"A cold, wet poult is a dead poult" -- Yikes!

[Denninmi]

I know I read that quote on here somewhere -- I believe it may have been one of our turkey pros who said it.

The dog had to go out at 2:00 am, in the middle of a wind storm. Which hopefully was just in time for me to save one of my 6 new poults - I heard screaming from the garage where the brooder is.

It was upside down in the water -- one of the quart sized red plastic waterers. Who would have thought it could? They seem relatively large to fall into that small of a space.

Now, with small quail, I ALWAYS fill the tray with marbles so they can't fall in. I didn't think I had to do this with anything as larger as a turkey poult. Guess I do! So, I did --they can't fall in now.

I toweled him off, warmed him with a light for a few minutes, and then stuck him in my incubator next to some goose eggs. He stopped shivering and screaming, so I hope he'll make it.

 

[Benelli]

I had three do that to me on Sunday, even with marbles in the water just laying in it. Put them under the heat lamp and all three are acting normal. I was concerned too, but so far so good.

 

[ColbyNTX]

I hope he makes it! I guess I am lucky with that problem. I raise 200 or so poults a year and have never had this problem. I use the quart or gallon waters with the red bottoms with no marbles or anything. I have only lost 2 poults this year that just died but they were both helped out of the egg after a long hatch. I wanted to know from those of you that have had poults drown in the water. Is the brooder too small or over crowded? Is the water right next to the heat source? My smallest brooder is 2'X3' with heat at one end and food and water at the other. In a brooder that size I will only put about 15 poults for the first week or two. I'm just trying to figure out if there is a reason this happens or if it's just a dumb poult.

 

[Denninmi]

Thanks. It seems back to normal this morning after it dried off and warmed up. I left it in the incubator a couple of hours, which seemed to really help warm it.

The brooder is a roughly 30 gallon size rubbermade type bin, with 6 in there. They weren't crowded, just either dumb luck or a weak little poult, although frankly I was surprised at how vigorous they seemed, especially after a trip through the mail then spending most of the day at the feed store in the box, where it appears they gave them no water or food.

I'll just keep an eye on it. Just wanted to throw the original post out there to warn others this could happen.

 

[jasonm11]

all my turkeys were treated to a little spritz from the water hose yesterday. They all fluffed up and seemed quite happy after the fact. You know it had to cool them off some. It was almost to the century mark and even in the shade was in the 90's the blessing was the warm wind we had. I have seen most of my adult turkeys and some of the chickens taking advantage of the baby pool in the yard., they seem to enjoy standing in it and occasionally one will flap around and get more than just its feet wet.

 

[Arielle]

How do you keep the babies out?? Or is this an adult only resort and spa???