Chicken raising turkeys?

[Rabaker83]

I am incubating some turkey eggs for the first time. I have successfully hatched about 40 chickens thanks to all you wonderful people. My question is will the chickens raise the turkeys? I've "slipped" some chicks under a broody hen and she took care of them like they were hers but will it work with turkeys? I hear they are not the most intelligent birds I just want to make sure they thrive.

 

[R2elk]

I am incubating some turkey eggs for the first time. I have successfully hatched about 40 chickens thanks to all you wonderful people. My question is will the chickens raise the turkeys? I've "slipped" some chicks under a broody hen and she took care of them like they were hers but will it work with turkeys? I hear they are not the most intelligent birds I just want to make sure they thrive.

They can but I do not recommend it. Turkeys imprint very easily and they will be imprinted by the chickens which causes them to lose the ability to understand that there is a difference between them and chickens when they are adults. This can lead to the turkeys causing harm to the chickens due to their nature and their size differences.

Turkeys are much more intelligent than chickens but many people cannot understand that what chickens do because of instinct and turkeys have to learn has nothing to do with intelligence.

Feed the turkey poults a good high protein turkey or gamebird starter for the first 6 weeks. Follow that with a good turkey or gamebird grower for the next 6 weeks. After that you can switch them to a quality 20% protein all flock feed.

Porter's Poult Starting Tips