Have three sets of Midget White turkeys to integrate of varying ages

[Tennessee Great Granny]

I have a batch of 9 Midget white turkeys born April 16th that have been in their own home for weeks and are developing gender characteristics. I have a 2nd batch of 9 born June 1st that I would love to add to them but they are so little compared to the older ones and I'm afraid of bullying . I was just given another 8 Midget White eggs to hatch out and they'd have to be going into the same area. I can't seem to find any written materials on integrating age groups successfully together. I can have another hoop coop slapped together in a few days but sheesh it's a lot of work, and I'd have to travel to get the right sized hog panels and a good price on them. The 3rd batch won't hatch until like the 3rd week in July. What about them? I'd appreciate any helpful comments. I wouldn't mind 2-3 coops with an integrated run but I'm facing major surgery in a few weeks. I need the least amount of work to accomplish turkey integration on my part as possible. My helper is willing to do what they can. I'd love to hear from turkey mommas and pappas who have integrated their turkeys of varying ages successfully as far as age gaps bullying etc. I was thinking of selling a couple/few of the males at the next flock swap to reduce numbers of the older bunch. I can't part with the babies, they call to me like I'm their momma and I think they would feel betrayed. Yeah it's unlikely we'll ever be eating turkey even with extra poults and toms. The chickens and ducks feel very safe around here too. But the predators don't because I'm a Great-Granny with a shot gun and traps!!!!

 

[R2elk]

I have a batch of 9 Midget white turkeys born April 16th that have been in their own home for weeks and are developing gender characteristics. I have a 2nd batch of 9 born June 1st that I would love to add to them but they are so little compared to the older ones and I'm afraid of bullying . I was just given another 8 Midget White eggs to hatch out and they'd have to be going into the same area. I can't seem to find any written materials on integrating age groups successfully together. I can have another hoop coop slapped together in a few days but sheesh it's a lot of work, and I'd have to travel to get the right sized hog panels and a good price on them. The 3rd batch won't hatch until like the 3rd week in July. What about them? I'd appreciate any helpful comments. I wouldn't mind 2-3 coops with an integrated run but I'm facing major surgery in a few weeks. I need the least amount of work to accomplish turkey integration on my part as possible. My helper is willing to do what they can. I'd love to hear from turkey mommas and pappas who have integrated their turkeys of varying ages successfully as far as age gaps bullying etc. I was thinking of selling a couple/few of the males at the next flock swap to reduce numbers of the older bunch. I can't part with the babies, they call to me like I'm their momma and I think they would feel betrayed. Yeah it's unlikely we'll ever be eating turkey even with extra poults and toms. The chickens and ducks feel very safe around here too. But the predators don't because I'm a Great-Granny with a shot gun and traps!!!!

I just put 2 week old poults in with 9 week old poults without any problems.

When you try to integrate them watch the older poults for any aggressive behavior.

Young poults are pretty accepting of others until hormones start flowing. It won't take long to find out if mixing them together will work or if you will need to maintain separate pens.

At some point you are going to have to have separate pens because you will not be able to safely keep all the toms and hens together once they are adults.

 

[Bluemonster107]

Hope u don’t mind me asking about your midget whites… I have some eggs in the bator currently…. Question… in hopes I have a successful hatch, did u have to keep chicken hatchlings with them to help them know how to eat and drink… or is it enough that u showed them successfully?

 

[Tennessee Great Granny]

Hope u don’t mind me asking about your midget whites… I have some eggs in the bator currently…. Question… in hopes I have a successful hatch, did u have to keep chicken hatchlings with them to help them know how to eat and drink… or is it enough that u showed them successfully?

I am so sorry I never got back to your question. I had to have surgery- surprise surprise...
I was told by my pastor's wife who is a waterfowl specialist to have a baby chick included with the baby turkeys. I had blue slate turkey babies. and got some of what I was told were buff Orpington chicks but they were the sweetest white chickens with big floppy combs. Such fibbers at Rural king. The chicks were really rough on the turkey babies. One died and the other got depressed without it's mate. and it died too. I simply could not get that little one to rally. I now raise midget whites. And I know they are very social. There's also blackhead disease which turkeys succumb to from chicken parasites to think about.I'd rather avoid it than deal with is ever. For myself I found the rationale for chicks teaching the turkeys to drink is hogwash. Train newborn poults exactly like you would do with a baby chick by dipping their beaks in the water. I've been successful at hatching out turkey eggs for a while now. I realize this info is late but I often get my answers from reading other's posts from whenever, and this may be useful for someone else with the same question. turkeys can bond with other species of birds I just don;t recommend chickens with turkeys even though there are plenty of folks who do it successfully. I had a tiny hen turkey that literally got terribly bullied by a budding bully tom, and he scalped her down to the bone. I treated her with painkillers and used antibiotic salve to cover her scalp. The swelling was so bad here eyes were swollen shut and she could not hear either because of the tremendous swelling. I was sure she would die. I kept her hydrated 24 hours and then used my duck yolk mixture of water duck yolk vitamins electrolytes and a pinch of white sugar and dropper fed her every two hours for days. She lost weight. and was developmentally way behind her family group. After the swelling started going down and she could eat a watery gruel of turkey crumbles she got depressed. She could not make any vocal sounds for months. I didn't have any chick babies but I was leery to use them anyway since they love to peck wounds, and the dreaded blackhead disease. BUT I did have two newborn ducklings I threw in with her. They loved on her and cuddled with her and they ate her food while she loved to eat their food. She rallied. When the ducks started getting really big and she was healed enough to join my newborn turkey babies I separated them all. But the ducks would break out to go cuddle with their turkey momma and she would leave the babies and go try to be with her ducky babies. The other ducks would have none of that. . The tiny turkeys I put her with tried to get her to be momma but she wasn't quite as affectionate with them as she was with the newborn ducks. I have two pens for turkeys' One for aggressive males, which are getting sold and one for less aggressive makes and mostly females. Its December 13th and we actually found our first turkey egg today. The scalped bird still loves waterfowl. Her name is Grace but Gracie is what we call her. She is the defender of the flock. We caught a possum in a paw trap. and she and a runty turkey girl we call Lil Bit broke out of their pen to defend the flock. They ran over to our bedroom windows and started calling for me and my son. I told my son something was going on. I called out don't worry baby, momma is coming as I headed through the entire house to get to the back door and she was following my voice waking along the house calling to me.I got there and she flew into my arms and then out again and led me to the trapped possum. We had to go retrieve Little Bit who decided to fly into the neighbor's fenced yard--- they have pit bulls---yikes. We got our Lil Bit and Gracie and settled them back home and dispatched that nasty possum with a big mouth full of many needle sharp teeth. A week later we got a raccoon but all the defenders of the flock did was call us. They didn't even bother to come and wake us up at our bedroom windows. Gracie does go visit the duck pen when she escapes her own pen and two ducks meet her at the fence. They don't forget.