my new turkeys!

[hahuff]

That's an extremely good deal around here! One could easily go for 40-60$ hetr

 

[WVduckchick]

I have 2 bourbon reds and 2 blue slates in my incubator on day 7! Those bourbon reds are such beauties!

I actually got the eggs free, because I was buying duck eggs, and told her I wanted to do turkeys next. She said she wasn't sure if they were fertile yet, so she gave me the 4 free!
Candling tonight, so we'll see if I get lucky

 

[feedman77]

Hope you have good luck with the eggs hatching.
I have 10 narri eggs in bator developing good. Fingers crossed.

Hopefully a few of my girls will start laying soon. So I can bate a dew of my own eggs.

 

[MollsBaldwin]

I got two NEW turkey yesterday at the feed store! I am so excited. They were listed as "Bronze". When I looked them up online the babies looked like the Bourbon reds as opposed to the Red Bronze pics I looked at. Anywho, this is my first year to try turkeys as I have stuck to chickens the last three years. They are in the brooder of course and I would like any advice that someone can give to ensure their success. I have heard of people have trouble with them during the brooder phase, so I am fielding for any info a newbie to the turkey world might need to know. Thanks so much!

 

[hahuff]

Do not feed them medicated chick feed!

 

[MollsBaldwin]

What will the medicated food do to them? Do you feed them mash? If so, can you tell me about this mash?

 

[R2elk]

I got two NEW turkey yesterday at the feed store! I am so excited. They were listed as "Bronze". When I looked them up online the babies looked like the Bourbon reds as opposed to the Red Bronze pics I looked at. Anywho, this is my first year to try turkeys as I have stuck to chickens the last three years. They are in the brooder of course and I would like any advice that someone can give to ensure their success. I have heard of people have trouble with them during the brooder phase, so I am fielding for any info a newbie to the turkey world might need to know. Thanks so much!

Your new poults are most likely broad breasted bronze turkeys. It is very unlikely that a feed store would be carrying Red Bronze or even Bourbon Red poults unless they were special ordered. Most feed stores carry either Broad Breasted Bronze or Broad Breasted White (aka Giant White) poults. Red Bronze and Bourbon Red are both heritage turkeys.

Turkey poults do require a higher protein content in their feed than is available in chick feed. Feed them turkey or game bird starter which has at least a 26% protein content.

Good luck.

 

[MollsBaldwin]

Thanks. Okay I get it with the higher protein. Right now there are only two of them so they are currently brooding with chickens. I don't know a way to feed them a game bird food without the little chicks getting into it as there are 19 of them. I guess I may have to brood them by themselves though I hadn't planned on it.

 

[VikkiP]

Turkey or game bird starter crumbles, 24-28% protein, are the ideal food for your young poults. After 8 weeks or so (with heritage birds), you can switch them to grower pellets. After 16 weeks you decide their role in life, whether they are destined for the dinner table or going to be part of your breeding flock. If you want the biggest birds at harvest at 26-30 weeks, keep them on a grower ration especially if they are free ranging or fed a lot of greens. If they will be breeders or general flock birds, you can provide them with a flock maintainer diet along with free range until they are mature.

You can let them forage exclusively once out of the brooder if you have good range for them, but they may not grow as large as birds provided more nutrients during the critical early growth stages. In the case of broad breasted birds, a lack of high nutrient feeds early on will contribute to health issues.

I've not seen red bronze color variants in a feed store. Bronzes offered are most often broad breasted bronze or standard bronze, which as poults are yellow with brown stripes and spots. Bourbon Red poults are creamy orange and yellow.

Medicated feeds, laced with Amprolium to combat coccidiosis, are fine for chickens, fatal for waterfowl, and generally considered unsafe for turkeys. However, I've grown chicks and poults together with open feeders each with their respective feed, and not encountered any bad results. I'd advise you to be conservative and feed only unmedicated feeds. You can encourage the turkeys to eat their food, and the chicks to stay out, by raising the turkey feeder a bit higher than the chick feeder, and continuing to raise it as they grow.


Good luck with your new flock!

 

[MollsBaldwin]

That's what's confusing me about they're breed, they do not have any brown striped for spots with they're yellow They are solid yellow with brown/bronze darker heads. Super cute. I will try and post a pic.