Are Poults Stupid?

[MysteryChicken]

Baby Turkey's at brooder age are not very fast at learning. I struggled my first time with Turkey poults. Eventually I got them eating, & drinking, & using the heating plate.

Second round.
I learned a trick I read about. Putting colorful shiny marbles, or aquarium stones in their waterer, & feeder, because they like shiny objects. I was actually surprised it worked. Once they get everything figured out I remove the stones, or marbles.

 

[R2elk]

Baby Turkey's at brooder age are not very fast at learning. I struggled my first time with Turkey poults. Eventually I got them eating, & drinking, & using the heating plate.

Second round.
I learned a trick I read about. Putting colorful shiny marbles, or aquarium stones in their waterer, & feeder, because they like shiny objects. I was actually surprised it worked. Once they get everything figured out I remove the stones, or marbles.

Poults instinctively peck at things on the ground. Use a bedding that the feed can be distinguished from the bedding, sprinkle the feed on the bedding and the poults start eating pretty quickly. It can take mine several days to figure out that the stuff in the feeder is also food but they are usually eating off of the sand I use for bedding within minutes of being placed in the brooder. I do not add anything to the waterer and they have no trouble learning to drink.

It also helps to leave them be and let them be turkeys.

 

[MysteryChicken]

Poults instinctively peck at things on the ground. Use a bedding that the feed can be distinguished from the bedding, sprinkle the feed on the bedding and the pouolts start eating pretty quickly. It can take mine several days to figure out that the stuff in the feeder is also food but they are usually eating off of the sand I use for bedding within minutes of being placed in the brooder. I do not add anything to the waterer and they have no trouble learning to drink.

It also helps to leave them be and let them be turkeys.

I believe I've tried that once. Maybe I had an odd batch?

 

[R2elk]

I believe I've tried that once. Maybe I had an odd batch?

You also need to remember that they are not chicks and really don't eat much the first few days. This last batch took like 5 days before I could add another scoop of feed to their feeder.

 

[MysteryChicken]

You also need to remember that they are not chicks and really don't eat much the first few days. This last batch took like 5 days before I could add another scoop of feed to their feeder.

No I mean, they never ate, or drank unless I encouraged it. Yes, I know they're different then chicks.

I'm talking about the BB Bronze.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

I don't understand this fixation people have with turkeys not coming in out of the rain. My chickens don't come in out of the rain, either, until it's been raining for hours and they are thoroughly drenched. Even then, they don't typically go into the coop (an 8x10 hen house). Instead they hang out under the car port or under a very small shelter in the run that I call the "bus stop." I don't consider this a lack of intelligence. It's just a reflection of their instincts as birds, as @R2elk and others have stated. If anybody has actually seen turkeys drown by looking up to see where the rain is coming from (a popular myth), I'd like to hear about it. If turkeys were that stupid, they'd have become extinct long ago.

 

[Coops Dad]

I don't understand this fixation people have with turkeys not coming in out of the rain. My chickens don't come in out of the rain, either, until it's been raining for hours and they are thoroughly drenched. Even then, they don't typically go into the coop (an 8x10 hen house). Instead they hang out under the car port or under a very small shelter in the run that I call the "bus stop." I don't consider this a lack of intelligence. It's just a reflection of their instincts as birds, as @R2elk and others have stated. If anybody has actually seen turkeys drown by looking up to see where the rain is coming from (a popular myth), I'd like to hear about it. If turkeys were that stupid, they'd have become extinct long ago.

It had been raining hard for many hours here just south of Waco, the poults were soaked to the skin, and still sat in the rain rather than use the coop or go under the tarp I mounted as a sun shade on the side of their coop. I'm reassessing their living situation after so many experienced voices showed me how different from chickens they are. The gravitate towards my tractor shed so I'm considering adding a low roost and deck area for them. I have 10 BR's and 5 BBB's so they take up a bit of real estate lol.

The BBB's tend to go off in a pack when they're afield whereas the BR's form small groups of 2-4 and trample in a skirmish line to spook grasshoppers and other bugs.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

I think it must be safer for them to stay out in the open, weather notwithstanding, than to go into a shelter where predators could sneak up on fhem. Animals do what nature has designed them to do, for their survival. It only seems stupid to our way of thinking, but for survival of the species, it works for them.

 

[Devils Flower]

I think my turkeys are very smart. They learn fast. They are around 2.5 months old and already know the word NO. I have to use my mom voice but they do stop there misbehaving quite quickly.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

Cute dog in avatar! What is it? Sorry, that's aimed at @Water flower