I have a question about mixing brooders of birds? I was planning on getting some geese and turkeys at the same time but I read in the OP that mixing with water fowl is a bad idea. Does this include geese as well?
One more question, we have a 500 acre farm I will to raise them on but I plan on "letting them go" on decent size field with plenty of thickets in between two large cow pastures for them to live once they are grown enough. They will access to water but is this a bad idea? Do they need to be supervised everyday? I wanted to see if they could survive and reproduce on their own so we could have turkeys 365 days and use them for meat.
I don't want to give the sense that I'm neglecting them just seeing if they will be alright on pasture without having to bring them in everyday. Should I build a roost and cover for them up high to avoid predators?
Thanks!
Geese are waterfowl also so not a good idea to brood them with turkey poults.
Turning the turkeys out to survive on their own is likely to result with most of them lost to predators. You didn't say whether these are of the broad breasted variety or heritage turkeys. Broad breasted turkeys will have almost no chance of reproducing on their own. Heritage turkeys will be able to reproduce if they survive the predators. You will also need to supplement their food during the winter and early spring since you are trying to contain them in a "small" area. Wild turkeys would just leave the area when food becomes difficult to find.
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