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

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cheeps

cheeps

Songster
11 Years
Jul 18, 2008
308
1
129
Rockwell, NC
I'm ready....give it to me: The good, the bad, the ugly!

I've got six narragansett eggs in the mail that should be here tomorrow. My husband's friend is incubating for us because we've never hatched before and I don't want my first go to be with my $50 eggs!! So, I'll have some day old poults when they hatch.

I've heard so many horror stories and have heard that a turkey poult "will try to kill himself for the first 6 months of his life." HOW??? What do I need to prepare for? I want to learn from you guy's mistakes! Tell me everything you wish you had known before hand.

Any bit of info will be most appreciated!
 
First, welcome to the world of turkeys! Now, you must know that those six eggs coming in the mail may or may not disappoint you. It all depends on whether or not the PO scrambled them or not. The best I've had was 5 of 6 hatch, and several times one or none. And I hatch my birds in a Brinsea incubator, IMO one of the best out there.

I've hatched and raised numerous poults over the years and find them relatively easy to rear. I've heard the horror stories too, but they aren't out to kill themselves. At least not in my experience. If you follow the rules for raising any poultry, you'll do fine in raising turkey poults. Keep them dry and warm, feed them a quality high protein crumble and plenty of fresh clean drinking water any your well on your way. One mistake I made years ago was putting the poults out into an open pen at too young an age. I placed them outside at 6 weeks and a summer thunderstorm drenched them. Ended up loosing a few to chills. They need to be fully feathered before I expose them to any of the elements.

If you have specific questions, feel free to PM me and I'll be glad to help!
smile.png
 
Awesome info! I do have one turkey, Gobbles, that "found" me. He wandered up on our property and moved in...we've enjoyed him so much and all I really want from these eggs are one hen to keep so Gobbles will have company. He seems so lonely, dancing and showing off at the chickens and me and the wild birds in the yard. He needs a wife! So with my luck, I'll have one egg hatch and watch it be a tom! But with any luck a few will hatch and I will have a few birds to chose from.

I have two 4 week old sex links in the brooder, could I put them in with them? Especially if only one hatches, for warmth. Do you feed your's chick starter/grower or something else?
 
If the chicks are 4 weeks old now, they'll be about 2 months old when the eggs hatch. I wouldn't put the poult(s) in with them until they are older, the chicks would probably kill them. I would start them on gamebird starter, regular chick starter doesn't have enough protien (you need around 28% for poults). Be very careful, poults are highly addictive! I have heard the horror stories too, fortunately a few years after I started raising turkeys or I would have been afraid to try. I have always treated them like chicken chicks and rarely had problems.
 
Well, if you listen to certain people chickens have horror stories too! I have had nothing but sucess raising chickens so I'm fairly confident moving over to poults. But after hearing they are suicidal from so many people I got worried!
 
Wow, Sharon, that's a great page that I just saved to my favorites because I'm sure I'll be needing it again and again!

I was wondering when Steve was gonna chime in...He's answered TONS of my questions when my turkey Gobbles showed up at my house!
 

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