housing/feeding questions

[bumpershoot]

yesterday I bought a BBbronze for Thanksgiving. It's a pullet and right now she's quarantined in a big dog crate. I figure the girl will be stuck there for two weeks, min. Bummer, but she came from a feed store with LOTS of birds. She does seem healthy: no sneezing, no obvious signs of illness. She is lonely and calls and calls for her buddies, but I'll download turkey sounds off the web before she is just allowed out in the yard. Which brings me to some questions:

-I would like to allow her to free range out with some of my cochins. I know that blackhead is an issue because of my research, but I cannot get a feel for how large of a risk this is. Poor thing is a flock bird and I would like to give her some quality of life before she's dinner.

-food: I did buy a small bag of Gamebird crumble for her until I can sort this part out. Generally, I buy whole grains and some ground mixes for my hens. They have done extremely well on this formula. I have some chick starter (mixed by a pro, not me) left from the last round of babies. Now, I know that the turkey needs a high protein level and I wondered if anyone saw a huge problem with upping the protein in that with dried fish and milo. I can also add Spirilina to her milk clabber/yogurt that I will start feeding her. I looked in the web, but I did not find feed mix recipes like you can for hens, so any suggestions would be appreciated.

This is my first turkey, so I can't say that I know what I am doing, but I thought that if she worked out well, I'd buy some White Midget eggs from Sandspoultry and really raise some, not just for dinner.

Thanks everyone!

 

[Steve_of_sandspoultry]

Blackhead can be a problem but we have raised our birds together for years and haven't had any problems.

We feed ours 28% protein at first then drop to 19% at 8 weeks they stay on that until they go out with the flocks at 5 -ish months.

It really does need a buddy, they are flock birds. Do you have another bird to put with it? - one you aren't very fond of just in case.

Steve in NC

 

[favoritekitty]

Get her a friend! Is she still a baby? I might have missed how old she was in your post. I would get her her own place, too. And a tv.

 

[TexasVet]

I've raised chickens and turkeys together multiple times, with no health problems. And the turkeys eat whatever the chickens are eating. They seem to do fine, because the last one dressed out at 28 lbs!

Kathy, Bellville TX
www.CountryChickens.com

 

[bumpershoot]

Hey everyone!
Thanks for the replies! I would say that this girl is probably six weeks. She's fully feathered and probably 15 inches tall at the top of her head. All the turkeys that I found today are day olds. I do wish I had found them YESTERDAY. Ah well, this is how these thing go. So, what I did do was go to the feed store and buy day old EE's. Two of them. They are in a cooler next to her so that she can hear them chirp. She seems much happier with the company and is talking to them.
It seems that the consensus with the folks I have talked to an ya'll is that once she's out of quarantine she should be ok with the chickens even though blackhead is a concern.
I talked to the guy who mixes my feed normally and he felt that adding some dried fish would be sufficient to up the protein. So, that's good news too.