Hi - my first post here. I bought an adult tom Bourbon Red Turkey off of Craig's List last weekend and he is beautiful. We wanted to add a turkey to the farm but I didn't want to go through the chick phase. I put him in a pen by himself to acclimate and for the last two days he has madly paced the fence stopping only long enough to eat when I feed him. I will put him with the chickens soon but I didn't want to do it too soon. Has anyone else brought home an adult and what can I expect for him adjusting? The fence he is pacing is adjacent to my chicken run and a few chickens (mine free range) have wandered around to say Hi. I have two roosters as well. Thoughts? Should I move him over? How long does adjusting take? Is this normal?
Helping new adult turkey acclimate
- Thread starter amandadvd
- Start date
It is a bad idea to only have one turkey. They are very social birds and do best with others of their own kind.
It is a really bad idea to put a lone tom turkey in with chickens. Only bad things can happen. If blackhead is a problem in your area, putting a turkey in with chickens can be a death sentence. Chickens can be carriers of blackhead and pass it on to the turkeys.
It is currently breeding season for turkeys in the northern hemisphere. A lone tom turkey is going to try to breed something. If he tries to breed your chickens, it will not end well for the chickens.
blackandtan
Crowing
X2 @R2elk
At the very least he’s lonely
At the very worst he’ll see the chickens as sparring partners- wild males regularly kill each other and poor chickens won’t stand a chance
On the bright side, if blackhead isn’t a concern you can raise them all together in harmony, I always raise baby turks and layers/+roosters, no problems...but that’s only raising them from babies, it could be chaos to put an adult male in with chickens!
At the very least he’s lonely
At the very worst he’ll see the chickens as sparring partners- wild males regularly kill each other and poor chickens won’t stand a chance
On the bright side, if blackhead isn’t a concern you can raise them all together in harmony, I always raise baby turks and layers/+roosters, no problems...but that’s only raising them from babies, it could be chaos to put an adult male in with chickens!
blackandtan
Crowing
And for goodness sake don’t trust him! Turkeys can and do thrash people and if he’s new to you you don’t know what what he’s going to do.
A wise old farmer once told me that you NEVER TURN YOUR BACK ON A MALE FARM ANIMAL
A wise old farmer once told me that you NEVER TURN YOUR BACK ON A MALE FARM ANIMAL
- Thread starter
- #5
He won't care as long as she is a hen. It is best to get multiple hens as one tom to one hen can be very hard on the hen.
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