Gettin some turkeys

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Medicated vs non-medicated feed is a personal preferance. I personally don't use it, others do. I really don't think there is a right or wrong in that situation. Just as some people start them on wire, I don't do that either. The most important thing is to keep their area clean IMO.

I have chickens and turkeys, and have never heard of being able to tell if a turkey has blackhead by looking at a picture. If my turkeys have it, it isn't causing problems. Considering that it can be fatal to turkeys, I am going to go out on a limb and say that they don't have it.

If you have a building to keep them in and a heat lamp, they can be started outside in cooler temps. I started some in an uninsulated building when there was snow on the ground. You just have to make sure that there aren't any drafts, and after losing some of that bunch I can also say that an insulated roof would be good too, as well as an extra lamp. The reason that I lost some of them was because the heat lamp bulb shattered. Ccondensation built up on the roof while I was at work, and I am guessing that a drop of water fell just right, going through one of the vent holes in the top of the lamp fixture. I have also started chicken chicks in September and had them go through a North Dakota winter just fine. To me it seems that the faster you cut back on their heat, the faster they feather out.

In my experience, they really aren't that difficult to start. Keep them clean, warm, fed, and watered. If you want to for the first year, you can also get a few Broad Breasted types to keep along with your heritage birds. You could have a BB bird for Thanksgiving and keep the heritage birds until they are ready. I have never had a BB turkey dress out at the mammoth weights that some people get, but I also don't feed for maximum growth. I try to keep the weight gain on the slow side, and it seems to help keep them from getting the leg problems that BB turkeys are prone to get. I have a 1 1/2 year old BB Bronze hen that might dress out at 35 pounds or so, and she still gets around very well.

Above all else, take the time to enjoy your turkeys, and I have to warn you, they are HIGHLY addictive!
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I would think it would have more to do with what you can get. I couldn't get medicated if I wanted it and I heard some say they can't get non medicated. I have not heard anyone say they can get both, other than Frosty. My turkeys have not had any antibiotics or medication of any kind. That as one reason I started raising my own. I did a google search and it did say that outbreaks occur in wet months. Thats probably why I don't need to medicate them. It is never wet here.
 
SORRY GUYS --had trouble getting to that site...try DNR Blackhead...should be the first one that comes up....Let me know if reading this changes your way of raising turkeys. JOHN
 
First I want to say welcome to BYC. The link you posted says "Although primarily a disease of domestic turkeys, it has been found in chickens, wild turkeys, grouse, quail, pheasants, and other gallinaceous birds. Its geographic distribution is limited mainly to the eastern and midwestern United States.


Outbreaks are most common in the spring and fall and are usually more serious in wet seasons than in dry ones. It is thought that wild turkeys acquire the disease by ranging on abandoned chicken or domestic turkey yards."

This is probably the reason some of us do not have any cases of Blackheads. I live in a dry climate. Some years about 4 inches of rain. I have no earth worms. In 10 years not a single case of blackhead.

So many things I have found are different from others on this board. It does not make your experience wrong. But not everyone is going to experience the same thing as you due to th differences of where we live and climate.
 
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I still don't see anything that indicates that it can be diagnosed from a picture. Even they say that the head doesn't always turn black. The symptoms of droopy, head pulled in, etc... are also symptoms for other illness, and pretty much indicate that the turkey doesn't feel well. Chickens can't pass it if they don't have it. The DNR site that you referenced mentions that wild turkeys do sometimes have it, so that would mean to never let my birds loose at all and I would have to keep them totally under cover in fear that some other birds may have it and pass it to my turkeys.

Nope, not changing anything in how I raise my turkeys.
 
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