Birds Killing Each Other

I have eight heritage turkey poults, six guinea keets, eight Leghorn pullets, and one Australorp cockerel that I moved out of the confined barn coop two days ago. They are between 1 1/2 - 2 months of age and are all pretty close to the same size. They have all gotten along quite well since they were all raised together from "chickhood".

Today I pulled two of the turkeys out of the pen because they looked a little beat up. One was a little bit bloody on top of its snood and the other one had the flesh pecked off the top of its beak. I caught one of the birds (I don't remember now which type of bird it was) ruthlessly grabbing that turkey by the beak and yanking on him.

This evening when I was feeding them, I noticed that one of my six remaining pastured turkeys was missing, and upon further inspection I found him dead on the ground with his beak PECKED OFF. It was terrible! About half or more of the beak was gone. What is making my birds do this and how do I stop it from happening again?

Seperate them into their own runs for their respective species. How big of an area for all of them?

My first thought is that they don't have enough space.
Next thought is that the birds are various types and they can't necessarily communicate well despite the fact that they were raised together.
I would separate out the different kinds, if you can.

How much space do they have? Could you free feed them?

They have way more space than they can use and plenty of lush green pasture to eat to their hearts' content. They were confined to a small space before I moved them out of the barn and they got along very well in there. I don't have more runs to separate them into.

They've been really happy to stretch their wings and I saw the turkeys flying higher than the top of the chain link fence. Could it be feed related or maybe if they got hungry they started eating each other? Yeah, free feeding might be possible, but they get higher protein than our 3 laying hens in the same pen, so I try to separate them when it's time to eat. I guess I could just let them all eat the same food...

After further thought I remembered a similar happening from about 1 1/2 weeks ago. I moved our 14 meat turkeys and 39 Cornish Cross chicks out of confinement into a bigger area where they had more space (actually still in confinement but lots more room). Within the next few days the turkeys literally started eating the chicks. Thankfully they didn't kill any and the stage passed, but one had its wing eaten down to the bones and two others got beaten up, although not THAT bad. So maybe it has something to do with a new environment or more space?

Arosie said:

After further thought I remembered a similar happening from about 1 1/2 weeks ago. I moved our 14 meat turkeys and 39 Cornish Cross chicks out of confinement into a bigger area where they had more space (actually still in confinement but lots more room). Within the next few days the turkeys literally started eating the chicks. Thankfully they didn't kill any and the stage passed, but one had its wing eaten down to the bones and two others got beaten up, although not THAT bad. So maybe it has something to do with a new environment or more space?

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Do you have pics of there environment that is very interesting

Arosie said:

Yeah, free feeding might be possible, but they get higher protein than our 3 laying hens in the same pen, so I try to separate them when it's time to eat.

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Definitely separate full time, so all can have the appropriate feed when they need it.

Arosie said:

About half or more of the beak was gone.

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This sounds more like rodents.

I actually have an eyewitness who said the birds were pecking at its beak and I saw them pecking at the other turkey yesterday. I ran out of feed for them today so they didn't get their main meal til later in the day, but it seems they were all on their best behavior today.

No, unfortunately I don't have a pic of their environment and it's kinda a process to get one on this device.