Give me the dirt on turkeys

[ivan3]

Fuzzybird wrote: Love that black and white splashed turkey hen. What is she?

A `mottled mutt' by RP tom out of Slate hen.

 

[Celie]

Sorry for your loss.
They do like to `hitch a ride':

Hope you'll be looking at more `papoosed' poults on the prowl come Spring.

What a sweet mama! Did she hatch out this poult? I never say this breed before. Is she mixed? She sure is a good mama! I have never let a hen turkey keep her eggs and hatch them herself, because she will just keep laying if you take all of the eggs away and my flocks are protected by lab mutts, but I have been reading about what great mothers they are, so I might let my oldest, biggest turkey,(I don't name my food, but she is getting old, 3 years, and the biggest, fattest hen, so I call her Miss Mamoo),set some eggs herself and raise her own young. That is, if the dogs and toms will leave her in Peace. I have Holland whites. Your pictures are adorable!

 

[Fuzzybird]

My Blue Bell is a blue slate and I am keeping a RP to breed with her. So that is what I will get! Cool!

 

[ivan3]

Fuzzybird wrote: My Blue Bell is a blue slate and I am keeping a RP to breed with her. So that is what I will get! Cool!

This is another outcome thrown by same pair: RP poult riding on mottled hen's back was hatched from RP/RP egg (she hatched it, however).

 

[ivan3]

Celie wrote:...but I have been reading about what great mothers they are, so I might let my oldest, biggest turkey,(I don't name my food, but she is getting old, 3 years, and the biggest, fattest hen, so I call her Miss Mamoo),set some eggs herself

Ours have been very good mothers. We move all unauthorized nests into shed and use the folding `toddler' fence to contain the expectant, hissing, mothers (we just ignore their complaints and go about our business - we always feed the little poults lots of insects by hand, if they aren't imprinted on both human and turkey they get a bit wild): The lengths to which the `mothers' will go to protect the poults? https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/671185/turkey-hens-and-snakes-pic-heavy

 

[ashandvine]

Good day. I have been reading this thread and didn't make it all the way through before making introductions and wanting to ask a few questions.

I have here a pair of Midget Whites for breeding. I have only had one turkey here before, a cross my son fell in love with and we had to exterminate for a severe leg issue. Since then I have found that I like this pair better than expected and we intend to breed for sale of poults and to process a few in the fall for our family while keeping at least two for breeding. That said:
Do turkeys get npip tested like chickens
Do they require or should they get vaccines
What are some ways to encourage nesting IN the barn
Where does the tom go while the hen is brooding/does he guard
Does anyone show their turkeys
Do you prepare a turkey for show the same as you would a chicken
How much feed, in measured cups, of food should an adult MW turkey have a day
Are there suppliments to the turkey's diet during winter
What do I need to do to create a turkey 'slate'

I feed my chickens table scraps and am looking for acorns for the turkeys. I read that they eat a lot of those. What about supplementing 'greens' in the winter- how is that done?
Thank you for your tolerance of any question already asked but missed by my impatience. For now they share the barn with the chickens. Our plan is to have a cowpanel shelter built for the ones who stay on past fall slaughter... How do I keep all the ones we raise out contained???

 

[Crabill]

I am new here and I recently bought a very large bronze Tom, we built a 40x20 pen 10 foot high... Is that a good enclosure or not.?

 

[Crabill]

And I just hatched some bourbon red chicks, when they come of age can the two intermingle, or should I keep him with the other males to keep from cross breeding...

 

[ivan3]

Crabill wrote:...I recently bought a very large bronze Tom, we built a 40x20 pen 10 foot high... Is that a good enclosure or not.?
... I just hatched some bourbon red chicks, when they come of age can the two intermingle, or should I keep him with the other males to keep from cross breeding.

Pretty good pen (10ft. ht. will cut down on some overflights). Coop or lean-to, etc. in run?
If you are going to separate by sex, pen the hens out of sight of the toms (from Feb-June, primarily). This will cut down on sparring. Is the Bronze a Broad Breasted Commercial variety?

 

[Crabill]

its just a normal bronze, and we are supposed to be building a little building to put them in at night, im not worried about the cross breeding since they are just my turkeys so i will probably just run them together depending upon how many males i have