Turkeys pecking chicks til they bleed

[Shashie88]

Hi new here. Have 3wk turkeys and chickens. 2 turks and ten chicks. Have seperated them due to pecking of poor chicks t2il they bleed can I stop this behavior? The turkeys just fly into chicken box even thou it's at least 2ft tall. Are they just bored?

 

[bluegoose]

Hello Shashie, I dont think they are bored sometimes they get along sometimes they dont.some of mine will stay with my chickens and get along great but some of them will peck the heck out of them if they get to close.if they keep pecking you better seperate them sometimes they just dont like chicks.

 

[Shireshome]

Hello Shashie.

My suggestion for you is to keep them apart for a little while, it might just be that the skin of the chicks is showing and they are taking interest in the red colour until they draw blood, an even redder colour! This behavior is typical and I wouldn't worry about it. You do need to keep them apart until the chicks are fully feathered though, and then try introducing them again.

However, if these turkeys are the white commercial breed (BBW) I would keep them apart and never let them be with other birds. My DH and I kept a variety of turkeys a few years ago. We had the BBW, White Holland, BBB, and Rio Grande. The BBW were by far the fastest growing birds and so we didn't think too much of it at first when they began to pick on their smaller brooder mates. But their aggressive behavior progressed until one day they cornered and killed another poult. They didn’t actually kill it right off they worked together (there were 4 of them) and pecked the poor birds beak until it was smashed to pieces and though I tried to save him, he died a few days later. Even when they were older and all were let out to free range 2 acres they would gang up and kill other birds, mostly Cornish Cross hens that were either too stupid or too fat to get away. At 16 weeks I had the last straw when I went out to feed only to find my favorite Rio Grande dead with its head and beak smashed up(Btw: this turkey had already been attacked by them when it was younger and had a chipped beak as a result). We threw these vultures into solitary confinement and butchered them the next day. It was the first time we had ever processed anything before and I’m sure we wouldn’t have done it so soon nor started with a turkey had it not been for all of the problems. We never have nor ever will raise that breed again.

 

[ColbyNTX]

Also, a red or blue light in your brooder helps. White lights tend to make them peck more.

 

[cjbuchholz]

Use a Rooster Booster product . . . something like "Rooster Booster Peck No More."

 

[bryan99705]

I had to trim beaks and move then to a larger coop with branches to run & hide in till they grew out of it as chicks. Now it all seems to be about how's the boss of the yard and my wife's goose is currently in the lead but missing a couple tail feathers