Baby turkeys got them, never have had them before, help.

[sandspoultry]

Quote:
Will you please PM me with the name and title of the person you spoke with. People at the extension office should know better then to promote this myth.
Steve in NC

 

[reveriereptile]

That is just a myth about the turkeys drowning from rain. I've had turkeys out in rain without a problem. I looked on wikipedia about the myth and they said turkeys will look at the sky for about a minute due to a genetic nervous disorder called tetanic torticollar spasms.

 

[LoveMyBirds]

Quote:
After I lost 8 of my 15 Bourbon Reds last year, I was reading everything on this board that I could find..

One old timer stated that he had raised for years and always used medicated feed and never lost any..

I started medicated feed and never lost anymore after that..

Reason I post this is, you're going to see lots of posts on this board to not use medicated feed. And I know you can from what I read and then the fact that I did use medicated feed without any harmful effects.

Actually I think it worked much better than the non-medicated starter that I was using in the first place on the growth also..

But you'll have to decide for yourself.. Read all you can and just watch your birds..

Good luck,

 

[briana1975]

Ok thanks to everyone for all the advice so far. I have yet another question about these little turkeys. ok so at TSC they were on paper, and when we got them home I put paper towel down over the wood chips. So today we removed the paper towel and they are only on the wood chips. They keep scratching around and pecking at the wood chips and one looks like it might be trying to eat some of them. They are still eating and drinking their food very well. Should I be worried about the wood chips or not?

 

[deerman]

Best if you can place them on wire bottom. I start all my turkey and peafowl on wire for the first 10 week. keeps them out of the waste.

I raised every turkey I hatch last year, the three main tricks.

Getting them to drink and eat(i break hard boil eat yolk over the feed first day only)

Start them on a 24 to 28% Medicated starter

Keep them on wire bottom pen for 10 weeks.

I know other raise them other ways, but after checking you will find they lose some.

For me I want to raise 100% of the young.

 

[deerman]

Oh I use 1/4 in hardware cloth first 2 weeks, then 1/2 in hardware cloth after that.

 

[kees]

Quote:
That's pretty interesting! Do all turkeys have this?

Suzy

 

[JJMR794]

NAME 1 THANKSGIVING AND 1 CHRISTMAS....

AND YEAH IF YOU GOT 'EM AT TSC THEY ARE THE BROAD BREASTED WHITES. TREAT THEM AS YOU WLD ANY CHICK AND THEY WILL DO JUST FINE! CONGRATS AND ENJOY

 

[reveriereptile]

Quote:
That's pretty interesting! Do all turkeys have this?

Suzy

I'm not sure. It was listed under domestic turkey.


I have noticed that turkeys seem to get problems if they eat to much of their poop. So you will want to clean their cage every day. Make sure the feed is in something to help avoid scattering so they aren't pecking through their poop. If they are pecking the wood chips you might want to remove them and just use newspapers or wire so they aren't pecking at them and getting their poop. We used nonmedicated turkey feed and then organic grain for ours. Only had 1 out of 6 die and it was weak when we got it. We live on an organic farm so we can't use medicated food. I still have one BB White hen left that lays an egg every once in a while. We thought we had mostly males but realized when they got bigger that we had more females. We bought more turkeys (4 month old BB Reds, Blue Slate, 2.5yr old BS Tom) and one of the reds was suppose to be a female and we realized he must of been pretending to be a hen to avoid fights. After he got out of their pen he started acting like a tom.

 

[briana1975]

Again thanks for all the advice. I do not have a wire bottom brooder so I am just cleaning poop out 1 to 2 times a day. Turkeys are still doing very good. My husband can't belive how big they are getting already. We are thinking about keeping a turkey as a pet/ hawk deterant. The BBW we have will be burtchered for sure. Being meat birds I expect they wouldn't make the best pet. What breed of turkey do you guys suggest for keeping arount the homestead the has a good disposition.