Tell me about TURKEYS!

copper2

Songster
May 5, 2015
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Eating a burger
I'm new to turkeys, and am planning on breeding a new color of turkey.( called the Whiskey Brown- bb ee rr) my coop has a divider in it one side chickens other side turkeys. I'm raising heritage turkeys. I'm feeding them plain layer, and let them out every day or other day, is there a certain feed mixture I should feed the turkeys? Grain/ layer mix? Where I live I have alkaline soil/ clay, should I grow them some forage? What do I feed them during the breeding season, do I need lights to bring them in to production? Will chickens give them diseases? I'm in dripping springs Texas. Do guineas and turkeys make good companions? Their coop bedding is sand, how do I clean it?(they've been in the coop for about two years, uh I need to clean it!)
 
I feed my turkeys an all flock pellet, I offer oyster shells, the hens consume it mostly during the laying season. I give mine a mix of cracked corn, sunflower seeds, and whole corn as a scratch twice a day, they get some produce from the garden, they free range for a bit each day on the same area as my chickens.

I have sand in my turkey shed, I scoop the poop out daily with a horse stall cleaning tool, and a kitty litter scoop taped to a stick.

I don't think lights work on turkeys, they are more seasonal layers. I keep my turkeys separate as they sometimes focus on other species and can kill them, I have recently watched my younger ones stalking and killing sparrows, than pecking and eating the carcass.
 
I feed my turkeys an all flock pellet, I offer oyster shells, the hens consume it mostly during the laying season. I give mine a mix of cracked corn, sunflower seeds, and whole corn as a scratch twice a day, they get some produce from the garden, they free range for a bit each day on the same area as my chickens.

I have sand in my turkey shed, I scoop the poop out daily with a horse stall cleaning tool, and a kitty litter scoop taped to a stick.

I don't think lights work on turkeys, they are more seasonal layers. I keep my turkeys separate as they sometimes focus on other species and can kill them, I have recently watched my younger ones stalking and killing sparrows, than pecking and eating the carcass.
I wish my turkeys killed that rattle snake the other day! Lol . Will turkeys get diseases from the chickens, how do I prevent that? I have a turkey book that says lye kills bacteria, but wouldn't lye kill anything? My turkey book is a little confusing! How many years can the turkeys live in the same coop?
 
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I think the big disease to worry about is blackhead, either it's in your soil or it isn't. Otherwise things like cocidiosis and fowl pox both can get, it's more about that they can get the same diseases not about one species making another sick.

I don't see and reason why you can't keep turkeys in the same coop forever, turkeys are pretty hardy after those first couple of months, some older books talk about turkeys like if you look at them wrong they will drop dead, I'm sure it had something to do with not having the feed rations we have now.
 
Ends up being around two scoops, one of pellets and one of sunflower corn mix, think Maxwell house coffee can scoop, although right mow I'm raising a few poults and they can really eat like pigs, so during the first year they consume a lot more, I also let them free range during the day when it's not winter and in the winter I give them slabs of hay to stand on and they eat a lot of the leaves in the hay. I have 9 adults and 6- 4 month olds. Here's my little smarty pants Tom poult trying out his manly strut.
 
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That's what I do, others may do things differently. I feed an all flock which is higher in protein than layer.
 

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