Tell me EVERYTHING I need to know about turkey poults...

[taras.farm]

This is great info...gonna try turkeys this year for the first time too....

 

[cheeps]

Woo!

Look what came in the mail today...

 

[darbella]

I am so eggsited! I just purchased a pair (I hope it will be a pair) of Midget Whites. Anything special I need to know about these little guys?? They are 3 weeks old and I have them in with 5 bantam chicks that range in age from 2-4 weeks. They are all getting along fine (4 days now) and the chicks did show the poults where the water and feed was. I have game starter crumbles in there.

 

[Partyfowl]

You can order the ACV with "mother" through Vitacost.com $1.52 a bottle and shipping is only $4.99 no matter your quanity.

keep us posted on your hatch, I am new to turkeys as well.

 

[cheeps]

I sure will! I'm so excited. They went in the 'bator this morning.

 

[meriruka]

I had two die, one drowned in a chick waterer (be sure to put pebbles in it) and another escaped the brooder & drowned itself in the toilet (15 feet away in a different room) Mine were little Houdini escape artists, make sure you have a tight fitting screen or something on top of the brooder and weigh it down with a building or something......

 

[cheeps]

I'm going to start them in my chick brooder which is a large tupperware tub with a snap on lid. So *hopefully* they can't escape, but great advice! Now I know to watch out for little houdinis!

 

[meriruka]

You reminded me to add....... not to use nylon screen, the heat lamp will melt it.

 

[thaiturkey]

We have our first poults, just a few weeks old. BYC and books provide a lot of very useful information and we are on a very steep learning curve each day as we watch the babies eat and so on.

Sometimes there seems to be too much information and varying advice and it can be confusing to this newbie. I would like to make myself a timetable of what I should do and what I should expect from laying to adult maturity but it might be a very bad one coming from a novice. I know that it's not as simple as 123abc and there will be variables, exceptions and alternatives. Nevertheless, a basic guide to what to do or not do at each stage would help me, and perhaps others, to get the variables and alternatives into perspective.

I have in mind something like:

1. Laying - advice on natural incubation - environment, feeding the hen, temperature etc. Artificial incubation guidelines.

2. Hatching,- whether to keep poults with mother, medication and so on.

Would a few experienced members be willing and able to build up such a set of guidelines for us newbies, please?

Thanks.

 

[tannersmith2000]

Raising poults is not hard at all really imo

there are 3 things you have to do in order to be successful: I have raised 3 flocks about 30 birds and I have only had three not make it past the 2nd week.

1. you have to keep them warm for the first 3 weeks ( a heat lamp works best) between 88-95 is enough because they hubble up and sleep on each other for extra warmth.

2. poults need a high protein diet 28-30% protein (medicated feed with high protein = great grower)

3. keep water clean and rearing stations clean (at least two cleaings a day and clean water at least 2-3 times a day)

boom that's success with rearing poults in a nut shell

dont make it difficult...take care of them like babies should be treated, with care.