Chickens with Turkeys...

[jeffkerle65]

Can anyone tell me if chickens & turkey chicks can be raised together, or be kept apart? The chickens will be 3 to 5 days older when the turkeys are due to hatch.

 

[Free Spirit]

I highly recommend researching and reading the various threads on this forum for information. Be aware that you will find a great deal of mixed results. A lot will depend on a few things.

Some people have no issues and have been running chickens and turkeys together for years. But the thing you need to be concerned with is Blackhead. A disease that you should also research well. Chickens can be carriers and rarely have any problems (but it can happen). Yet turkeys and pheasants can contract it from chickens and earthworms and for them It is fatal. Whether they are susceptible or not can depend on your geography, weather conditions, is it in your soil, have you had chickens where you plan to keep them before in the last few years, etc.

Where I live, my climate is great for incubating bacteria and worms (warm, humid) and Blackhead is a concern here. I kept my chickens and turkeys separated and practiced good biosecurity habits, making sure they were wormed, and giving ACV and cayenne in there water once a week.

Don't let that scare you from having both chickens and turkeys. You just might have to do a little planning for separate areas. There are some Heritage Breeds that I understand are pretty hardy, but any commercial breads (commercial Big Breasted Bronze and the White Breasted). I have a commercial Turkey grower a couple miles from me that has also been dealing with Blackhead this year. So make sure you know what your getting from a reputable source.

If your looking to get turkeys along with your chickens - I say go for it. Don't let what I said scare you. But if you know ahead of time what the dangers are then you are better prepared to handle them and take appropriate actions and precautions if the need arises.

Good Luck