Poults kinda' sloppy looking. Normal?

[Hummingbird Hollow]

This is my first time with turkeys. I have 4 BBW poults that are a little over 6 weeks old. They seem feathered out on the body, but their heads still have some fluffiness. I've noticed that while they seem active and alert and otherwise healthy, their feathers look sort of sloppy and ragged around the edges, more like a feather I'd pick off the floor of my;chicken run than the sleek, well "zipped" looking feathers on my adult chickens. They are in a 6'X12' tractor on fresh grass, but look kind of dirty and sloppy, like they just took a nice dirt bath and haven't taken the time to preen. Can anyone tell me if this is normal or whether it indicates a health issue?

 

[Big Dan]

I have never raised bbw, but I have done a ton of BBB and br and all of them look like mangy and unkept around that age the. broad breast ones start to get more normal looking feathering around 8 weeks. I wouldn't be worried. As long as they are eating and drinking and acting normal.

 

[Hummingbird Hollow]

Thanks. I know chickens go through an ugly stage as the leave their cute chickines behind but before all their adult feathers grow in with bald patches in some places, funky pin-feathers sticking out in others and remaining tufts of fluffiness in odd patches. So I was mostly confident that the unkempt appearance of my poults fell into the same category but figured it wouldn't hurt to ask the more experienced turkey folks.

 

[Big Dan]

Not a problem. Turkeys are a blast to raise. We raise hundreds of chickens and newer to turkeys but we've been doing them the past couple years. Turkeys are my favorite. Are you raising them for meat?

 

[Hummingbird Hollow]

Not a problem. Turkeys are a blast to raise. We raise hundreds of chickens and newer to turkeys but we've been doing them the past couple years. Turkeys are my favorite. Are you raising them for meat?

Yes. I currently have 7 adult hens, 6 4-week old pullets and 18, 2 week old Red ranger chicks as well as the 4 turkey poults. This is my third year with chickens but only my second year with meat chickens. I probably wouldn't have ventured into turkeys except a friend of mine got all excited when I mentioned being tempted by them when I saw some at the feed store and said that if I got turkeys she'd like me to get 3 or 4 for her as well, she'd come up and help with the harvesting and butchering on the big day. I went back to the feed store where I'd seen them and they only had 4 left, so that's how many I have. I think I was lucky because it looks like there are 2 toms and 2 hens, which we can split evenly. While I'm really getting more interested in the heritage breeds, I think I may also be lucky with the fact that the poults I purchased were already almost 4 weeks old, so they already knew about food and water and I didn't suffer any of the losses that you can have when you order chicks or poults through the mail. If this is a successful experience, I imagine I'll be doing it again next year.