Making plans to raise turkeys

[BarnyardChaos]

Good afternoon, turkey fans! I am about to throw my lot in with you and hope to learn about raising turkeys. I'm in west central Missouri and have had chickens for several years. We are adding a new coop just for turkeys, in a separate pen. We just brought home an old camper trailer today, and I will be gutting it and fitting it for turkeys over the next few months. This first year will be a learning experience, so I'll start small. I plan to get maybe 6 white BB for next fall's slaughter, and 3 or 4 of a heritage breed so I can raise our own beyond that.

Is there anything in particular I should be mindful of, specifically for turkeys? (Besides the usual coop and run space and ventilation needs.) Any BTDT tips?

Do you have recommendations for a quality hatchery where I can order poults in the spring?

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

Getting poults off to a good start can be tricky for some. They are a bit different to brood than chicks mostly because they are hatched ready to learn as chicks hatch with good instincts. So you will need to make sure they are eating and drinking well initially. Some raise a chick or two with the batch to help show them what to do. I just add shiny glass rocks to attract them to the feed, and will peck with my finger at the food a few times a day.

Poults are curious, and friendly, and can freak out from change. They need a good gamebird starter, than can step down to a regular starter after 6 weeks or so. For maintenance mine get an all flock ration with oyster shells on the side.

Porters has nice birds. They are gorgeous and friendly. I also ordered from Murray Mcmurrary. Those grew faster and bigger, but they aren't as personable, but that could just be how I raised them.

Heritage are easy to house, and hatch from. They can fly, especially when younger, and can wander if not watched. Older birds are less likely to fly unless frightened in my experiences.

I haven't raised BB, so I can't give advice about them except they can be trickier because of leg and heart problems from their rapid growth, and it's even more important to feed them correctly to avoid problems. They also should not roost very high, if at all.

 

[BarnyardChaos]

Heritage are easy to house, and hatch from. They can fly, especially when younger, and can wander if not watched. Older birds are less likely to fly unless frightened in my experiences.

I worry about their ability to fly - hubby says we will cut their flight feathers. In your opinion, is that a good option? We have 8' high chain link fencing around the chicken run, which works quite well even without a cover. He plans to put fencing about 6' high around the turkeys' run. I beg to differ, and think they need more. It's a point we are discussing.

We allow the chickens out to free range sometimes, but I don't plan to let the turkeys out. Our property is bordered by a dense forest and spring-fed stream, with a population of wild turkeys already who wander across our field. I fear if they are ever let out, they will join the local flock and we'll never catch them again.

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

I worry about their ability to fly - hubby says we will cut their flight feathers. In your opinion, is that a good option? We have 8' high chain link fencing around the chicken run, which works quite well even without a cover. He plans to put fencing about 6' high around the turkeys' run. I beg to differ, and think they need more. It's a point we are discussing.

We allow the chickens out to free range sometimes, but I don't plan to let the turkeys out. Our property is bordered by a dense forest and spring-fed stream, with a population of wild turkeys already who wander across our field. I fear if they are ever let out, they will join the local flock and we'll never catch them again.

Our turkey fence is 5 foot woven wire. We covered part of the run with some electric fence wire, but it's mostly just a suggestion, and a deterrent to winged predators. We used to have bird netting up but that always came down in snowstorms.

When we started out the younger birds would fly out. They generally can get out up to a year of age if they are determined. I clip one wing on troublemakers. Generally after a year they don't try to fly out unless there's something in the run to hop onto first. Wings will need to be clipped multiple times as they grow as they will replace the wing feathers a few times until they get their adult feathers. Than they will remain clipped until they molt out, so be sure you want them clipped.

You will probably start somewhere with your run, and than tweak as necessary as birds will show you any weak points in your fencing. Turkeys can be pretty smart.

I let mine out to free range on a regular basis. They stay in our goat pasture with occasional attempts to hop out, but I keep an eye on mine while they are out. Turkey's are pretty easy to herd with a stick or two as extensions of your arms, or they quickly learn to come running when you call them. They are curious and will follow you around, or go looking in your windows. They like to get up on roofs and even power lines. They are like monkeys sometimes.

 

[MissLaura]

One tip I wish we knew right away was NOT to use shavings for bedding.. Use peat moss. We lost several in just a couple days because they were eating the shavings. We have ordered from Porter's heritage and absolutely love them. Beautiful birds, extremely friendly. Have fun!!

