Need Wild Turkey Advice!!!!

[lauren3321]

A friend gave me a wild turkey egg that she saw a turkey lay and leave (not in a nest or anything). She had been incubating it at 85 degrees on a heating pad and but decided she couldn't keep it. I took it assuming that nothing would probably come of it, as it was already 5 days old and showed no signs of life when candled. I put it in my incubator just in case (at 99 degrees). But now (11 days after being layed I see something in there and now I am panicking. I haven't been turning it as regularly as I should have because I was just a day or so away from giving up. I have three chickens and I thought I could just keep it with them but as I am researching, apparently they can give eachother diseases? So, my questions are: 1) How likely is it that something bad would happen if I kept one turkey and three chickens together? I just have a backyard, no acreage, so I don't know how I could make a separate enclosure for it. 2) Is it possible to let it go after it is a little older? If I can't keep it with my chickens I think I would have to. Unless it would not survive, then I will figure something else out. 3) If I did keep it as a pet, would it be lonely since it would be the only one of its kind? Please help, I am sort of freaking out now that I know it is actually alive.

 

[Alexander]

I can help you with the diseases.Some say that chickens pass blackhead to turkeys.Black head isnt lethal for chickens but it sure is for turkeys.I have them together and nothing has ever happened.You never know.Are you sure you can keep the poult?Because it is wild you may not be authorized to keep it?I don't know.

 

[lauren3321]

I don't know if I am allowed to keep it or not. The girl that gave it to me, her dad is a vet so I would think he would have said something if I couldn't but I really don't know. Anyone else know?

 

[jasonm11]

they will be fine together 99% of the time. Not sure if you have blackhead in youre area but if you do it may kill it if not treated. It may hatch out (28 day incubation) and it might actually make it if you are diligent in its care. If toss out the egg now it WILL die. You started incubating it, keep going and enjoy the experience. You really have nothing to lose and a pet that can live 1- 20 yrs to gain. turkeys are freindly and funny, require a little more care than chickens and require a high protein game starter feed for the first couple months. Other than that easy as anything else.

 

[jimmythechicken]

you can not keep an raise wild turkys in most states without a permit.most states have a pretty hefty fine for haveing eggs or birds.what state are you it is it ct if so i can email you a list of wildlife rehabers you can contact an once they hatch they will come get it.i would def start making some calls to find out what you can do with it when it hatchs.we just hatched 11 wilds we called them the day after getting the eggs an a great wild life rehaber cam an picked up our chicks 3 days after they hatched.we hatched 11 of them.

 

[lauren3321]

wyoming. i am skeptical that any official would do anything short of euthanizing it here.

 

[blkwdw]

I found a nest a hen had abandoned and hatched out 12 eggs thinking nothing ventured nothing gained, they were as wild as if I had found the babies in a field, I raised them on wild turkey feed til they were ~ 3 months old and let them go, they never did calm down, in my research, I read it takes 3 generations of breeding wild turkeys to breed out the wildness that is ingrained in them. Maybe hatching with tame chicks will make a difference. It is illegal in most states to keep wild animals without a license, but...
Good Luck