chicken hen raising turkey chicks

[angidee]

I have a chicken hen raising turkey chicks. They are almost a week, but I haven't let them out of the brooder yet. It's time to let momma take them out for a spin. I have waited the week because I have lots of adult chickens and lots of 10 week old chickens and turkeys.

I opened the door to the brooder and before chicken momma could even come out, one very spastic turkey chick came bolting out, squawking and running this way and that. Chicken momma was truing to cluck to get it back, but the turkey chick didn't seem to notice at all. It did succeed at getting the attention of all the other turkeys though! I escorted crazy chickie and momma back to the brooder and called it a day.

So my question is, will chicken momma be able to call her turkey chicks, since they seem to speak a different language? Are turkey chicks usually that spastic? Am I being overly worried? Anyone else have success with chicken mommas raising turkey chicks?

 

[myfinefeatheredfriends]

I would keep momma and babies separated for a while longer, at least until the poults feather out. I wait until my poults are at least a month before I place them with the flock. By that time though they may be outgrowing momma hen but I'd still give them some time. Try to partition off a bigger area so that they can walk around without having to worry about the adults but are not able to stray too far from momma. Turkey poults are very energetic... mine were hopping out of the brooder at the same age your poults are now! They grow up very quickly and I believe momma hen knows how to talk to them, even though they are different species. Poults are ornery and were just trying to explore so their curiosity probably got the better of them, which is why they didn't come when momma hen called.