tips on how to raise turkey chicks!!!!

[sodabottlebantams]

have found that raising freshly hatched turkey chicks is not the same as baby chicks.
any suggestions?
thanks

 

[A.T. Hagan]

The first three days are the most important.

A cold, wet poult is soon a dead poult so keep them properly warm (but not too warm this time of year).

If you're new to turkeys I'd feed medicated starter. They need a higher protein level than chickens so 24% protein at a minimum and 28-30% is optimal.

They are slower to learn to eat and drink than chicks so if I haven't hatched any chicks with them I dip their beaks in the water then set them down on top of their feed at least three times that first day, typically an hour or so apart.

I generally put them in the grow-out pen between 4-6 weeks, but this is weather dependent. Hot and dry you can do it closer to four weeks. Cool and/or wet then older is better. Really wet especially combined with cool then maybe eight weeks. I wouldn't put them on ground that has had a lot of other birds on it, particularly chickens. Blackhead is not very common, but it does happen. Watch for signs of illness the first three or four weeks they go onto the ground.

Other than that proceed as you would with chicks.