Lone turkey baby. Will he be ok with chicks?UPDATE HE HAS A BUDDY!Pic!

[Mycookoonest]

I only had one turkey hatch, and the same day he hatched I recieved my order of silkies from MPC (it took me 3 months to get them

) He seems to be eating and drinking ok with them, and is snuggling up to them, but will he be lonely? I really feel bad that he doesn't have another turkey to keep him company!
Oh he hatched out on tuesday so he's a newbie!

 

[flakey chick]

Do a search for blackhead. Its the reason people separate turkeys from chickens. I would look into rehoming the turkey or getting him another turkey friend.

 

[DawnSuiter]

I'm going to have the same problem in just over a week. I have no experience on this matter yet, but i did want to mention to you that turkeys eating chicken poop is bad. So while I plan to put a couple of chicks in with my turkey I will be watching & cleaning up behind those chicks like it's my only mission in life.

and then praying that a couple of turkeys hatch from my second batch a week later.

 

[sandspoultry]

Turkeys do better in pairs at least, they are social birds. And yes it is true that chickens and turkeys can pass disease however and a big however, You have to have the issue to begin with, blackhead doesn't just magicly show up if you put the two together. We raise ours together from day one, chickens, turkeys, ducks, geese, guineas. We do seperate the waterfowl in the brooders because they sling water everywhere and that's not good for chicks and poults but once they get older they run togther. We have had ours like that for years and no problems to date.

Steve in NC

 

[corancher]

We do the same as Sandspoultry and no problems either. However I beleive your poult would do better with a turkey companion as it grows.

 

[DawnSuiter]

Quote:
How do you know if you have the issue to begin with, if it's your first time with turkeys? Or is that just it, you have to wait to see?

 

[Mycookoonest]

Just the thought of the little silkies being the sidekicks to this turkey is cracking me up. I have 2 other eggs that are due on friday and I'm praying I get at least 1 other baby but I don't think I will... Trying to be optomistic... but want to prepare for the loner...

How do I research for Blackhead... What do I look for?

 

[sandspoultry]

Quote:
How do you know if you have the issue to begin with, if it's your first time with turkeys? Or is that just it, you have to wait to see?

Contact your local ag agent and see if there are any reported cases of blackhead in your area. If this is your 1st turkey and you haven't had any problems with your chicken flock I wouldn't even worry about it. It's like when you bring new blood into your chicken flock, we quarantine the new birds for awhile and then add one from our flock to see what happens but you never know what they have been exposed to etc etc.
The original post said they just got the chicks and hatched the turkey poult. Most of the diseases are passed though contact with the soil and the birds droppings.

 

[MandyH]

I run the poults and chicks I hatch out together every year at least for a bit. The chicks help the poults learn to eat and drink. I hatch out thousands of chicks, poults, keets, and ducklings and space gets to be at a premium. I have some turkeys now in with jersey giants and they are all 2 months old. No problems at all. Turkeys are a lot more mellow so they can be pushed around by the chickens, so I just keep an eye on them.

 

[DawnSuiter]

Quote:
For ME then... the ag agent said that it has been found in wild turkeys here but no farm stock

it's too soon to tell by my chickens if we have some kind of problem it, they've had only limited exposure to the ground.. I guess I'll just have to 'wing' it. Wild turkeys ran through my yard before we did, so what they had, we likely have in the soil. It's been birdless soil for about 3.5 years though until this year.