Turkey questions

[Sherriekim]

I was to late. All the turkeys are sold!

I'm bummed out, but I've decided that this will give me all winter to prepare a nice pen for them and maybe I can hatch some out this spring. Probably more fun to raise them from babies, anyways. I've already talked to one BYCer who should have eggs this spring. Now I have something to look forward to, well, that would be in addition to the BYC egg swap.

Hey, maybe I'll get my RP eggs that way. Thanks for all the great advice!

 

[Mac]

Can you bring up a day old turkey with say, oh six chicken day olds? Same brooder, etc and later on introduce them to a flock of nine 3 year old chicken hens, gradually and carefully of course. And ultimately, can that one tom turkey live in the coop with the hens? He'd fit, its a pretty good size coop. They would all free range for a few hours a day together....in a perfect world.

Thanks!

 

[WindyOaksYokes]

Can you bring up a day old turkey with say, oh six chicken day olds? Same brooder, etc and later on introduce them to a flock of nine 3 year old chicken hens, gradually and carefully of course. And ultimately, can that one tom turkey live in the coop with the hens? He'd fit, its a pretty good size coop. They would all free range for a few hours a day together....in a perfect world.

Yes, I did. I had 15 chickens and 4 turkeys all grow up together. in the same brooder for a couple of days... but they got a little big so I moved them to their own brooder.
As for the other questions about introducing them, I have not clue... I have not gotten to a point like that yet... but did introduce them all to my first batch that was 4 weeks older with no problems.

Mine prefer to stay outside... not inside with the chickens... and they do very well...​

 

[Olive]

I have a question. Since turkeys like to eat grass, will they eat hay? I was thinking about getting a bale for them for the winter. Does anybody know?


Olive - 2 bourbon reds - 8 buff orpingtons - golden lace cochin

 

[bobbieguyette]

They will pick at the hay but dont really eat it but will help keep them warm for the winterI have been raising turkeys for 9 yrs now and still have 2 9 yr olds,I have black spanish black winged bronze and one grumpy old rio grande.

 

[Blisschick]

Jody, thanks for sharing what you do for a pen. I'm going to have to pen mine up just to keep them out of trouble. Not only have they started grazing up and down the street here, but one morning my husband found one perched on our mailbox across the street! (Good thing we're in a rural neighborhood.

) I also lost two hens to predators, so if I'm going to have any of my girls hatch anything out this spring, I'll have to keep them in an enclosure. That was the only reason I ended up with them...their mother was put in a tall dog kennel with an overturned garbage can.

Would sawhorses work okay for a roost? I'm not sure how my group is going to act no being able to roost on the edge of the chicken pens.

 

[hinkjc]

Blisschick - you're welcome for the pics. All of our turkeys are started inside a portable coop. Once they are big enough, it is attached to the flight pen and the door opened. Once they go out,they have never returned for shelter. We have left the coop there for several weeks, thinking they needed it and they do not go inside. According to our PA laws, we must have them in an enclosure and they mandate roost heights, pen sizes, etc. There is no requirement for a shelter. I guess it makes sense since wild turkeys live in the wild. We have never lost a turkey to weather and they do just fine. We do put up wind blocks to help break the wind and snow.

Elmer is our only free range turkey because he's been here the longest and doesn't roam at all. He roosts on the doors of the flight pens, on our roof or up in the trees near the chicken coops. We do occasionally let a hen out for company, but it is better to put him in with them because the hens like to roam off. Usually once breeding season is over, he prefers to be alone, although he does hang around at their pens. He doesn't really want to be with them. In nature, toms and hens only come together for breeding. They then separate for winter into their own groups.

The roost height should be 4 feet for their own safety. I'm not sure how many turkeys you have and they're weights, but unless you fasten the sawhorses down somehow, they will probably tip it over. We put posts into the ground and then fasten a log across it to create the roosts.

In order for them to hatch successfully, you will need a way to separate the hen with her clutch from the group (especially the tom). The tom will try to continue mating her even on the eggs and cause breakage. That large pen you see in my pic is split into 4 sections, so we can move them into a separate section easily through a doorway. This is convenient for reseeding, separating injured hens and for allowing them to raise a brood. It's nice that they're attached like this, because the others can see the babies while they are growing up, without being able to hurt them.

Jody

 

[Blisschick]

I figured I'd build just one large pen, since I have 3 hens and 3 toms. In the spring I plan on putting the one unrelated tom in with the girls for awhile to do his thing, then put him back out and let them nest in peace. My oldest tom will be two this spring, and he's more interested in following me around when I'm in the yard since he's more of a pet than the others. At this point, they're all hanging out together, probably since one of the toms is brother to the hens and they're only about 7 months old. I'm sure by spring they'll start falling into typical mature behaviors.

I'm glad you mentioned about them tipping over. I do have some sawhorses out, but so far it's only been for smaller birds. I'll probably get some landscaping timbers and build them a couple of roosts.