Breed suggestions

[cupman]

I am cutting down my chicken operation and going to focus more on turkeys and guineas. I would like to have 5 or 6 turkeys that are full time residents and 2 or 3 for meat that I would slaughter. I like how the turkeys act and sound and just would like to get some for eggs and for ambiance. I am looking for a turkey breed that wouldn't be a threat to my other poultry. I would also like non-aggressive towards people but I can deal with it. I was also wondering how different breeds of turkeys do together.. like could I raise midget white with some of the other, larger breeds? I am pretty new to turkeys, I only have 3 right now, two meat turkeys and 1 royal palm, all boys. I am just getting a head start on planning for next year. Any suggestions or warnings would be great.

 

[kangababy]

First you need to check out about blackhead in your area. Chickens carry alot of diseases that can kill young turkeys.

As far as what kind of turkey well that is really up to preference. We raise blue slates but after the dog killed most of my breeding stock I am adding Royal palms and blye palms because I like them... The heritage birds are all good.

Toms need to be raised together or they will fight and could kill each other. I just had a friend introduce two new turkeys to her one tom and they were fine for like 2-3 weeks then out of no where the tom killed one of them. You never know with animals but I have never really had any problems with mine.. Just once. My Slates aren;t aggressive though one time I had a tom that was in with a bunch of bob white quail and for no reason one day out of the blue he started killing them one by one

You only need 1 tom to 4-5 hens. Remember on eggs though they are seasonal layer so yo won;t have eggs year round. So basically 6 months of the year you are just feeding them with no eggs or new babies.

I have had no luck hatching turkey eggs with the cheaper table top incubtor but the cabinets work great. If you have 5 hens during laying season you can expect 2 dozen eggs a week maybe. If they get scared or it gets too hot they will stop.

If you can get them now then you will have eggs next spring through next fall.