Due to an overwhelming amount of posts related to problems with incubating, hatching, brooding, feeding, sudden deaths, and overall care and maintenance, etc., that I am seeing on the turkey thread this year, I have created this thread to hopefully help those who are experiencing problems and need help.
There are so many experienced turkey owners and breeders on this thread that have so much knowledge to offer and who are always willing to help anyone. But in order to help, I think it would be helpful if the poster would provide as much information about your problem(s) as possible. I am seeing so many posts about different problems but the poster does not provide enough information for us to begin to help them.
Providing detailed information will help us help you in providing information in a timely manner so that you can get back to caring for your birds or eggs ASAP and so that you don’t have to continue to post so many times in an attempt to provide details.
Please read this help list and try to include detailed information that pertains to the problem that you are posting about and needing help with. The following list of questions should help you.
1. How old is your poult or turkey? What breed is your turkey?
2. Where did you get your turkey or poult from? Did you hatch it yourself? Did you get it from a hatchery, breeder, local person, chicken swap, etc. or did it just “show up“ in your yard?
***If your post is about wild turkey, you are strongly urged to contact your local wildlife agency in addition to checking your local laws and regulations about owning and securing wild birds but please feel free to post your problem or question.
3. If your bird(s) were purchased from someone else, did you quarantine your bird(s) for a minimum of 30 days before placing them with your flock?
4. Describe your setup. (Brooder, coop, poults outside, poults inside, poults on shavings, paper towels, etc?)
5. Are you using a heat lamp? What is your heat source for keeping your poults warm? What are the temps in your brooder? Any possible drafts?
6. What are you feeding your birds? Provide name of feed, protein level. What type of waterer and feeder do you have in their brooder?
7. Are your birds being brooded with other bird(s) or other animal species? How many birds are in the brooder? What is the size of your brooder?
8. Have your bird(s) been exposed to outside soil, outside elements, wet conditions or poisonous plants or pesticides?
9. If you are incubating eggs, how long did you collect your turkey eggs before putting them in the incubator? Are the eggs shipped eggs? How old are the eggs that you will or have been incubating? Have you incubated eggs before? What type of incubator do you have? What is the humidity and temps in your incubator? Have you been experiencing any incubator problems (power outages, temp spikes, etc.)? How long have your eggs been in the incubator? Do you have auto turn or are you hand turning the eggs yourself? How often are you turning your eggs? Have you experienced any cracks or damages to the eggs? If so, what have you done to correct the problem? Have you opened your incubator for extended periods of time to adjust the temp and humidity?
10. If your birds are sick, what symptoms are they experiencing and how long have they been experiencing these symptoms? What measures have you taken to help them (meds, etc.) recently? Have
you given them any meds? Do you have meds on hand? Do you have access to get meds?
11. Are your birds pets, for meat, selling etc?
12. Do your birds free range or are they in a coop? If they free range, do they free range with other animals?
I will continue to update this “Tips Thread” as often as possible as I think of questions. If anyone else can think of any questions that would be helpful for the person posting, please let me know and I will edit and add your questions to this post.
I hope that this post will help you so that we can help you and provide you with the most accurate information from our years of experience and expertise.
*****************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
Disclaimer: The information that is provided to everyone is an attempt to help you so that you can provide the best when incubating, hatching, brooding, feeding, providing healthy living, day to day care and overall general care to your bird. We will strive to provide you with accurate information that we have used in our own day to day situations when dealing with our birds. We are not Vets/Pathologists/Lab Scientists or any other certified or medically trained animal medical professional, so the suggestions and advice that we provide to you is from our own experiences. We have the bird’s best interest at heart when we reply and respond to your problem. Ultimately, you have the final decision when it comes to the care of your eggs and birds.
Good luck everyone and I hope that this helps.
There are so many experienced turkey owners and breeders on this thread that have so much knowledge to offer and who are always willing to help anyone. But in order to help, I think it would be helpful if the poster would provide as much information about your problem(s) as possible. I am seeing so many posts about different problems but the poster does not provide enough information for us to begin to help them.
Providing detailed information will help us help you in providing information in a timely manner so that you can get back to caring for your birds or eggs ASAP and so that you don’t have to continue to post so many times in an attempt to provide details.
Please read this help list and try to include detailed information that pertains to the problem that you are posting about and needing help with. The following list of questions should help you.
1. How old is your poult or turkey? What breed is your turkey?
2. Where did you get your turkey or poult from? Did you hatch it yourself? Did you get it from a hatchery, breeder, local person, chicken swap, etc. or did it just “show up“ in your yard?
***If your post is about wild turkey, you are strongly urged to contact your local wildlife agency in addition to checking your local laws and regulations about owning and securing wild birds but please feel free to post your problem or question.
3. If your bird(s) were purchased from someone else, did you quarantine your bird(s) for a minimum of 30 days before placing them with your flock?
4. Describe your setup. (Brooder, coop, poults outside, poults inside, poults on shavings, paper towels, etc?)
5. Are you using a heat lamp? What is your heat source for keeping your poults warm? What are the temps in your brooder? Any possible drafts?
6. What are you feeding your birds? Provide name of feed, protein level. What type of waterer and feeder do you have in their brooder?
7. Are your birds being brooded with other bird(s) or other animal species? How many birds are in the brooder? What is the size of your brooder?
8. Have your bird(s) been exposed to outside soil, outside elements, wet conditions or poisonous plants or pesticides?
9. If you are incubating eggs, how long did you collect your turkey eggs before putting them in the incubator? Are the eggs shipped eggs? How old are the eggs that you will or have been incubating? Have you incubated eggs before? What type of incubator do you have? What is the humidity and temps in your incubator? Have you been experiencing any incubator problems (power outages, temp spikes, etc.)? How long have your eggs been in the incubator? Do you have auto turn or are you hand turning the eggs yourself? How often are you turning your eggs? Have you experienced any cracks or damages to the eggs? If so, what have you done to correct the problem? Have you opened your incubator for extended periods of time to adjust the temp and humidity?
10. If your birds are sick, what symptoms are they experiencing and how long have they been experiencing these symptoms? What measures have you taken to help them (meds, etc.) recently? Have
you given them any meds? Do you have meds on hand? Do you have access to get meds?
11. Are your birds pets, for meat, selling etc?
12. Do your birds free range or are they in a coop? If they free range, do they free range with other animals?
I will continue to update this “Tips Thread” as often as possible as I think of questions. If anyone else can think of any questions that would be helpful for the person posting, please let me know and I will edit and add your questions to this post.
I hope that this post will help you so that we can help you and provide you with the most accurate information from our years of experience and expertise.
*****************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
Disclaimer: The information that is provided to everyone is an attempt to help you so that you can provide the best when incubating, hatching, brooding, feeding, providing healthy living, day to day care and overall general care to your bird. We will strive to provide you with accurate information that we have used in our own day to day situations when dealing with our birds. We are not Vets/Pathologists/Lab Scientists or any other certified or medically trained animal medical professional, so the suggestions and advice that we provide to you is from our own experiences. We have the bird’s best interest at heart when we reply and respond to your problem. Ultimately, you have the final decision when it comes to the care of your eggs and birds.
Good luck everyone and I hope that this helps.
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