Turkenstein25's Turkey Talk for 2015

[racinchickins]

Well headed into spring my flock now has 14 hens and 3 toms. Hens are 5 black spanish, 2 pure chocolates, 2 royal palms, 2 bourbon reds, 2 blue slates and 1 narri. Toms are 1 bourbon red and a blue slate blue and blue slate black.

Hopefully I will let the hens brood a few chicks. The rest I will hatch in an incubator.

Plan to keep a few of the chicks for replacements
Butcher a few.

One question would it be better to get a couple more toms to match hens and seperate flock a nd have pure bred chicks. If i get more chicks than i or friends can use might try to sell them but am not sure if heritage breed mix chicks would sell.

my experience is that even mixed breed chicks sell pretty well, but you can't price them anywhere near what you can pure breed chicks. I usually get 30-40% less for the mixes. But it's all in what you want out of them.

 

[jdduck]

Awwww!  Could you post pics as they grow?  We decided not to try turkeys this year, so I must enjoy them via other people.

I have sold this batch already but if I find the slates that I'm looking for I will.

 

[Peepers4Piper]

Hi all! Brand spanking new (almost) turkey mama here! I've ordered my first batch of poults that will be arriving in May. I've ordered 5 BRs, 5 blacks and 5 midget whites. The better half has tried to talk me out of getting them because of the disease issue of raising them on the same property with chickens. I'm curious...if you've let your chickens free range in the past does the risk of your flock catching blackhead ever go away? I'm going to let the turkeys free range as much as possible and build a huge run to keep the chickens safe and happy. I'd love to hear thoughts from the experts here... Looking forward to joining your ranks! . -Piper

 

[Book Em Danno25]

Hi all! Brand spanking new (almost) turkey mama here! I've ordered my first batch of poults that will be arriving in May. I've ordered 5 BRs, 5 blacks and 5 midget whites. The better half has tried to talk me out of getting them because of the disease issue of raising them on the same property with chickens. I'm curious...if you've let your chickens free range in the past does the risk of your flock catching blackhead ever go away? I'm going to let the turkeys free range as much as possible and build a huge run to keep the chickens safe and happy. I'd love to hear thoughts from the experts here... Looking forward to joining your ranks!

. -Piper

Welcome to BYC!! Glad to have you

 

[chknoodles]

The disease is "blackhead" and it isn't prevalent in all areas. Our area doesn't have it, so I have extra cockerels in one of my turkey pens. If your area does have blackhead, you will need to coop/house your turkeys separately and on land that has been chicken free for 2-3 years. What I mean by "chicken-free" is that chickens have not been concentrated in that area..like in an old chicken coop/chicken run. As for free-ranging..as long as the property is large and your chicken flock is not, then there shouldn't be too much risk. If you only have a small lot for them to free-range, then it probably isn't a good idea.

 

[Peepers4Piper]

Thx chknoodles! I haven't heard of it being prevalent around here but when you research raising turkeys that's of course one of the things that pop up. We moved to 15 acres last year and at the moment we have 5 chickens. Actually those 5 are the only ones that have ever been on the property. I am getting a few more chicks this spring but plan on keeping them with my current flock in the new and improved chicken run. The turkey coop will be on the outside of the chicken yard in hopes of further mitigating any risk. I guess I was just curious as to how long it would take before blackhead could no longer be deemed an issue on a piece of ground. Sounds like 3 years might a good rule of thumb? Thx for the insight!

 

[SoProlix]

Thx chknoodles! I haven't heard of it being prevalent around here but when you research raising turkeys that's of course one of the things that pop up. We moved to 15 acres last year and at the moment we have 5 chickens. Actually those 5 are the only ones that have ever been on the property. I am getting a few more chicks this spring but plan on keeping them with my current flock in the new and improved chicken run. The turkey coop will be on the outside of the chicken yard in hopes of further mitigating any risk. I guess I was just curious as to how long it would take before blackhead could no longer be deemed an issue on a piece of ground. Sounds like 3 years might a good rule of thumb? Thx for the insight!

In your situation (first chickens on the property, not a known problem in the area), I'd guess there's little risk of blackhead. We were in a similar position last year. We had a flock of over 14 chickens that were all about 6 months old. We ordered turkeys and guineas, which we brooded in the chicken coop and still house them all together. Turkeys and guineas are 8 months old now and haven't had any problems with disease.

Not recent, but here are a few of our birds out together:

 

[SoProlix]

So excited about turkeys this year! Got ours too late last year for Thanksgiving. First confirmed turkey mating this week. Eagerly awaiting our first eggs.

-How many turkeys do you have? 7 BRs, 2 toms and 5 hens. The plan was to keep a trio for breeding.... But on second thought, maybe we should keep a backup tom or go for a quad....
-How many poults do you plan on hatching? As many as possible, if they sell. Shopping for incubators now.
-What breeds do you want/have? BRs. My first choice had been midget whites, but now that I have them I love my BRs. I like their look and personalities. We do have one hen that is a little aggressive with the other birds. I'm sure she'll be delicious. Not interested in separating breeding flocks, so sticking with BRs for a while.
-where are you getting your eggs from? Hopefully our own birds.
-will you be raising your turkeys for meat? Yep.
-will you be raising them for pets, etc? I enjoy all my birds, but they are practical as well. Plan to put a few in the freezer and sell poults to cover our costs.
-what type of housing are you going to use for your birds? We converted a section of an old barn into a chicken coop last year and house all the birds there. Added a pallet leaned against one wall for a turkey nest (I hope). Not sure where we'll brood this year yet.
-what will you feed them? Free range, local layer crumble for dinner, and wheat/oats/BOSS/millet/squash/kitchen scraps/meal worms as treats and snacks.
-will you be using an incubator to hatch your eggs? That's the plan. Will be my first time. Still trying to decide if I want to try to make one or just buy one. They ain't exactly cheap, are they?
-do you want your hens to be broody so they can hatch eggs? Yes, but not right away. I'm really curious what impact being hen raised has on the rate of growth, interest in foraging, and temperament in all our birds.
-what kinds of waterers, feeders,etc will you be using? I have buckets with nipples in the coop that all the birds hate. But they aren't in the coop much and I have acquiesced to having a standard fountain outside for them. Plus the creek's not far.. They still like puddles best. I haven't found a feeder that I like. Right now we use a couple buckets with little pockets cut in them (if that makes any sense) and throw a lot of food out in the yard for them. Someday we'll figure out something that is cheap, easy to fill, rodent and song bird proof.

 

[Bush84]

My pregnant wife (I mention pregnant because she always gets a bit grumpy when pregnant) has decided that she was going to be adamantly against turkeys. That is unfortunate for me. Was going to get some br this year.

Here's a quick question. How does everybody manage toms for breeding? I suppose your first batch will likely have a male, but what do you do when that Tom get to old? Are you supposed to buy another from somewhere and where do you get a single male?

 

[chknoodles]

I don't know when exactly a TOM gets too old...LOL. Our oldest boy is Clyde. He is a 5 year old Rio Grande and still does his duty. I have heard that some breeders will only use a Tom for 1 or 2 seasons, then retire him (u can decide how to define "retirement") and start the 3rd season with new boy. The reason is that the Toms get big and pretty heavy by the end of year 2 and they don't want their hens damaged. This is our Heritage Bronze boy's 2nd Spring and he is getting to the 30 lb mark, so we will have to decide if we will "retire" him or not. As for replacements,,one of his sons. But if we didn't have extra males here..we'd look for a breeder and buy one that way.