 

[BarnyardChaos]

Porters has nice birds. They are gorgeous and friendly.

Wow! You weren't kidding about Porters. From what I've seen so far, they have the widest variety of turkeys, they breed *only* turkeys, and he's deep into genetics and breeding for certain traits. I also noticed he breeds the Auburn variety - currently classified as Extinct since 1991. He has brought them back by carefully isolating the genes from hybrids. Very cool!

Heritage are easy to house, and hatch from. They can fly, especially when younger, and can wander if not watched. Older birds are less likely to fly unless frightened in my experiences.

I haven't raised BB, so I can't give advice about them except they can be trickier because of leg and heart problems from their rapid growth, and it's even more important to feed them correctly to avoid problems. They also should not roost very high, if at all.

I don't think I'll go for BB anyway, since they grow so big. If I do at all, it will be for an early slaughter at a smaller size. I don't want BIG turkeys in the freezer, smaller but nice size breasted would be nice. And 22-26 weeks to harvest is fine by me for heritage varieties. I was surprised to learn there aren't many varieties out there - only 8 or 10 officially recognized. The only other variety I've ruled out for our purposes, so far, is the Royal Palm (too flighty and not meaty).

Wouldn't it be awesome to be able to raise Oscellated turkeys??? They're incredibly gorgeous and colorful!!! But I get it - extremely hard to raise, temperature sensitive (40-deg will kill them), specialized diet (insects), and $200 for egg or $3000 for a poult! I understand there are only 3-4 people in the US breeding them for conservation purposes - but rarely for sale to ANYone. ha... never mind. I can dream, though.

 

[BarnyardChaos]

This pic of oscellated turkeys just makes me sick...

 

[BarnyardChaos]

I let mine out to free range on a regular basis. They stay in our goat pasture with occasional attempts to hop out, but I keep an eye on mine while they are out. Turkey's are pretty easy to herd with a stick or two as extensions of your arms, or they quickly learn to come running when you call them. They are curious and will follow you around, or go looking in your windows. They like to get up on roofs and even power lines. They are like monkeys sometimes.

We are debating the option of letting them range. I know it's best for them, they are great foragers and insect controllers, but I worry about blackhead disease. I've had chickens on the pastures and farmyard for several years now, and had never wormed them until this summer. I might have to wait a few years and keep up the worming program before I risk it.

I'm leaning toward getting a heavier yet smaller variety that's not so likely to be flighty, like the Beltsville Small White, Midget White, Bourbon - or perhaps White Holland. And plan to snip wing feathers to keep them in, if needed.

 

[JustBabyMargo]

I LOVE Ocellated turkeys too!

I have never had a problem with growing poults on shavings, and I have raised 100+. I have gotten them shipped and hatched myself. I have a covered coop and run for mine, but we do let them out on grass when we are out sometimes.

I raise Narragansett turkeys. I have 5 hens and 1 tom, and they are the ones that I hatch from. We sell eggs and poults locally, but we may try shipping hatching eggs sometime soon. My girls are super sweet, and my tom is not aggressive at all. I have also raised a Broad Breasted White tom to sell at my county fair for a 4-H project, and he was the sweetest guy. Turkeys are great, you’ll have fun with them!

(This is one of the first poults we hatched out.)

My Album

• JustBabyMargo
• Sep 20, 2022
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(Here’s one of my hens, Cupcake, with the poults she hatched.)

 

[R2elk]

I LOVE Ocellated turkeys too!

I have never had a problem with growing poults on shavings, and I have raised 100+. I have gotten them shipped and hatched myself. I have a covered coop and run for mine, but we do let them out on grass when we are out sometimes.

I raise Narragansett turkeys. I have 5 hens and 1 tom, and they are the ones that I hatch from. We sell eggs and poults locally, but we may try shipping hatching eggs sometime soon. My girls are super sweet, and my tom is not aggressive at all. I have also raised a Broad Breasted White tom to sell at my county fair for a 4-H project, and he was the sweetest guy. Turkeys are great, you’ll have fun with them!View attachment 3300486(This is one of the first poults we hatched out.)

My Album

• JustBabyMargo
• Sep 20, 2022
• 1

(Here’s one of my hens, Cupcake, with the poults she hatched.)

Just because you have been lucky raising poults on wood chips does not mean it can't be a problem.

When poults are on wood chips, they need to have appropriately sized grit available. Without the grit, they cannot digest the wood chips and can have their digestive tract become blocked at which time they will die.