Give me the dirt on turkeys

[MrsSmitho]

We do the Atwood's turkey chicks. We had heritage birds up until 2 months ago and I kept my Slate hen for her eggs. We now keep her in with the chickens and everybody does just fine.
If I remember correctly, they only carry the broad breasted though, so their stay will only be about 4 to 6 months total before you have to butcher.
We used a carport and surrounded it with chain-link fencing, then the upper with chicken wire...put in a board for roosting and they were quite comfortable.
We also let them free range during the day and they were always happy to go to the "house" at night. We will be raising more turkeys as soon as they come in and they will share the night roost area with the geese I am incubating

 

[MrsSmitho]

GBoy...I miss the gobbles soooo much!! I wish my last heritage tom hadn't gone "stealthy" and started picking on the dogs. It was kind of funny, but they knew they couldn't "get even" so he had to go.
I can't wait for the BBs to come in locally so I can look foreward to some more gobbles!!

 

[BirdBrain]

I am trying to figure out how to add a few turkeys to my poultry plans. I have a 6x10 chainlink dog run. If I have a coop for them can I realistically put 3-4 in there?

 

[ScoobyRoo]

I had too many at one time. Now I'm down to just a pair of BR's. We absolutely love 'em! Our hen is laying now and of all places she goes in my chicken coop to lay. I wouldn't mind her setting on them this spring if she were to lay them in the coop. Now that would be convenient!

 

[chickenannie]

Quote:
That's too small for 3 or 4. Possibly 1 or 2, but still not terrific. They are big birds.

 

[BirdBrain]

So, what would you say is the minimum space requirements for a couple of turkeys?

 

[FortWorthChicks]

Thanks yall for all the great info! This is a great thread.

I am wanting to get like 5-6 Bourbon Reds! So I just wanted to post a thanks to everyone here for the weath of information. I have learned alot here.

 

[CARS]

Quote:
Me too. Problem is that I don't incubate and don't want to order the minimum of 15 that 99% of the hatcheries have

 

[freemotion]

You could advertise on CL and split an order. I would do it if we were closer....

 

[arabianequine]

I have 2 hens and one tom they are Narragansetts. They seem to have stopped laying the last week or better I have gotten one egg. I was getting about an egg a day so I figured they were laying an egg every other day. I want to know if you have any ideas why they lay in spurts like this could it be colder weather?

I do know they love the heck out of alfalfa. I heard that turkeys and chickens carry different diseases in their poop and that is why they should not share the same living areas. So I have mine separate and each have an indoor coop and an outdoor run enclosed.

This is Tom I don't have any good pics of the hens.