Feeding turkeys and chickens together

[Tiffanys' Mama]

Hi,

We plan on getting 10 poults and raising them with some day old chicks. We will buy 10 and select 1 or 2 pairs for breeding.
Question #1 Is it ok to feed Turkey feed to the chickens or is the protein too high? We are wondering if we need to feed them seperately.
Question #2 Do we need to seperate them from each other for nesting/raising the babies we hope to have?
We will be converting an old 17 x 7 travel trailer to house them in.
Thanks for you help.

Gail

 

[kuntrygirl]

How much protein are you thinking about feeding the chickens? I once allowed a baby chick to grow up with poults and I fed him 30 % protein. It didn't kill him but he was about the size of the turkeys when he grew up. Chickens really don't need that high protein feed. I would think no more than 20% is ok for the chickens while the poults really need more protein for a better looking and meatier bird.

Well as far as nesting/raising........My turkeys nest wherever they decide and if the location is not safe for new poults, I remove the poults from the mom when they are hatched and bring them inside. For those that are good girls and lay eggs in the breeding pens, it makes it easier because I leave the poults with the mom. But I am very skeptical about both chickens and turkeys nesting and raising babies in the same area. A broody turkey and a new mom turkey is a dangerous pill to swallow. If it were me, I wouldn't house them together.

Hopefully others will come along and offer more than I have.

 

[Tiffanys' Mama]

Thanks Kuntrygirl for your help. We will keep them seperate except on pasture. Do you have a hard time taking the poults away from the mother? I'm wondering how protective they are of the babies.

 

[the1much]

can feed house and everything together if wanted too. just watch that none of the turkeys pick on ya chickens, once in awhile you get a bad attitude low ranking turkey who will pick on the chickens to feel big lol, but i had every kind of bird together and they all USUALLY did fine

 

[kuntrygirl]

  Thanks Kuntrygirl for your help. We will keep them seperate except on pasture. Do you have a hard time taking the poults away from the mother? I'm wondering how protective they are of the babies.

No, I don't have a hard time. As soon as they poults dry off, I snatch them. The mom doesn't notice because she has more eggs to hatch and still concentrating on the eggs.

 

[Tiffanys' Mama]

Thanks. Since we are new to Turkeys I think we will keep them seperate for right now except maybe for pasture.

 

[Tiffanys' Mama]

Hey Kuntrygirl, I see you raise Bourbon Reds. That is what we will be starting with (unless I change my mind again). I also like the Royal Palms. Since we have a 17 x 7 travel trailer we are thinking about dividing this in half (8x7) with an outside kennel (not sure about the size). We will buy 10 poults and keep maybe 3 or 4. We only want to end up with a good breeding pair. We would like to keep as much of the trailer available for future use for either chickens or Royal Palms. We want to be able to expand possibly in the future so we are trying to plan ahead. We also live on a main truck route so we can't let the birds out to free range unless we are out to watch them. Does our idea sound logical or is the space not big enough. Any thoughts are greatly appreciated. Thanks.

 

[kuntrygirl]

Hey Kuntrygirl, I see you raise Bourbon Reds. That is what we will be starting with (unless I change my mind again). I also like the Royal Palms. Since we have a 17 x 7 travel trailer we are thinking about dividing this in half (8x7) with an outside kennel (not sure about the size). We will buy 10 poults and keep maybe 3 or 4. We only want to end up with a good breeding pair. We would like to keep as much of the trailer available for future use for either chickens or Royal Palms. We want to be able to expand possibly in the future so we are trying to plan ahead. We also live on a main truck route so we can't let the birds out to free range unless we are out to watch them. Does our idea sound logical or is the space not big enough. Any thoughts are greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Sorry didn't know you had posted. The subscription feature is not sending me my emails when there are new posts.

In my opinion, I think that turkeys need a lot of room. None of my turkeys are confined to any spaces. They free range. I know that everyone can't free range their birds, so you will have to do what works best for you.

 

[Tiffanys' Mama]

Thanks Kuntrygirl. My subscription feature is doing the same thing some of the time. I live on a main road and with the coyotes we have I won't risk free ranging them although I would really like to. We will give them as much space as we can for now and build their outside pen with the option to expand in the future. Thanks.

 

[kuntrygirl]

Thanks Kuntrygirl. My subscription feature is doing the same thing some of the time. I live on a main road and with the coyotes we have I won't risk free ranging them although I would really like to. We will give them as much space as we can for now and build their outside pen with the option to expand in the future. Thanks.