MW poults arrived!

[PatS]

Our MW poults arrived yesterday and we have them in their brooder.
They're cute, but is it normal for them to pick on each other so much?
There are 4 in a stock tank, so there is plenty of room. The temp seems fine, too.
But they constantly pull on each other's wings and feet and if one is taking a nap the others walk right over the top of it.

We're headed into town to see if we can find a higher protein game bird starter.

Here they are:

 

[ColbyNTX]

Nice! Looks like they are eating just make sure they are drinking. If you don't see them drink then just dip their beek in the water and they will figure it out. If you are using a white light then they will pick at eachother. Get a red or black light. Any pet store will have these heat bulbs. The 75 watt is all I need for my brooder. The 250's you can get at Wal-mart or Home Depot are too hot for my brooders and use a ton of electricity.

 

[Steve_of_sandspoultry]

Also, don't leave them on the paper towels for to long, they will have leg problems. We use pine shavings for the first couple weeks and then switch to sand.

Steve

 

[b.hromada]

Cute babies!

 

[PatS]

They eat, drink, and sleep a LOT! That is the good thing about having just a few, you can make sure everyone is hitting those important benchmarks. (Knows where the waterer is; Check!)

They have a nice red lamp. I guess they are just rambunctious.

Thanks for the advice on the shavings, I'll switch them over tomorrow when I clean out the brooder. We have a big sack of pine shavings, I was just afraid they'd start thinking they were food. (My chicks ate a lot of shavings in the brooder last spring, and I hate to say the turkeys don't seem much brighter than they were.)

The little feed store here threw in a sack of 21% developer when I paid for starter. We called up the feed store to ask about it and the guy assured us it was what we should be feeding the poults. Well, we went to the big feed store an hour and a half away and they had 27% protein. That is quite a difference! Since the little guys were only one day old yesterday I doubt the difference in percentage of protein was why they were picking at each other, but it is good to know we have the right stuff now.