Rio Grand vs bourbon red turkey poults?

kb010

In the Brooder
10 Years
Mar 15, 2009
50
0
29
Quarryville, Pennsylvania
So there is an ad on craigslist for turkey poults, and the guy has rio grands and bourbon red turkeys. I am looking for a couple of turkeys to raise for thanksgiving/the holiday season, and was wondering if anyone has experience with these birds. If so, which do you recommend? I also have a flock of 20 layers that I was hoping to keep them with...and I have read about blackhead. Now I am wondering if this is a threat to such a small flock, or if it's okay to house them together? Any insight would be appreciated. (apologies if I posted this in the wrong section, I put this in here because it's more a flock management question than a meat bird question.)
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Hi. The Rios are pretty wild and not exactly meaty. The Bourbons will do just fine.

As to the Blackhead. Across the U.S. there were only 68 cases reported between 8/06-8/07. Call your local ag college or state vet and see how many cases of histomoniasis have been reported and what counties were involved.

Since you will be processing the turks after a brief stay, this becomes less of an issue. To be doubly safe simply keep the poults seperated from the chooks.

Some interesting info on hx of `Blackhead' in the U.S., and the unusual reason the disease can spread so quickly in turks:

http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/depts/poulsci/conference_proceedings/turkey_days/2008/mcdougald_2008.pdf

Lots of folks commingle flocks of chooks and turks without incident (ourselves included).

Good luck!
 

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