Topic of the week - Keeping different poultry types together

[BantyChooks]

Got a question for you, Banti

: did you raise the male guineas with the roosters?

@DuckGirl77 Yes, I did. Nearly all fowl were brought in as chicks or eggs, and they are put outside at a few weeks old to ensure they are raised with the flock.

 

[DuckGirl77]

@DuckGirl77 Yes, I did. Nearly all fowl were brought in as chicks or eggs, and they are put outside at a few weeks old to ensure they are raised with the flock.

Ok, thanks!

 

[Lizzy733]

I bunk the trend a bit and keep my chickens and turkey together, but there is also a male pen and a female pen on separate sides of the garden, out of direct line of sight.

Admittedly, all my boys are a bit young. Roosters just getting their spurs and jakes, their beards, but no infighting amongst them.

In the hen pen, half are older and my two young jennys don't generally cause trouble.

The boys get a relatively low protein meatbird crumble (20%) for the extra vitamins, while the girls get pullet grower, shell grit on the side and a small feeder of game bird on a high platform. They all seem to take it ad-lib, but most chickens won't go out of their way to raid the high feeder like the turkeys do.

 

[PirateGirl]

I bunk the trend a bit and keep my chickens and turkey together, but there is also a male pen and a female pen on separate sides of the garden, out of direct line of sight.

Admittedly, all my boys are a bit young. Roosters just getting their spurs and jakes, their beards, but no infighting amongst them.

In the hen pen, half are older and my two young jennys don't generally cause trouble.

The boys get a relatively low protein meatbird crumble (20%) for the extra vitamins, while the girls get pullet grower, shell grit on the side and a small feeder of game bird on a high platform. They all seem to take it ad-lib, but most chickens won't go out of their way to raid the high feeder like the turkeys do.

I came on BYC today specifically to look for advice on a mixed flock and got lucky that it’s the topic of the week. Yours is the only recent post mentioning turkeys so I’m looking for guidance.

Currently I have 4 chickens (female) and 4 ducks (includes one drake). They have separate coops they are locked in at night (no big barn or anything), and a larger fenced area they all mingle in during the day. I was thinking of adding a pair of turkeys. Do you think I need to be particular with the turkeys’ sex? If I only have a pair is it better if they are both females in the same way that my drake needs many ladies? Would they rather house with the chickens at night than the ducks or do they need their own separate space entirely?

My biggest concerns are really if turkeys play nice with others and if they need separate housing?

Any input appreciated! TIA

 

[Lizzy733]

I came on BYC today specifically to look for advice on a mixed flock and got lucky that it’s the topic of the week. Yours is the only recent post mentioning turkeys so I’m looking for guidance.

Currently I have 4 chickens (female) and 4 ducks (includes one drake). They have separate coops they are locked in at night (no big barn or anything), and a larger fenced area they all mingle in during the day. I was thinking of adding a pair of turkeys. Do you think I need to be particular with the turkeys’ sex? If I only have a pair is it better if they are both females in the same way that my drake needs many ladies? Would they rather house with the chickens at night than the ducks or do they need their own separate space entirely?

My biggest concerns are really if turkeys play nice with others and if they need separate housing?

Any input appreciated! TIA

Turkeys like to perch 'very' high. They will prefer to sleep at the highest point unless the weather is nasty. We live in a very hot humid environment with little in the way of predators, so have an open lean-to style setup at the moment. There are large branch roosts underneath at varying heights. Which everyone uses midday in the heat, but most nights, the turkeys will be on the roof. In the boy pen the jakes and the roos like sleeping on top of the raspberry trellis when the weather is good, which is a little above head height.

What are your plans for the turkey? Do you plan on breeding? Growing out to eat? Eggs? Pets?

We brought our five in as 3 week old poults and hand-raised them (they are like a little puppy which will follow you everywhere and it's adorable). They went out with the chickens around 6 weeks old, so were mingling from a young age. Boys got split off a few months ago as we want a lot of control over breeding and hatching (we want meat longterm, but these are our breeder stock). I think it's helped let the boys be boys, as cockerels and jakes can be a bit uppity in general. I was told 2 jakes and 3 jennys would be ideal so we had one backup boy, but of course it ended up the other way around.

They can be quite brutal when they fight and peck, even in the brooder. I've trained nasty pecking out of most if them. I just pin them when they get nippy with me, shove them right to the ground and hold them there. My boys still can be a bit pokey through the fence, but are mostly fine when I'm in with them.

I think a combination of letting them all mature together, watching them closely, and actively policing has done me well, but they are still young so I don't know if things will change come breeding season, and we are in late summer now, so still a ways off.

There are big medical concerns with raising them together as turkey are very sensitive to blackhead - which I've never had in my flock - and I try to keep up my biosecurity and bring in eggs when I can over new birds. Also, I have been told 'imprinted' turkeys may not be too keen on breeding, which is a bridge we'll have to cross. Mine are definitely imprinted and my boys happily display every time I come to see them and one of my girls is a lap bird. We'll see how things go when we get to that point, but I'm still pretty new to this too.

All I can say is they're all living in peace. I had one jenny chasing my frizzle around the other day and was a bit concerned till I realized she had a mouse and they were playing keep away. They spent about an hour taking turns with that thing. Never got to see who won.

 

[TexasTurkeyMama]

Hi. We have chickens and ducks. We have had turkeys in the past and will have them again this year. When you add another species you are adding another layer of work. We call it "Mom's Gym".

Chickens and ducks will put themselves inside their coops at sunset and you just close them.

Ducks love to make mud and play in the water, but no one wants to sleep in the mud. You
will have to work the enclosure to keep it from becoming a bog, which is no good for chicken and turkey feet.

Turkeys will put themselves in the highest trees, but not higher than the bobcats can climb.

They will all get along if they have room to spread out.

 

[Tallisdibrani]

Hi when my ducks chickens and geese were little they used to stay together and had the same food we had two male chickens one of them acted like a girl and was fine with the other one and the other one was fine with the girl one lol there was one male goose who used to chase the chickens and the two ducks so we separated them the two ducks and chickens we don’t have those male chickens anymore one was to aggressive and one passed away but even now the ducks get fine with the chickens they all try and find out who is boss but with the geese they try to chase all of them but they still have the same food.