Brinsea brooder for turkeys?

[muslw4]

Hi, I'm getting some turkey poults in the spring and I've been thinking of how I was going to brood them. I've used heat lamps in the past for chickens and ducks but have never had turkey poults before.
My question is would a brinsea brooder work for turkeys? I didn't know if it would be big enough. I am getting 20 poults and am sure the 20 chick brooder wouldn't be big enough so would have to get two, or get the 50 chick brooder. Just wondering if it would be worth the money. I've read reviews about it, and people seem to be happy with the product. But it was used with chickens and I want to make sure it would work with turkeys.

Thanks for your advice!

 

[Arielle]

I don't know the height of the booder you have. So I will limit my comments to my own experiences. I raised a mob of 30 poults last summer.

I use a red heat light, and hang usually two, with at least two strings on each in case one fails. I can adjust the heights to be warmer or cooler, often one is higher than the other to give the poults a choice of location. THey are really not much bigger than a chick, so you might be ok to start with what you have and change it as they get bigger. If they are BBW or BBB they will grow VERY fast, if a heritage type much slower.

I also check the temp at floor level with a thermomter regularly. I do find the poults are likely to stay under a lamp that is too hot and get over heated whereas chicks don't do this. SO I am more careful about the poults by monitoring the actual temps and not rely on where they lay down to know if they are comfortable.

If you are able to have a couple chicks in among the poults that really helps. I sometime hatch a few chicks out the week before the poults to have helpers show the poults the water and food.

I'm not an expert, but I"ve raised about 50 poults and 200 chicks.

 

[muslw4]

Thanks for the advice. I am getting herritage turkeys and wasn't sure how much bigger they were compared to chicks.

I've basically used the same technique with heat lamps for chicks. I've never had poults and have been reading about how much more delicate they can be from chicks. So, wasn't sure if something else would work better. I'll be sure to monitor the temps more too. And I'm going to seriously consider getting some chicks to raise with them too. I had planned on getting chicks at a different time so I wouldn't be overrun with babies, but I might as well get them at the same time or maybe a little earlier. Man it's going to be a long winter waiting for spring hatches!

 

[jade0206]

i am looking at getting some Red Bourbon Turkeys, I never raise turkeys or chickens. I have chickens but got them at 16 weeks so they did not have to be inside. I need advise on what kind of brooder to get i would like to have one big enough so i could keep them in the same one till it was time to go outside. At what age can they go outside and what does the temp need to be outside. Also i would be putting them in with my chickens when they got outside, can i let them free range during the day and put them in the coop at night? I really wanted a male and female but it seem that they do not sex the turkeys since it is hard to tell. i will be picking up my poults i guess there is nothing i could look for when they are that young that would tell me if they are male or female. thanks for the help in advance.