raising chicks and poults together till about 6 weeks

[debbyvenus]

I have heard of conflicting answers to this. I've heard raising them together with a ratio of 5 chicks to every 1 poult till 6 weeks is ok. Then the chicks can go outside if warm enough, then in another 2-3 weeks poults can go out. I was planning on keeping them in seperate pasture from then on. Anyone have any experiences to help me out on? Thanks.

 

[emryst]

I incubated turkey eggs and chicks together and I only had 1 turkey hatch and about 18 chicks... they were all raised together with some ducklings. At one point i had to separate the ducks and chickens because the chickens were pecking the ducks' wings and making them bleed. However I only had to segregate the turkey for a few days when he had a little owie that the chickens would peck at. Once that healed he was let out. Now the ducks, chickens, and turkey live together in peace.

I plan on raising 20 turkeys with 25 chickens this spring. Hoping it works out well!

 

[r4eboxer]

I am gonig to be doing the same thing. I have read to put chickens in the the poults so they can teach them how to eat. Then I read not to mix chicks and turkeys due to blackhead disease. I'm torn. I have 16 poults, 10 chicks and 12 eggs (due out of the incubator) coming around the 11th of April. Right now my plan is to go ahead and put the chicks in with the poults. I'm hoping it will only take a few days for my poults to learn to eat. If there is an issue I will have a back up brooder to put the chicks in.

I figure I've only got a few weeks in the same brooder anyway as the poults are going to quickly outgrow the chicks. I plan on taking some of the old timers advice and move my chicks as soon as they feather out to my grow out pen beside my big coop.

 

[ColbyNTX]

Your main problem besides them beating up on eachother is the poults and chicks have very different nutritional needs. The poults need to be on a diet of 28-30% protien from day 1 to 12 weeks or so. The chicks need abour 20% feed. The extra protien for the chicks will be very costly and wasteful and the high protien usually gives the chicks pasty butt! This is why I usually use guinea keets as trainers for my new poults. Same incubation and same feed requirements. People who use chicken chicks as trainers usuall only do so for 2-3 days and then the chicks are removed.