Introducing turkeys to 10 week old chicks????

[karri25]

I am painfully new at turkeys. I bought two last Saturday and don't even know what kind they are?!?!?!? I also don't knwo how old they are. They have almost all of their feathers, only lacking some on the under side of their wings. I will post a pic later and hopefully someone will know what the heck they are. They are all white though if that helps, it seems as though there are a lot of white breeds though. Anyhow, I am short on space and need to get them in my coop as soon as possible. They range around the chicken run a lot. The chickens are curious but they don't ever try to kill them so I tried to put the biggest one in there this morning. My beautiful roo didn't like Butterball too much! He ran over and began pecking at his feet. I of course saved him before he could be hurt but I am really discouraged now. How will this work???? I have 14 Red sex links, 1 roo and 13 hens. Any advise would be GREAT!

 

[karri25]

Oh, they are also around 1 foot tall, maybe a little smaller than that.

 

[Hotwings]

I would keep the turkeys separated for awhile. You rooster probably saw them as an intruder. I am not a turkey expert but I am willing to guess they are broad breasted whites. This is a meat turkey.

 

[karri25]

When I reintroduce them later will the roo still see them as intruders?
Thanks for the help, I am hoping they are meat turkeys!

 

[Motherhenandflock]

Yes, you probably got broad breasted whites. They will grow and grow and grow until they can hardly get around. I fed a turkey grower feed, 28% protein. You can feed something with less protein and they will grow a bit slower and be able to get around better.
I have heard that turkeys can pick up "blackhead" from chickens and you shouldn't have them together. I am taking my chances right now with my 16 chickies and 2 Bourbon Red turks until I have another area for the turks. Blackhead is something they pick up from chicken droppings, from cecal worms. Yuck.

More than you wanted to know right? But on the other hand, having your poults (baby turks) with your chicks will teach the turkeys where to eat and drink. They aren't the sharpest tacks in the box. But they are fun!
I am fur sure no expert. We raised out 3 several years ago and now I have the 2 Bourbon Reds and 3 Broad Breasted whites. Hopefully someone with more knowledge with chime in.

Oh, your's may be about 4 to 5 weeks old. My BR have their feathers and they are a little less than a foot tall. I think about 4 months or so and they are ready to butcher. They will be big!

 

[karri25]

Thanks so much! I am trying to learn all that I can about turkeys and now I am really confused. Your post helped a lot. I just really hope that my chickens will eventually stop wanting to kill these turkeys.
And you aren't kidding about their intelligence. I think God must have made them that way so that they would be easier to eat My poor husband wanted to get chickens to eat and now we can only eat their eggs b/c i love them so much:0)

 

[Motherhenandflock]

Oh, yes, but my 2 Bourbon Reds aren't going on my table! That's why I had to get 3 more of the silly white birds, to eat! I can't eat my funny little children that roost on my leg and crawl into my lap.
Have you seen the post on "blind turkey farmer"?
Too funny.

Your turks have a good start, they will be fine. Can't help you with the picking by the other birds. I'd say introduce them all slowly. Do they have enough room to be apart? And someplace to hide from the roo? And stay with them to separate them when things get tense! How old are your chickens?

 

[tiffanyh]

I thought is was taboo to mix turkey and chicken. I thought there was a diease that chicken carried without exhibiting symptoms that was deadly to turkeys?

 

[karri25]

There is a disease but apparently a lot of people can raise them together and everything is fine. I am hoping that will be the case for us.

Motherhenandflock-my chickens are around 10 weeks old and they are getting to think that they are billy bad booties That's a good idea about giving the turkeys a place to hide! I am ging to try to put them in a box beside the run and see if they can get used to each other. I just really hope that it works, I don't know what else to do!

 

[cgjsmith]

My turkey babies are the sweetes thing!! but they have no instinct for survival ha ha, they run up to anything that steps in the coop and trys to peck at it. silly bird but they are the most loveable!! Have you thought about a tractor? we made ours out of PVC and netting (the good kind you get at lowes. My ducklings are in it right now. but I'm building one for the turkeys ause they keep pecking at my chicks. Crystal