[Tudful Tamworths]

Wonder if anyone can help. I've raised bronze turkeys from day-olds for about 10 years now, but this latest batch has been fraught with bullying problems.

I've had various problems with feather-pecking, with quite a few bald necks. That I've seen before. However, one had to be rescued two weeks ago - it had a bit of a limp, had understandably fallen back a bit because it wasn't feeding as well, and was being picked on quite severely. Today, I discovered another victim, in a much worse state. Not sure if it will make it.

I've had occasional problems in recent years, but nothing as severe as this. They are all hens, about 60, free-ranging in a spacious paddock. They came from a commercial hatchery, and I'm just wondering whether there might be a problem with a particular strain. There doesn't appear to be any particular aggressor.
Any suggestions as to the cause would be more than welcome.

[Hermit]

When we bought our first turkeys many many moons ago we had the same problem, we gave them all away in the end as we were sick of it. They were kept very well and no issues with boredom etc but they were bought from a commercial breeder of chicks so breeding could well be it. We were told that is why commercial breeders kept them in the dark with red lamps to keep them calm. Now we breed our own from unrelated strong stock and only had a couple of hen spats where the dominant hen made her dominance known but only by noise and pushing not by violence.We also breed original bronzes, no commercial meat birds so again breeding strains could be the cause of the violence as in other species.

[robert waddell]

hi Liz  this is the first year we have had pecking as well or as bad as it is we have had to kill two already because of the severe pecking   we trimmed there beaks yesterday and it seams to work
i just put it down to over aggressive feather preening

[manian]

touch wood our girls only fought when the boys were fighting.
we culled spike who seemed to set them off and so far all is quiet (fingers crossed)
good luck
Mx