brush turkey

[casuarius]

very interesting birds, I read this bird is also like the emu the male incubate the eggs and rear the young...

That is correct, but I never let the males do it, they get very mean haha.

 

[casuarius]

I live in the heart of Brush turkey country, we have a male that has a mound across the road, the chicks emerge and hang around our aviaries scavenging for seed.

sneak some eggs in the mail for me ;-) haha

 

[De Wet]

Yes they do, and you have to provide lots and lots of mulch, dirt, leaves, etc. The male alone needs at least a 50ft by 50ft pen to build his mound, and he works on it year round constantly. The eggs are easy to artificially incubate, you just have to know the right temp and humidity. I think I kept the temp very low, around 91 degrees F, and the humidity was insanely high..around 85%. They dont need to be turned at all.

I think a real challenge will be to try breeding maleo fowl which have the same methods to breed as brush turkeys except maleo lay there eggs in hot volcanic ground. It will be a real challenge to breed them in captivity or your need some heaters under ground lol

 

[casuarius]

Maleo Fowl would have to be artificially incubated for sure! I have recently acquired a pair of Australian Brush Turkeys, it wasn't easy, but I got a male from a friend, and another new friend at a bird park let me take a hen. If things go well, I will hopefully hatch some this year!

 

[De Wet]

Maleo Fowl would have to be artificially incubated for sure! I have recently acquired a pair of Australian Brush Turkeys, it wasn't easy, but I got a male from a friend, and another new friend at a bird park let me take a hen. If things go well, I will hopefully hatch some this year!

 

can you please post some pics of the pen where you keep them please

 

[casuarius]

can you please post some pics of the pen where you keep them please

Here are a few I took. I just built this new aviary and put them together so he hasnt build his mound yet, but the other smaller aviary I had him in has a huge dirt mound im going to have to shovel out. This Aviary is 25 feet by 50 feet.











Male



Male


Female

 

[De Wet]

very nicely done cas I m sure you will be able also to breed scrub fowls in these pen s. Is brush turkeys all year breeders or season breeders? Please keep us post when the chicks is arrived and what other birds do you keep and breed. I can t wait for the positive outcome of this project of yours these things encourage me to learn more about galiformes species to breed and keep them

 

[casuarius]

They are seasonal, and start in the spring here. I breed Cassowaries, and Exotic Guinea Fowl, Vulturines, Zambezi and Kenya Crested, and Reichenows Helmeted. Also Rhea's. I got out of Pheasants 2 years ago because they were costing me too much money to support and I just wasnt making anything off of them. Im going to slowly start getting back into the higher end species now that I have a steady job again.

 

[BYC-user-174785]

Those brush turkeys look awesome! Congratulations! Keep us updated with pictures please.
I did get to see a pair of australian brush turkeys this past summer while visiting the Sylvan Heights Bird Park in North Carolina. They were really cool.

 

[De Wet]

They are seasonal, and start in the spring here. I breed Cassowaries, and Exotic Guinea Fowl, Vulturines, Zambezi and Kenya Crested, and Reichenows Helmeted. Also Rhea's. I got out of Pheasants 2 years ago because they were costing me too much money to support and I just wasnt making anything off of them. Im going to slowly start getting back into the higher end species now that I have a steady job again.

thanks for all the info cas maybe one day I will also keep megapodes species all the best of luck to you new projects. If you don t mind can I paste the pic s you posted in my album?