Narragansett Turkeys

[semm2020]

We raise Narragansetts and only Narragansetts. They are more like dogs than birds following you around wherever you go and gobbling and running towards you when you drive down the driveway. All for a simple peanut.
Go to Craigslist.com in Baltimore Maryland if you are interested.
Nick or Steve in Jarrettsville

 

[Glenmar]

Glad to hear it. I am getting my first turkeys this weekend 6 Narragansetts. Can't wait.


Beautiful bird.

Will they be OK with my free ranging peacocks? I want to free range the turkeys also.

 

[fiberdrunk]

This has been our experience as well. We've had 2 females for almost a year now and they are very sweet. One in particular reminds me of a dog. She hunkers down next to me and pecks me until I pet her.

 

[semm2020]

peacock maybe interesting. they may battle or they may be best friends. i will say it is always best to keep 3 males so there are no 1 v 1 battles. my experience is that 3 usually just don't have intense fighting.

 

[kikilem123]

I also have a Narrangansett turkey that is our family pet turkey. I desperately need help as he has just recently come down with some sort of sickness and I have no idea what it could be or where to take him. We have a country vet down the road but I think they just specialize in cows and horses. If I could find out what is wrong with him then I could treat him myself. As you have raised them then maybe you could shed some light on this for me. If anything were to happen to him our whole family would be devastated. He is so much a part of this family and we all adore him. He has been completely fine up until a couple of days ago (we got him as a baby last summer) but he got into the pen with my moms chickens and there are also goats over there but not with the chickens. (we had an incident a couple years ago where my mom penned 7 of my turkeys up in an old goat pen and they all became sick and died one by one. It was very tragic. He is acting almost the same but he is walking around (not stutting which is SO unlike him, in fact all of his feathers are down) and his head is sort of different pale colors, pink, red, just not the vibrant colors that you normally see in turkeys. And his head looks shriveled and old looking (including the snood). One of his eyes is closed ( I was thinking that the rooster that tries to take him on may have injured it but I am not sure) I checked it out and it looks a bit cloudy towards the edges of the eye (but no discharge), they other eye looks perfect. It is bright and clear with no dicharge. He isnt weezing or opening his mouth. He just seems under the weather and definitely doenst look like he is feeling very good. He is also a free range turkey and has his run of the whole yard. I have looked up as many things as I could on the internet about sick turkeys but have found nothing as yet to match any of his descriptions... he doesnt have a swollen head, not acting like he cant breath or opening his mouth. I am just not at all sure what I can do to help him. If there are ANY suggestions that you have I would LOVE to hear them as I have found myself at a dead end. It isnt like I can run him up the road to a turkey doctor as there are none near me. I will try anything! I was considering what if it is some sort of bacterial infection? I am no amatuer at giving vaccines either as we vaccinate our dairy goats so if there may be a medicine via vaccine that I can try then that wont be an issue either. I just want him better as I just adore my handsome man Thank you so much!

 

[SouthDakotan]

Sounds to me as though he may have gotten Black Head. Its spread from Chickens to Turkeys. They say its important to keep turkeys away from Chickens due to this disease as it will kill them. Not familiar with the disease personally though.

Check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackhead_disease and see if his symptoms sound like the disease.

Good luck!

 

[affacat]

Curious if this thread is alive. We have 8 poults a couple weeks old. We'd read up on raising turkeys, and are building them a coop (they are in a brooder right now) and were planning on free ranging them alongside our chickens.

We had read up on turkeys and the sources are quite disparate. Some say they are happy to share a coop with chickens. Some say they don't roost. Some say they like high roosts. Some say they don't want coops at all, but more of a manger set up (3 sided).

We thought we had it all figured out before we bought them and now we're concerned. We have 8 poults, around 50 chickens, and were planning on giving them their own 8x12 coop with private run which we'd open for freerange each day (works for our chickens).

Any comments? We'd prefer not to mess this up

 

[R2elk]

A lot of the information is true as long as you understand the context. The requirements are different for broad breasted than they are for heritage.

If blackhead is not a problem in your area, turkeys can live with chickens. There are other reasons to keep the turkeys separate from the chickens such as the safety of the chickens if a turkey should take exception to them. When keeping both together, it is beneficial to have lots of obstacles and hiding places that the chickens can use to escape the turkeys.

When a turkey gets something in its mind, it can be relentless until it accomplishes its purpose.

My heritage turkeys roost outside in all kinds of weather. Their roosts are staggered from 3 to 6 feet high. The location of the roosts is where they are protected from the prevailing wind.

They do require shade when the sun is shining even in the middle of winter. They require much more personal space than chickens need.

I strongly recommend not brooding poults and chicks together due to the problems that imprinting can cause when they are older.

 

[affacat]

A lot of the information is true as long as you understand the context. The requirements are different for broad breasted than they are for heritage.

If blackhead is not a problem in your area, turkeys can live with chickens. There are other reasons to keep the turkeys separate from the chickens such as the safety of the chickens if a turkey should take exception to them. When keeping both together, it is beneficial to have lots of obstacles and hiding places that the chickens can use to escape the turkeys.

When a turkey gets something in its mind, it can be relentless until it accomplishes its purpose.

My heritage turkeys roost outside in all kinds of weather. Their roosts are staggered from 3 to 6 feet high. The location of the roosts is where they are protected from the prevailing wind.

They do require shade when the sun is shining even in the middle of winter. They require much more personal space than chickens need.

I strongly recommend not brooding poults and chicks together due to the problems that imprinting can cause when they are older.

Hmmm. Well, we live in the Pacific Northwest. Are you saying we don't need to build them a proper coop, but rather just some general outdoor shelter and roosts? How do you teach them to use the roosts?

Do turkeys have a habit of jumping fences?

 

[R2elk]

Hmmm. Well, we live in the Pacific Northwest. Are you saying we don't need to build them a proper coop, but rather just some general outdoor shelter and roosts? How do you teach them to use the roosts?

Do turkeys have a habit of jumping fences?

A general shelter and roosts can work for heritage turkeys. My turkeys just naturally took to the roosts. Of course I had appropriate sized roosts in their grow out pen which they started using by the time they were 3 to 4 weeks old.

If your fence has a top bar or rail turkeys will view it as a desirable perch. Once up on the perch they will invariably get down on the wrong side of the fence and forget how to get back in.

I use 2"x4"x6' welded wire for my perimeter fence. On a rare occasion a turkey will go sailing over the south fence into my lower field and then need escorted back in. They do not attempt to jump the fence even though they can easily jump 6' high. There is no top bar or rail on my perimeter fence.