New to turkeys

[Over_Easy47]

First time raising turkeys!
Can you tell me anything important?
Can you sex turkeys at a young age?
Including a couple pics

 

[R2elk]

First time raising turkeys!
Can you tell me anything important?
Can you sex turkeys at a young age?
Including a couple pics

Read the threads in the Turkeys - Sticky Topics Index.

Do not feed them chick starter. Turkey poults should be fed a quality high protein turkey or gamebird starter that has the higher levels of lysine, methionine and niacin they need for proper growth and development.

Very experienced turkey raisers may be able to correctly predict sex based on observation of the poults. For most people, turkey poults first become sexable between 3 and 6 months old with some late developing toms taking even longer.

For your amusement you can try @Celie method for sexing young poults. Be sure to also read her second post for clarification.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/turkeys-for-2013.725829/page-276#post-11833820

https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/turkeys-for-2013.725829/page-276#post-11836985

 

[Over_Easy47]

Yes they eat game bird feed. Do you need to wait 8 weeks before letting them go outside?

 

[R2elk]

Yes they eat game bird feed. Do you need to wait 8 weeks before letting them go outside?

It all depends on the situation. If I have the hen with them, they get to be outside at any age except I prefer to keep them out of the general population until they are at least 2 weeks old. Ones that I raise in the brooder are fully feathered and acclimated to the ambient temperature before they get to go out. This is usually 4 weeks old for mine.

There is no harm in taking them out for short supervised outings on good warm days at almost any age. Make sure they don't get chilled.