Raising Poults and Chicks together?

[jaks2578]

Good afternoon all

I purchased one Royal Palm poult and one Broad Breasted Bronze poult along with 10 Silkie chicks from the local feed store. All were between one to three days old. They have been in the same brooder for approximately a week. Can I raise turkeys with chickens? What is Blackhead disease?

Thank you.

 

[casportpony]

This is a great article about blackhead.
https://attra.ncat.org/attra-pub/viewhtml.php?id=343

 

[R2elk]

View attachment 1816280 View attachment 1816281 Good afternoon all

I purchased one Royal Palm poult and one Broad Breasted Bronze poult along with 10 Silkie chicks from the local feed store. All were between one to three days old. They have been in the same brooder for approximately a week. Can I raise turkeys with chickens? What is Blackhead disease?

Thank you.

Depending on where you live you may or may not be able to keep turkeys and chickens together. Even if you can keep them together, I strongly recommend that you do not brood poults with chicks.

Turkey poults need a turkey or gamebird starter that is high in protein (usually 28 to 30% protein) and also require higher levels of lysine, methionine, and niacin. You can feed this to chicks also but they don't need the same levels as do turkeys.

The real problem is that turkey poults imprint very easily and quickly. If they are brooded with chicks, they lose the ability to understand that the chickens are not turkeys. When they are older and bigger than the chickens, they can cause severe harm and even death to the chickens when they treat them like they would other turkeys. If the poults turn out to be toms, they will try to breed the chickens when breeding season rolls around. This usually ends up with "flat" chickens.