Chicken and Turkeys

[Blueberrie]

I have two chickens right now and then adopted 3 turkeys at 3 weeks old. they live together in the same pen. ( they have lots of room) I went on vacation for 2weeks and a friend took care of them all. When I got back my polish chicken had no more feathers on her neck and barely any left on her once beautiful poofy head. Now I see my other chicken is starting to get get some wear on her back feathers. My turkeys are about 4and half months now. This has been a learning experience for sure, especially on figuring out their sex. I am convinced my blue slate is a tom. Is it possible the turkeys are trying to practice on the chickens? And if so, will they possibly kill them when they mature? I was going to replace the chicken I lost to age, but I don't want to put another in and have this happen to her. ;(

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

I have had my turkeys kill chickens, I don't recommend keeping them together, or raising them together, turkeys are rowdy, and they focus on things, and won't stop sometimes, they will chase chickens and fight with them. I had two young toms raised with a batch of chickens, and when sexual maturity hit they pecked a young leghorn rooster to death, they will peck at the skulls until they kill them.

Turkeys are fun and curious and I really like mine, but they have their own pen. I let mine out to free range and the chickens will leave the area and stay away from them. The younger birds are the worst, turkey hens also will chase chickens, thankfully the mature toms mostly ignore the chickens.

So I would recommend separate pens.

 

[FarmerMac]

I have had my turkeys kill chickens, I don't recommend keeping them together, or raising them together, turkeys are rowdy, and they focus on things, and won't stop sometimes, they will chase chickens and fight with them. I had two young toms raised with a batch of chickens, and when sexual maturity hit they pecked a young leghorn rooster to death, they will peck at the skulls until they kill them.

Turkeys are fun and curious and I really like mine, but they have their own pen. I let mine out to free range and the chickens will leave the area and stay away from them. The younger birds are the worst, turkey hens also will chase chickens, thankfully the mature toms mostly ignore the chickens.

So I would recommend separate pens.

2X what "oldhenlikesdogs" said. My young turkeys were raised by a chicken but now that they are 4 months old, they pick on the chickens. Sometimes one of turkeys will focus on one hen or rooster and chase it, the others will gang up on that chicken. One of my adult toms got into a fight with a game rooster and almost killed him. I heard the commotion outside and when I looked, they were in a good fight, by the time I came around the house, the tom had the rooster on the ground stumping on it. The rooster was bit up so bad that his eyelids were closed for a few days. That tom went to the freezer. I too keep them in separate pens at night.

 

[OmAnNom]

Turkeys definitely focus on things. We are raising two for the table, a Red Bourbon Heritage breed hen and a Broad-Breasted bronze tom. They free range on a quarter acre with ducks and chickens. The Bourbon constantly hones in on our silkie, corners her and pecks the top of her head. It was a problem at first as she cut the silkies comb but eventually the silkie learned to avoid her all-together. The tom, much to fat to chase a chicken has taken to stalking our Scottie when she's in the yard taking care of business. He doesn't attack but he takes a very aggressive stance that really pisses off the dog. He is gentle around humans. The key with keeping mixed breeds is space. If they don't have space to escape you WILL have problems. All of our issues with mixed breeds have been temporary as they learn to read and react to each others body language and escape if need be.

 

[Blueberrie]

Thank you so much for the info! I am a newbe to this.. i only have 2 chickens and 3 turkeys, but I have officially figured out that two are Toms and one is a jenny. So I guess I have a couple of months before fighting starts? They are , or were intended to be pets, I do not want to eat them. So I hope we can all find a happy place.. I have a huge yard. But I am worried about the boys turning on each other now. i can build a separate coop for the chickens, but I don''t know about separating the turkeys..

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

I have a couple of toms, they usually go at in spring until one is dominant, since I have multiple toms there are few shuffles in the pecking order until it gets figured out. Mine haven't fought for months and probably won't until next spring, so yours should get along until next breeding season starts. The fights can get pretty rough but they all heal up fine and since you only have two it should get settled fairly quick.

 

[rooty]

i have a Turkey hen a phew years old and she pecked my hen to death! don't putt them together!