Poult Feed Schedule?

[CrazyTalk]

I have some Beltsville Small White poults that are about 10 weeks old now (born 6/15). I'm just coming to the end of a bag of starter and am wondering when to switch them to regular turkey food. I know I'm not there yet, but just trying to figure out how much food to buy.

I'm also wondering if anyone has any charts on how much food per bird should be consumed on a daily basis at each age - I know these charts are available for chickens - but haven't been able to find them for turkeys. I can't free feed because the chickens break in and take the food, and I really don't want the chickens on 28% turkey starter.

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

At 10 weeks they should be on 18-24% protein, mine are usually on 18% at that age. It can depend on whether you plan to butcher or not. I can't help with amount they eat.

 

[CrazyTalk]

Okay, so definitely step down from the Gamebird Starter.

Of course, in traditional Southern States style, their poultry guide recommends their 18% Grow-N-Finish feed, which doesn't seem to actually exist. Fantastic.

Would standard 18-20% chick starter work? What type of feed do you use?


As far as butchering, I think I'm at 5:4 at this point, so a couple are going to be butchered or sold - but the main plan is to keep 1:4 for next year and eat/sell/etc next year's poults. This is a flock establishment year basically.

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

Well I'm unconventional, I feed a chick start from the start because game bird is hard to find and often is old. This year I added a daily dose of scrambled eggs to bump up their protein and they grew faster than last year's batch that was only fed chick starter. If you are wanting to butcher than a higher protein feed will make them grow faster. Mine have already been switched off the chick starter and are fed a pelleted all flock which the adults receive. Mine are currently 12 weeks.

I fed my first batch exactly as recommended, than after that I experimented with feeding my way. So there's recommended and than there's what you want and what your goals are.

I would switch to the chick starter, that protein is good, than to whatever you are going to feed as adults after a bag or two. Turkeys have troubles eating a crumble after a certain age and do better with a pellet if you can find one.

 

[CrazyTalk]

Alright - thanks. Bought a couple bags of chick starter (20%) and when they're done with that I'll transition them to a standard all-flock food.

I assume I wait until I see eggs before swapping them onto layer?

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

I don't feed layer, I just put out some oyster shells and they stay on the all flock.