can I throw a turkey in with my hens?

[OCchickens]

Hi -- I'm thinking about raising a few turkeys and wondered:

How noisy are they? I'm in a suburb. Do the males make any more noise than the females?

Is there a problem having them in with my hens?

Anything big I haven't considered?

 

[Scratchn By]

By no means am I an expert in the area...

But, my neighbors hens don't have feathers on their backs or parts of their backs. I take it's from the turkeys trying to mate with them or whatever is going on over there. Sad looking chickens!

 

[Fay at Frizzled Feathers]

Hello ,
I myself wouldn't keep turkeys and chickens together for the chickens could give the turkey Blackhead desease . Alot of people do keep them together though without a prob , i just wouldn't.
Turkeys can be pretty noisey at times , not to say they all will be but ours were very noisy at times !

Fay

 

[nightshade]

We had a royal palm gobbler in with our hens for about 6 months. Only problem we had with him was that he tried to mate our Light Brahma hens. He never seemed to hurt them and in our large run they simply ran away from him. He seemed to only be intrested in the Brahma hens, they were the same white with black markings that he was, weather this makes a difference I don't know.

We would still have him if he had not had flown into the coop door when he was coming off the roost one morning breaking his neck. It was such a shame to cause he was very friendly and made a great pet.

Gobblers (adult males) can be very noisy and gobble often when of age. I found that ours would compete with our roos in the mornings, making for a very loud situation. Luckily we have no close neighbors to worry about.

 

[Picco]

I keep my chickens and turkeys together for most of the year. When it got cold and my birds were kept in all day I noticed more squabbles with the turkey's bullying the chickens. The hens did just as much as the toms. I have them separated when cooped up, but they still free range together without any problems. I've heard of black head in books, but I have never experienced it or even heard of it. Young turkeys are fragile but once they are adults they are very tough.

 

[Bock_Bock]

isnt a turkey with a chicken how you get a turking? well would you mind your chicken mating with your turkeys it does happen you know

 

[Cackel]

My turkeys are in with my chickens and they all get along just fine,I haven,t had any trouble with tom messing with the hens , he has his on girlfriend ,doesn,t mess with her much, He does try to break the roos up when they start fighting.

 

[pdpatch]

Most Tom's will gobble at any strange sound they hear. although not a sharp sound like a rooster crow it can carry a ways. Although we do allow free ranging together we house in seperate coops and runs. Mostly because the Chickens and Turkey have different feeding requirements, when using store bought feed. If it's 100% free range then keeping seperat for feeding would not be a needed. Our older hens have been know to sneak into the turkey pens and coop for the food. But usually it's not recommended since Turkey food usually has a higher protein levels, which is not good for layers.

They first thing is to check with your local ag agency to see if there has been any desises in your area like blackhead. If there has been then don't keep them on the same farm/area, as many poultry dieses that a chicken can survive, the turkey will not.



Tom

 

[ninjapoodles]

Ours have ranged together for most of a year, now. They have different sleeping quarters at night. Any extra roosters that we pull from the flock goes to live in the turkey pen. Right now there are 7 toms and 6 roosters sharing the pen, and 3 turkey hens. No serious problems.

During the day, we close the door to the chicken yard just so there's enough room for the chickens to get in and out, but not enough to let the turkeys in.

For the most part, at our place, the two species seem to ignore each other.

And our toms are L-O-U-D. They gobble at the slightest thing, and you can hear it from really far away. We can't call to each other across the yard, because when you raise your voice, it makes the turkeys gobble, which drowns out whatever you're saying!

 

[Wolf-Kim]

If your neighbors wouldn't like a rooster, I would shy away from toms. Roosters are a bit more attention grabbing, because they are higher pitched, but toms will gobble in response to other noises. For example, a roo crows when he wants to and if he hears another crow. A turkey gobbles when your neighbor gets home and slams their car/house door and when they yell at your birds to shutup.

Now, that being said, I think you could easily get away with turkey hens. The loudest sound my hen makes is a "Pip.. pip.. purrrr" and it could easily be passed off as a song bird, or other wild bird.

As for keeping them with your chickens. I know many people do, before you decide you should research and see if Blackhead it prevalent in your area. SandSPoultry keep their turkeys with their chooks, and I keep the hen I bought from them with my chickens and everything is hunkdorey. The ONLY problem I have had keeping them together is the turkey hen will roost top rung and we went through a spell where she would jump down and land on unaware adolescent chickens and would squash them. I know it wasn't intentional, but I lost several adolescents that way, so we moved her out of the coop and into the yard where she lives happily with the freeranging roosters. She actually protects her two roos from the geese. LOL

-Kim