Purchased two Bourbon Red Poults today.

Very cute very friendly and seems to be very spoiled for constant human interaction. I finally had to turn off the heat lamp and cover the brooder with a towel so they would sleep.

They are a week old and it is around 80 degrees in my sunroom. I closed all of the glass windows so there is no breeze coming in. If I put the heat lamp back on they start peeping loudly.They seem to like the dark to sleep in.

I gather that is what the guy that hatched them was doing. Here is also a photo of our half built children playhouse coop conversion. ( Will be finished tomorrow0 hubby worked hard for the last two days building it.

Awe, thank you so much.... I am 48 years old.... I think I am re living my childhood.... I always wanted a playhouse but Mom and Dad would never get me one. I used to make forts all of the time with blankets and in the woods.

I am so excited we got the roof on today and I painted the bell red. 

I will take new photos tomorrow and post them.

I love my little turkeys LOL.... we are calling them Fred and Ginger. 

They are so incredibly tame. I wrapped them into a towel last night and they were sleeping in my lap... they really love humans and think humans are their Moms and Dads.

So amazing to me and my husband. We are thrilled. 

Quote:

Originally Posted by nanaluvsgps 

What little cuties. And WoW what an amazing coop :)

I love your profile photo, is that your Bourbon Red? Very lovely indeed.

Quote:

Originally Posted by kuntrygirl 

They are soooooooo cute!!!!!

He really is gorgeous they say the Bourbon Reds are the prettiest of all of the Turkey breeds.

How old is he and what does he weigh?

Do you free range him?

Do you feed him a different diet than your chickens?

I would think it is hard to have different foods for different birds. It is not like you can get them to just eat their own food and leave something alone.

I assume since you said you love him to death it means he is not going to get eaten?

We are not going to eat our Turkeys either. I did purchase 7 Cornish X rocks for eating but the rest are Speckled hamburgs, Black Giants, Black Star, Red Star and RIR's plus one "mystery chick". 

We got the Turkeys  for protection from hawks, have you found this helps you?

Out here in Loxahatchee, Florida  another neighbor has two big Toms and has not lost a chicken yet to any hawks  and the man that sold me the Poults told me that getting the turkeys will keep the hawks away.

I sure hope he is right.

Quote:

Originally Posted by kuntrygirl 


Thank you.
Yes, that is one of my Bourbon Red Toms. He is my oldest boy and I love him to death.

This is such wonderful news and I LOVED the story about the guineas!!!

Thank you so much for confirming what  was told.

I am so glad I got them. I never thought I would ever purchase Turkeys, but now I am so glad that I did. 

The Poults will be two weeks old when I get my chicks, I hope putting them all together will not be an issue. I have purchased a large corral that I can section off if need be to get them used to each other slowly.

I noticed one is slightly more aggressive than the other one. One peeps more than the other one when picked up. 

The man that sold me says he feels that sexing the poults can be done as the males have slightly rougher feet on the bottoms... have you found this to be true? 

Quote:

Originally Posted by kuntrygirl 


Believe it or not, he is about 5 1/2 years old. The last time, I weighed him, he was at 29 lbs. He free ranges every day with the rest of my critters. He eats the same as the others. I give them Flockraiser 20% protein. Sometimes, I mix Gambird Feed 30% protein and Catfish pellets 30% protein. The get the usual table scraps (eggs, vegetables, fruits, egg shells, etc.)
I don't like or eat Thanksgiving turkey or any other holiday turkey, so all of my turkeys are safe. I don't kill them for meat.
I have found that my turkeys are VERY aggressive in running off bird predators. My turkey hens hate crows and will fight a crow within seconds if they see one flying into the chicken yard. My turkeys are very aggressive with other critters that DO NOT belong in my chicken yard. They are very protective. They work as a team. Once the send the call out to the rest that there is a problem, they ALL come running and extinguish the problem ASAP.
Here are pics of some of his offspring.



They once rounded up and safely brought ran home one of my guineas that had gotten lose.
See the link below about my funny story.
http://www.backyardchickens.com/t/595823/bourbon-red-turkeys-aka-animal-control-pics-and-story-included