Poults and chicks living together?

[TimG]

I'm considering raising a couple of turkeys this year. Would there be any problem if I started them in the same pen as a few dozen Freedom Rangers? I've never raised turkeys, but assume they will be bigger than Freedom Rangers of the same age -- might there be a problem with turkeys picking on chickens?

Turkeys generally get a higher protein feed than chickens (even meat chickens) right? But, if I'm not worried about being as efficient as possible with the turkeys, it won't matter if the turkeys eat the same feed as the chickens for a few weeks, will it?

Thanks,
Tim

 

[HEChicken]

I've actually wondered the same thing so will be interested to see other replies. At the feed store the other day, they had a bin of poults and I was stunned by how similar they looked to the chicks at this age! In fact, I initially thought they WERE chicks and looked to see what "breed", only to see "Turkey". I thought they had the sign wrong, but looked again and kind of thought......weeeeeelllll, I guess the legs ARE a *little* longer.....LOL.

 

[TimG]

A local person who has raised both chickens and turkey, but never together, said she didn't see why the chicks couldn't be in the same brooder. Still looking for the opinion of someone with experience.

 

[bigredfeather]

There is a video on Youtube with Joel Salatin that talks about this. He said it is actually beneficial for the poults to be in with chicken peeps. He claims that poults aren't very smart and often times can't figure out where the food and water is. He said the peeps will teach them. He recommends 1 poult per 5 peeps. I am going to try this with my Fall batch of Cornishes. I want to have a few turkeys for Thanksgiving, so the timing will be great.

BTW, I can't believe how expensive poults are.

 

[A.T. Hagan]

I brooded my White Midgets with the Delawares and Jersey Giants I got from Sand Hill last year. Everything went fine. Tractored them together until they needed the extra space which is when I separated them into their own tractors. I fed them all gamebird starter which is the only change I made from the way I brood just chicks.

.....Alan.

 

[Brunty_Farms]

Ya, they actually benefit from being together as long as you do not have a blackhead problem. Chickens are immune to it... turkey's not so much.

Turkey's are not the brightest animals in the poultry world. They are like dogs and will follow you everywhere, but when it comes to survival they are fragile for the first 6 weeks. After that they are tough as nails.

The chicks catch on to the water and feed way quicker than turkeys do which is why it benefits to have them around.... they teach them how to drink and eat. Sounds dumb but it does work. I put about 15 broiler chicks / 100 turkeys in the brooder. It works great, last year I had two loses out of 300 in the brooder and I think the chicks had a lot to do with that.

 

[jaku]

Quote:
So then, should I keep the six I'm getting in the brooder for six weeks before putting them out in the tractor?

 

[Dust Bunny]

Quote:
ya that's how i defied my hubby and got a turk poult, they DO look like chicks at that age

 

[chickenwhisperer]

My small flock was 4 weeks old when the dog got em, but the BB turkey poults were wayyyy smaller than the cornishx that were the same age.
The turkeys were much more cautious and shy compared to the huge,bumbling cornishx.

I have yet to see what an 8 week old turkey looks like, but I suspect it will still be smaller than the cornishx.

Both turkeys and meat chickens can eat the same food.
I would buy bags of both and mix it together, or get the cheaper of the 2.

Turkeys go on another 3-5 months after the cornish are butchered, you could almost raise 3 batches of cornish to 1 batch of turkeys, till butcher.


Now, Im sure that putting a bunch of week old cornishx in with a 2-8 month old turkey would be a problem . . .

Its been my experience that that one bin with "turkeys" are meat or BB types