First time turkey owner tips please!

[ejtrout31]

Hello! My name is Ellie. I am in charge of the poultry part of trout family farm. We are a beef farm and I keep chickens. I show poultry for 4-h and this spring I will be purchasing blue slate turkeys from welp hatchery. They will be used for showing and meat. Any tips or information that will be useful to me is much appreciated. Thank you!

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

I recommend picking up a copy of Storeys guide to Turkeys. It's mostly about meat turkeys, but I find it handy as a reference.

 

[GotCoop]

Turkeys are much better flyers than chickens...I clip turkey wings, never had to with my chickens. They will also roam over much larger distances if allowed. While chickens tolerate humans, turkeys seem to enjoy human company. When I put my hand into a brooder full of chicks they shy away...do the same with turkeys and they gather around the hand. Turkey poults are more fragile than chicks for the first couple weeks and require a little more attention to environment control. I've butchered lots of chickens, but only one Tom...and I've always regretted it (goes back to turkeys being much more personable...but I'm a softy that way). Blue slates are beautiful birds.

 

[PeacockNFlight]

They do roam a much larger distance. Many times in the early morning I would have to get my hood looms from behind my house in a pasture I owned. They could not figure out how to get back to the coop. I kept with it and they eventually didn’t go back there. How did I know they were there? Pops was telling on them in the driveway. I have Kentucky Bourbon Reds and love them all. Persistence and patience pays off when raising turkeys. I will always have turkeys now.

 

[Chickenbrainiac]

I dunno if I could do it. Raise 'em for food. Well, me, personally, no problem. One man's pet is another man's dinner. I couldn't eat a cat or a dog, but I definitely can (and have) eaten other "pets" (chickens / rabbits / pigs, and unfortunately we *tried* to eat a goat, but it was SOOOOOOOO nasty.. my mom got suckered into buying a "baby" goat... no way in hell was that old billy goat a baby! Thing was probably 5-7 years old and *had* been a pet before.. nasty nasty nasty tasting). But DH.. I am almost 100% sure he couldn't do it. Hmm.. maybe I'll get some bunnies too.. I *love* bunny meat! Long horrible story there

Back to the question, here is a resource that might prove helpful

 

[R2elk]

Back to the question, here is a resource that might prove helpful

There is so much stuff in that link that is not true that I would never recommend anyone visit that site.

 

[Molpet]

There is so much stuff in that link that is not true that I would never recommend anyone visit that site.

X2
About BB anyway, but they miss a lot

 

[Molpet]

https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/turkeys-sticky-topics-index.1174188/