Introducing my baby turkey!

[leezalloyd]

Hello! I am new to chicken/turkey owning and just had a quick question. I have a baby turkey who is being raised by a chicken I acquired (baby was hatched by a broody chicken and she's been raising him since! they came as a pair). For the first few weeks I kept mom and baby totally separate at night. Now mom and baby (he's about 5-7 weeks we believe) are sleeping in the coop with the other chickens and rooster, with a small pen around them. They turkey and his mom free range with the chickens all day and none of them bother him (if anything he likes to pick on them). I am just curious on when/if this baby at some point can sleep in the coop without being penned separately from our chickens. Looking for any tips/advice!

 

[R2elk]

Hello! I am new to chicken/turkey owning and just had a quick question. I have a baby turkey who is being raised by a chicken I acquired (baby was hatched by a broody chicken and she's been raising him since! they came as a pair). For the first few weeks I kept mom and baby totally separate at night. Now mom and baby (he's about 5-7 weeks we believe) are sleeping in the coop with the other chickens and rooster, with a small pen around them. They turkey and his mom free range with the chickens all day and none of them bother him (if anything he likes to pick on them). I am just curious on when/if this baby at some point can sleep in the coop without being penned separately from our chickens. Looking for any tips/advice!

Are you providing th poult a proper game bird or turkey starter? Poults have a much faster growth rate and higher needs of protein, lysine, methionine and niacin than do chickens.

If your poult turns out to be a tom you will need to always keep it separated from the chickens. Having been imprinted by chickens it will not understand that there is a difference between turkeys and chickens and will kill them as it tries to breed them.

Turkeys are very social birds and need to be with other turkeys.

 

[leezalloyd]

He is on game bird starter food. We have materials to make a large run. Would you suggest him having his own set up? and would you suggest we get another turkey to keep him company? He is really attached to the mom and I worry about separating them too early, but I obviously don't want her to be hurt or killed by him either!

 

[R2elk]

He is on game bird starter food. We have materials to make a large run. Would you suggest him having his own set up? and would you suggest we get another turkey to keep him company? He is really attached to the mom and I worry about separating them too early, but I obviously don't want her to be hurt or killed by him either!

The sooner you separate them the better it will be for all of them. I recommend keeping chicken imprinted turkeys separate from the chickens. Yes, get more turkeys.

Both the chicken and the poult will get over their attachments even though they may act like drama queens in the interim.