honda150]

i understand that but i had read somewhere on here that bronze turkeys arent feather sexed until adults and i dont think almost 16 weeks is an adult yet.Now if u were talking about a yr old tom and hen than i can understand.If someone on here with alot of experience with bronze turkeys can tell me that with all 3 turkeys all r very different,unless there not true bronze turkeys.

 

[Lagerdogger]

There are several things to consider. Feather color is a pretty good trait, and should be fairly obvious by 12 to 15 weeks, so I think you could apply that. But only the breast feathers, not the back feathers. Hens tend to have a stripe of small feathers down the back of their head and neck, while toms usually go completely bald. The one you are calling a tom seems to have the strip of small feathers. Toms tend to have larger feet than the hens for the same sized bird. Toms also tend to have larger bumps at the base of the neck (caruncles).

Displaying is not a very good trait because hens will often display, especially when younger and in the absence of toms. However, gobbling and elongating snoods are pretty good indications of toms.

When in doubt, all characteristics must be considered, and even then mistakes can be made on some birds until they are 6 months old.

I enlarged your pictures (from your second batch), and I think they are all hens. The all have small caruncles, light tipped breast feathers, and relatively small snoods. A shortened snood on a tom looks more conical than the snoods in the pictures. Of course, you said that the snoods will elongate on one or two of your birds. That doesn't sound like a hen. Maybe you didn't actually post a picture of those birds by mistake?

 

[honda150]

Thank you lagerdogger i did post the pics of those birds they are the first 3 pics in the second batch of pics the first 2 pics are the same bird and the 3rd pic is the other bird i was wondering about.These 2 birds are bigger as in wider and feet are bigger.There snoods will elongate and retract when they get excited they elongate.I have one of those gobble calls for turkey hunting and both will come over and start to display and start spit drumming when i start to shake it.iI guess time will tell.

 

[Lagerdogger]

The behavior sounds tom-like, but they have small caruncles and the retracted snoods don't look tom-like. I have never had hens in the absence of toms. Sometimes hen chickens will start to act like roosters and even try to crow if there are no roosters around. I wonder if the turkeys are doing the same thing. Have you actually heard a good gobble out of your birds? When the snood elongates, does it extend 3 or 4 times the length of the beak?