Seed blocks?

[CPT]

Hi all!

My gregarious Toms and Hens (5 of them all together) just absolutely LOVE mealworms! They like the 20% pellets and cracked corn, but only eat it a little and then they come up to my front porch or front door and gobble because they want more mealworms. A 30 oz bag of mealworms costs $20.00 and they go right through it within a few days! It's driving me crazy. I bought this seed block with sunflower seeds, millet, and other healthy goodies. The turkeys seem to like it as they forage through it throughout the day. Wish I could find a seedblock (not those cakes) with mealworms mixed in too. What other creative ideas do you all do for your turkeys? Trying to cut back on multiple trips to the feed store, as temps are dipping here in Idaho and want to keep them happy.

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

I put mine in a fence so they can't harass me on my door step. Mine go nuts for boss, but I have to limit it otherwise they get too much internal fat. Don't be held hostage by your turkeys. They can be persistent.

 

[R2elk]

Hi all!

My gregarious Toms and Hens (5 of them all together) just absolutely LOVE mealworms! They like the 20% pellets and cracked corn, but only eat it a little and then they come up to my front porch or front door and gobble because they want more mealworms. A 30 oz bag of mealworms costs $20.00 and they go right through it within a few days! It's driving me crazy. I bought this seed block with sunflower seeds, millet, and other healthy goodies. The turkeys seem to like it as they forage through it throughout the day. Wish I could find a seedblock (not those cakes) with mealworms mixed in too. What other creative ideas do you all do for your turkeys? Trying to cut back on multiple trips to the feed store, as temps are dipping here in Idaho and want to keep them happy.

You probably should cut back on how many mealworms you are feeding. Too much of a good thing can be harmful to your turkeys. Mealworms and black oil sunflower seeds should be considered treats and treats should not exceed more than 10% of the total diet.

 

[CPT]

Very true.....I was feeding them too much of those things, and their poo really stunk to high heaven. I basically went to filling up a bucket halfway with corn, then mixing in some chicken crack, oats and mealworms, then distribute. They foraged through that along with the chickens. I just leave out 20% pellets in feeders and a seed block for the remainder of the day. We let our birds free range all day, and put them up at night.

 

[R2elk]

Very true.....I was feeding them too much of those things, and their poo really stunk to high heaven. I basically went to filling up a bucket halfway with corn, then mixing in some chicken crack, oats and mealworms, then distribute. They foraged through that along with the chickens. I just leave out 20% pellets in feeders and a seed block for the remainder of the day. We let our birds free range all day, and put them up at night.

Unless you are fattening them up for processing, corn is another high fat, low protein food that should fall into the treat category.

 

[CPT]

No, keeping them as pets. They are just the sweetest birds and very intelligent--two of them like being held and cuddled; we have 4 black turkeys and one bronze. I'll feed them less corn. But at the same time, corn adds calories and fat to the diet and gives the turkeys something to burn to keep them warm at night. I also give them some cut up apples/bananas/berries. The temps are into the teens in the morning now, just trying to give them some high energy food. They walk around the property all day, so they get plenty of exercise! They love eggs, too. I'll probably buy some store-bought eggs and hard boil/chop up; it will be handy to keep that extra protein in stock.

 

[R2elk]

No, keeping them as pets. They are just the sweetest birds and very intelligent--two of them like being held and cuddled; we have 4 black turkeys and one bronze. I'll feed them less corn. But at the same time, corn adds calories and fat to the diet and gives the turkeys something to burn to keep them warm at night. I also give them some cut up apples/bananas/berries. The temps are into the teens in the morning now, just trying to give them some high energy food. They walk around the property all day, so they get plenty of exercise! They love eggs, too. I'll probably buy some store-bought eggs and hard boil/chop up; it will be handy to keep that extra protein in stock.

Hard boiled eggs are good but don't think of them as a source of high protein. They are only about 12% protein. As far as the corn goes, too much fat can cause all kinds of organ damage.

My adult turkeys get the same quality 16% protein layer feed that my chickens get. I do not give them treats so they are not getting any mealworms, sunflower seeds or corn. They get to free range daily if they want to. Their main supplement are the Russian Olives that they have to forage for.

My oldest hen will be 10 in the spring and her daughter will be 9. The oldest one seems to have some arthritic concerns due to some hard matings from a poor breeding tom years ago. Both of those hens are looking good otherwise. All the other hens and toms are doing fine.

My temperatures lately have been getting into the single digits and will get to -30°F at some time during the winter. My turkeys do fine without all the extras that you seem to feel they need.

 

[CPT]

Ok.....those are some good ideas. However, the ground is practically frozen here, so there's not much they can forage. I'll pick up an extra feeder, I have some 18% pellets that I can put up here closer to the house. Our house sits on a hill and the farm /coop/goat yard is just down the hill.

Where do you house your turkeys?

 

[Krazyquilts]

Ok.....those are some good ideas. However, the ground is practically frozen here, so there's not much they can forage. I'll pick up an extra feeder, I have some 18% pellets that I can put up here closer to the house. Our house sits on a hill and the farm /coop/goat yard is just down the hill.

Where do you house your turkeys?

My five Narragansett's are about 6 months old have 24 hour access to 20% protein chick crumbles. They don't seem like it as much as the whole-grain style 16% layer feed I was giving them, but I felt they needed higher protein and the whole-grain style feed was almost four times as expensive as the crumbles. And since the 25 stupid nearly useless guineas eat whatever the turkeys eat, I couldn't justify the extra cost.

Our current set up, which I'm not thrilled with for a lot of reasons, is a LGD-guarded electric mesh pasture with a camper-turned-coop. In the pasture are about 25 guineas, 14 ducks, 5 turkeys, and about 18 chickens (mostly babies and teenagers). The ducks and chickens are very well behaved and put themselves to bed each night in the camper but unless the weather is really bad, most of the guineas and turkeys insist on sleeping either on the camper or in the large tree in the pasture. We used to force them into the camper every night, which involved my husband climbing on top of the camper and pushing them off with a 15-foot pole and then we'd chase/herd them into the camper, but I just kept worrying about my husband falling and decided that if the stupid things insisted on being owl bait, then oh well. So far we haven't lost any.

 

[Smuvers Farm]

Can you make your own flock block? They're pretty easy to make, and you can put your dried mealworms into it.