Hi everyone, New member with six chicks and a turkey pullet! My husband and I have wanted free range chickens for a while to help with bugs around our home. We have several wooded acres and could use the help with the ticks and other bugs. Not to mention the eggs! We've had the little ones for several weeks and have recently moved them out to the coop. They're doing great outside but still have a heat lamp at night. They won't be let outside the coop until they're fully grown. I've read up some on blackhead, and I'm a little worried about keeping the turk with the chickens, but as far as I know, it's not a problem in my area. The Turk was a "freebie" from the feed store. He was getting mercilessly plucked by the others so they offered him to us when we bought the chickens. Poor little guy looked like he wasn't going to make it when we brought him home, but we cleaned him up and kept him seperate for a few days and now he's looking great. He's happy with the chicks and doesn't seem to notice that he's a really big funny-looking chicken. The hands-on attention has made him much friendlier than the chicks. He's an awesome little guy. My husband wanted to call him Jive Turkey, but I insisted on the Jive Tofu instead because "we don't eat tofu." Hope to learn a lot here!
Hi and welcome to BYC - great that you have joined us. You'll find lots of info in the Learning Centre - https://www.backyardchickens.com/atype/1/Learning_Center and if you have a specific topic in mind, just type it in the search box - there's a wealth of information on past and present threads. You may wish to consider joining your state thread as it will put you in touch with other BYC members in your area - https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/270925/find-your-states-thread#post_3239224 All the best CT
G’Day from down under JiveTofu Welcome! As you have already received some links to great starting points, I will just wish you all the best. I hope you enjoy being a BYC member. There are lots of friendly and very helpful folks here so not only is it overflowing with useful information it is also a great place to make friends and have some fun. If you would like to share pictures and stories of your flock, you have come to the right place. BYC’ers never tire of these and do not back away slowly or commence eye rolling when the photo album or home videos come out
The problem with a tom turkey is, without female turkeys, he will turn his attention to the chickens hens. Turkey's can and have killed chickens by trying to breed them. So you will have to work around them when he gets to breeding age (whenever that is with turkeys)
Greetings from Kansas, JiveTofu, and ! Great to have you aboard! Looks like CTKen, D'Diva, and Teila have already given you some great advice so I'll just say best wishes and thanks for joining BYC!
drumstick diva makes a good point about the turkey...something to be aware of. Glad you're enjoying the birds, thanks for joining us!
