A century of Turkey talk 2000-2100.

[duluthralphie]

Yeah, got the same "private" message. Boy they sure love a dust bath. Annie is always wallowing around in one of her "spots/craters". And Daisy likes to stand in water. Funny birds!

weird. on the message.

I find it amazing how they can spend all day following me around and be so huge. The chickens spend all day eating, the turkeys hardly ever seem to eat. They just follow me.

 

[R2elk]

Hmm.. I thought I had it on public...

Sometimes at my age a person becomes a little confused..

 

[JRNash]

No swimming with the gators

 

[Finnisher]

I don't want to sound ungrateful but my poults are at least 10 days old and i've been reading online that they're very fragile and die easily. I've only experienced the opposite, i've been giving them fermented feed and grass and they're very active.

 

[karenerwin]

When I got my turkeys I did not know that they would follow me around like dogs, but I am loving it! All 5 of them come running when I call and then stay pretty close while I am working in the woods/yard. When I'm ready for them to go back in the coop they follow me with no problem.

I agree that they don't seem to eat a whole lot. Especially while they are free ranging. They take little bites out of different leaves, but many of them end up on the ground instead of in their stomach.

I am surprised that they are still choosing to roost on the ground. I have several thick branches at various heights, but so far they choose the ground. Of course, I haven't really seen them fly yet either. Today they were flapping a lot and did some short, low flight hops. So, maybe they just aren't quite there yet. The wound on the jenny's head is almost completely closed and healed!

 

[Ravynscroft]

I don't want to sound ungrateful but my poults are at least 10 days old and i've been reading online that they're very fragile and die easily. I've only experienced the opposite, i've been giving them fermented feed and grass and they're very active.

I don't do fermented feed, but experienced the same... mine are very hardy, never lost a poult once they were on their feet after hatch so far...

 

[duluthralphie]

You two can count your blessings.... Of course, I might raise more birds than most people and just have the deaths. I have not found turkey poults to be a fragile pr stupid as guinea keets.

I do not waste my time with fermented feed either.

 

[Ravynscroft]

You two can count your blessings.... Of course, I might raise more birds than most people and just have the deaths. I have not found turkey poults to be a fragile pr stupid as guinea keets.

I do not waste my time with fermented feed either.

I can say I am lucky in that we don't have blackhead in our ground... our turkeys run with our chickens and ducks quite frequently without issue... no, haven't hatched many poults, but do raise a LOT of birds here... and have very few deaths once on their feet after hatch... occasional predators do happen, but currently have somewhere between 200-300 head of Call ducks running around, healthy as can be, lol...

 

[duluthralphie]

I have 300-400 birds also, for the number I have I do "Okay". I get some deaths but that is to be expected. I don't get wholesale deaths, except for whatever dug into one of my pens/runs the other night...

It is actually amazing I don't have more as I try to keep all the birds drug and medication free.

I celebrate June 5th...... so not a dux around..

 

[Ravynscroft]

I can't say for sure exactly how many birds we have total... I refuse to count the whole and only count individual pens, lol...

No wholesale deaths or constant ongoing deaths is great... barring the predator incident, sorry... been there before, unfortunately... lost 50 in a grow out pen to neighbors dogs once...

I prefer to avoid medicating/treating as much as possible, but I do deworm regularly... bad gapeworm here, so it's either deworm or lose many in large groups frequently...