Can I put a turkey in with my chickens?

[Jx2inNC]

So we are new to the chicken business and have a small interest in turkeys as well. Right now, we have 12 baby chicks apprx 3-4weeks old. We are interested in turkeys and had heard that you could put a turkey in with chickens. Is this true? If so, would it matter if it were male/female? At what point would we need to do this, while they are all small, wait til they get bigger, etc? Are there any breeds of turkeys that are smaller in size? Our coop isn't going to be too big, apprx 10 ft by 16ft, so I wouldn't want a very large turkey. Any insight would help!

 

[Steve_of_sandspoultry]

We raise them together from hatch until about 2 weeks old then seperate them until about 3 months. The only reason we seperate them is due to the different protien levels in the feed. Heritage turkeys size wise go like this

Largest
Standard Bronze
White Holland
mature toms going 30 pounds + hens over 20

Mid sized
Bourbon Red, Narraganset, Black Spanish etc - Most fall into this range
Mature toms in the mid to upper 20 pound range hens mid to high teens

Smallest
Beltsville Small White and Midget White
Toms right at 20 pounds hens 10 or 12

Steve

 

[Jx2inNC]

Ok, Thanks for the info!! I'll be looking into it. Those are some pretty turkeys that you listed

 

[Matt A NC]

Depends on if you have blackhead in your soil or not. Chickens will spread it, but not be affected. It is lethal for Turkeys.

I don't have blackhead here, so it worked for me. My "YoYo", a narragansett Tom, slept with the standard cochins at night. During the day he liked to stay with the freerange bantams.

This is him taking a nap. The full grown silkies had woke up and all but one had walked off.

I had to find YoYo a home with some girls when he fell in the love with the dog. He lost alot of feathers when he tried to mount Raymond.

Matt

 

[Over Easy in Adna]

Quote:

 

[Jx2inNC]

I just went by a guy's house the other day who has a lot of chickens out back.
He had one big turkey (tom) out in a run with a ton of chickens (mostly hens I think).
He said they do great out there.

 

[chickentales]

My 20 chickens and 1 turkey are doing well together. They're 3 mos old and they follow the turkey everywhere.

 

[OmaBird]

I had a little over 2,000 chickens with my turkeys and they have never had a problem.

 

[Jx2inNC]

Quote:
That's good to know that 1 will do fine, unlike ducks or something that you would probably need 2 of!

 

[chickentales]

I used to have two turkeys but one died when he was a baby. He swallowed a huge tomato hornworm and died the next day

Now my only turkey is boss of the yard.