Turkey Poults picking on chicks???

[RoosterJosh]

Everything I read prepared me for the exact opposite, but when my chicks and poults arrived yesterday it was not the chicks picking on the poults, but the other way around. The chicks are kind of minding their own business picking at inanimate objects while the poults seem to stab at anything that moves. Is it stress from the long trip in their shipping crate???

 

[junkprospector]

it sounds like curiousity. Turkey's seem infinitely more curious about their surroundings and want to check everyting out with a few pecks. i think i'd just let them be for a little while - destress and figure out the pecking order a little bit.

 

[kuntrygirl]

How big is your brooder? Do they have enough room to roam around and get away from each other? They may calm down and stop picking in a day or so. My poults will do that as well but eventually it stops.

 

[RoosterJosh]

Yes thev have stopped almost entirely about a day after I wrote this. Everything was going great until this morning. I Lost 1 of my 12 poults last night. One of the Royal Palms.

He looked like he was trampled but I cant tell for sure. He just seemed broken. Another one of the 20 chicks we had was dead too. They are all together in a 6 foot kiddie pool with 2 ecoglow 20's which they all seem to fit under at night. Im at work but my wife is seperating the the turkeys into another kiddy pool the same size, and moving one of the ecoglow's to that pool. What do you think countrygirl? Im feeding with 20% protein chicken crumbles for all of them. The feed guy said that would be ok if I supplemented bugs and worms for the poults.

 

[kuntrygirl]

Sorry to hear about the poult and the chick. The kiddie pool is a great idea. I didn't know what the ecoglow 20 was, so I had to goggle it. I'm sure that the ecoglow is great. It looks small. When you said "trampled" and looking at the ecoglow, I can see why it may have gotten trampled. From what I researched very quickly just now about the eco, 20 chicks can fit under it. It sounds like you may have 32 babies in the pool? Is that correct?

You said that you have 2 ecoglows and if 20 chicks can fit under 1 in reality then 2 ecoglows would be perfect for 40 babies. Now the thing is the chicks don't know that 20 can fit under 1. So if 30 chicks are trying to fit under 1 ecoglow, then that poses a problem. The remaining 10 that are trying to squeeze under are left out cold (to freeze) and others are being stepped on. If it were me, I would be concerned about that. But if you have had success before in the past, then you're good. But if this is your 1st time using the ecoglow, you may want to think about this.

For the price that you paid for 2 ecoglows, you could have purchased a heat lamp for $10.00 or less and this would have been perfect. Not sure why you chose a the eco over the heat lamp.

The 20% protein is "ok" since you have a mixed bird population. I sometimes cringe at less protein for poults, just because. Nothing is wrong with the 20% protein, I have strong feelings about poults having 28- 30% protein. But at the same time, everyone doesn't have access to such high protein and they have to use what they can and that's fine. I know that Purina Flockraiser is 20% protein and that is a great feed. And it can be fed to poults and any other bird.

Why would the feed guy say to "supplement" with bugs and worms? Is he concerned about the protein as well?

ETA: Excellent idea to separate the 2 groups. I think that this will solve ALL of your problems.

 

[frank53061]

Great advise Kuntrygirl The Fancy Gadgets some times have there draw backs I use a Red Heat lamp Bulb and a Construction site lamp Aluminum shade with a clamp to move it around to what ever location.
Combined cost maybe $20.00.
Here is a picture of one.

This one at Lowe's was a little over $7 and the Red heat lamp bulb around $10 at Wal-Mart or Home Depot

Let me give you some advise from my Mistakes I had 23 Buff Orpintons and 10 Polish Chicks sent to me by mail order the biggest shipment I have had to this date have ordered I first set them up in the spare Bath tub we call it the Fowl Spa and kept them there for 8 days the last two days I lost 4 Polish before moving them to the out door coop slash brooder with heat lamp and water and feed there they stayed for another 3 weeks at two and a half weeks I told my daughter since we had warm weather and the chicks were growing so fast we needed to let them free range they seem to getting cramped and were messing up there brooder way to fast to keep properly clean and my Daughter talked me out of it because she was concerned about the Big chickens picking on them and predators killing them.
Near the end of the 3 weeks I lost a total of 8 Buffs in a 24 hour and several were not acting well.
I told my Daughter we had no choice and had to let them out of the coop slash brooder to free range or we would loose more.
We babied the sickly birds and they recovered and have not lost any since Knock on wood.
This is my first experience loosing birds to over crowding but you have to remember they grow fast and what room was fine 3 days ago may not be fine now.
This is more so true with poults being more fragile till they get some size on them.
When I have had chicks and Poults together I always feed them Game Bird starter it will not hurt the Chicks its like miracle grow for them and the Poults get what they need and will stay that much more healthier.

I hope I was of some help to you and good luck.