chickens and turkeys

[mamarosa]

Can you raise baby chicks and baby turkeys together at the same time with the same feed?

 

[MissTurkey4]

I feed my chicks and poults Turkey Game bird starter. I presently have about 500 chicks eating the same feed. Works great with the adult chickens too.

 

[gmendoza]

I am.They are on their 4th week together.I got them from Ideal Poultry on "chicken day" here in BYC. The are with "packing peanuts" they send for warmth.The packing peanuts are commercial reds.We tossed them out to the grow-out coop a week or so ago.No problems so far.

 

[kuntrygirl]

I have raised a baby chick with baby turkeys and fed both of them 30% Gamebird Starter and everything worked great. Now, the chicken is just as big and tall as the turkeys but my big boy rooster is doing just fine today.

 

[MissTurkey4]

I agree it does make some big chickens. They feather out faster too. I have heard some warn the chickens will burn out. I have many older hens that lay just like the young ones.

 

[Outhouser]

I currently have 5 turkeys poults with 6 guinea keets and they are all doing fine.

 

[kuntrygirl]

Quote:
When my big ole rooster runs around the chicken yard, he looks like a big ole Cornish X meat bird. This is a pic of him. He isn't even a year old. He is the biggest chicken that I have in my chicken yard and I have over 100.

 

[hippiehen]

Yay I was just coming here to ask this. I heard that raising chicks with poults will help them learn how and where to eat and drink faster - true? My hatched chicks will be a couple days older than my poults, would that be a problem?

 

[ccrawf]

My poults seems to figure out eating pretty easily.
And I have raised turkeys and chickens together for years. Feed them 30% game bird starter.
When they get older they all eat the 16% layer pellets. May not grow as fast, but they do just fine for me, and since they all live together, there really is not way to separate the food.
Oh, and I have a goose lives with them, too.

 

[adubsroit]

Quote:
From everything I have heard, read and been told this is true. I've done this too, and it's easy to forget how bad to much protein can be for laying hens. When they're young, those little suckers get big fast and they seem to do fine when it comes to holding their own with poults. The boyfriend and I actually ran an experiment back when we first had guineas (which we no longer do

), but all the chicks we left with guineas and the game bird/turkey starter were just little bricks compared to the other chicks their age. All the chicks raised on regular food were just fine in every way, but the guinea raised chicks were awesome looking for their age.

However, too much protein in a laying hens diet does a real number on her kidneys and she may burn out both as a layer and living as long as her lower-protein fed flock mates. Since we do have a few turkeys and ducks (old and young) with our chickens we moderate their feed. Their feed is primarily layer pellets at this point, but we will throw in turkey feed into the mix (a little everyday) and because the turkeys are more prone to eat from our hand: they get freeze-dried meal worms from time to time. During molt the chickens do benefit from the extra helpings of protein too, which is nice.