Turkey Questions

[ReseisCL16]

I am looking into Royal Palm turkeys as a 4H project. I was wondering if I could house a turkey or 2 with my large flock of chickens and ducks or if i would need to build a smaller "turkey house" for them. Do turkeys need a friend or will they befriend chickens? Can they eat chicken feed?

 

[wamtazlady]

I feed All Flock to my birds as I have turkeys, geese, and chickens. I really never set up anything for the turkeys and geese as far as a coop type structure. They are in an area that is protected by electric poultry netting. I did built a 3 sided 4' x 4'x 8' shelter built out of straw bales. They never use it except to lay eggs, preferring to be below the stars at night.

I would probably get at least 2 turkeys. Most every living creature likes a buddy for hanging out. The turkeys do pick on the chickens and pull out a feather or two sometimes. Nothing serious. The chickens have learned to stay away when the turkeys are in that kind of mood.

 

[R2elk]

I am looking into Royal Palm turkeys as a 4H project. I was wondering if I could house a turkey or 2 with my large flock of chickens and ducks or if i would need to build a smaller "turkey house" for them. Do turkeys need a friend or will they befriend chickens? Can they eat chicken feed?

Read the Turkeys 101 thread.

If blackhead is present in your area, do not keep chickens and turkeys together. If blackhead is not present, turkeys and chickens can be kept together but the turkeys require more personal space than do the chickens.

Turkeys are a flock bird and do not do well alone. I also never recommend keeping just one hen for a tom. I try to keep 4 to 5 hens for each tom.

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

My turkeys harass my chickens when out, especially when they are young. I don't recommend housing them together. Turkeys are troublemakers.

 

[MartinsPoultry]

I have mine with everyone, and everyone being, Ducks quacking and muscovy, geese, guinea fowl, and chickens.

 

[ReseisCL16]

Thanks! Super helpful!

 

[ReseisCL16]

I'm also involved in 4H. R there any super great Turkey breeds that I can use that are docile and easy to find at my local feed store?

 

[R2elk]

I'm also involved in 4H. R there any super great Turkey breeds that I can use that are docile and easy to find at my local feed store?

There is only one breed and that is Turkey. There are many varieties of turkeys. The turkey varieties that are easy to find at a local feed store are almost always the broad breasted varieties whether they are white or bronze. They are good for 4H projects because they are readily available in the spring and grow very fast giving them good size by the time the fairs roll around. They are not good to keep long term since they were designed to be food.

You can find a lot of information about the different heritage turkey varieties at Porter's Rare Heritage Turkeys.