Turkey Talk for 2014

[jdduck]

what kind of fish or does it mater? caned tuna, minnows or just any kind of fish. I will check with the feed store on Monday and see what he can order up. thanks for the help

If your chick starter is 24% protein they'll probably do fine, although that would be my personal minimum for wild turkeys up to 8 weeks old. Then I typically decrease the protein down to 20-24% until the hens are about ready to lay eggs, then either offer oyster shells on the side, or switch to layer pellets, or both.

If you'd like to offer a little higher protein, another 4-6%, you can ask your local feed store to special order a game bird starter. From what I've read, wild turkeys should "ideally" be on a 28-30% game bird starter diet for the first 8 weeks. Any store that sells Purina products should be able to special order Purina Game Bird Starter, which is 30% protein. It only comes in a 50# bag, so you'll likely only need one bag total. It should cost around $17-20. Other companies have other game bird starter formulas that may have a slightly different protein level. Any feed store should be able to find the right food for you, and special order it from their suppliers if it's not already in stock.

You can also increase the protein level of what you have by offering a small amount of fish every day. Not too much!! The problem is that without analysis and weights and other components, it's more difficult to determine just how much you've raised the protein with this method. When I use fish supplements, I tend to give ~5% of their diet (by volume) in fish, which seems to give the birds enough of a boost if it seems like there's any deficiency. Nothing scientific about that number, as I haven't looked up the protein levels of the fish I use and then worked out all the math. It's just been intuitive, and has worked for me.

 

[Sydney Acres]

what kind of fish or does it mater? caned tuna, minnows or just any kind of fish. I will check with the feed store on Monday and see what he can order up. thanks for the help
Quote: As far as what type of fish, it probably doesn't matter, as long as it's not rotten. I'm in the Pacific NW, so there's lots of variety here. I eat a lot of fish, and I typically give some leftovers to the chickens and turkeys as treats. My main breed is Red Dorkings, which are an ancient English Breed. They were around before preformulated chicken food, and were perfected when English farmers fed them scraps and free ranged them. English farmers in that era had a lot of fish, and journals talk about finely chopping up the fish skin, and boiling the fish heads and throwing them out to the chickens as their main protein source. I have pecking issues with my Dorkings when they're not given meat protein (it doesn't matter how high the vegetable protein is, they need meat), so that's what I do. You could probably buy fish heads, or maybe even get them free, from your local fishmonger, if you have someone local, or from a large supermarket. You could also probably use koi food. Just don't overdo the proportions. You only need to boost up the protein a little. You don't want them to grow too fast and get joint problems. If they're freeranging and eating a lot of grass, which probably only has 2-7% protein, depending on where you live and what type of grass you have, then you can give more fish than if they're not free ranging and only eating chick crumbles. It's all about the proportions, and balancing the high protein foods with the low protein foods..

I would probably avoid large amounts of canned fish (too much salt -- although small amounts of tuna is fine, mine love it), large pieces of fish skin (too big to move out of the crop, so could cause obstruction -- I cut it into matchstix size pieces) and all fish fins (too easy to cause an obstruction)

 

[chickadoodles]

My Narrigansett poults hanging out today....

They are very pretty

 

[GregClark38]

I love my dual purpose turkeys -- eggs and pets!! I'm amazed how many eggs the hens lay.

How many do they lay? I am new to turkeys.

 

[Sueg4332]

my turkey is hatching. Question can you leave the tom in with her when she brings the babies off the shelve? She is a first time mom.
Someone said she would make a completely different sound when babies were hatched and she is. She had 6 eggs and I saw 3 babies.
she is a sweetgrass/ he is BB/gray slate cross.
Pictures soon...

 

[Sydney Acres]

Quote:
Mine started laying in March when the days got long enough. I'm north of Seattle. In more southern areas of the country, hens will start laying sooner. They were 9 months old at that time. They probably would have started younger if I lived further south. They are still laying, and don't know when they will stop, as this is my first year with them.

They are laying as many eggs as my dual purpose chickens, so about 4-5 per week per hen. Most of the eggs do fit in cartons (one hen has a wider egg that doesn't fit), but they are long enough that the carton doesn't close all the way. I wasn't expecting so many eggs. They free range, and each hen has created her own nest within their environment. When they were younger and first started laying, they frequently shared a nest. But with more maturity they have chosen to maintain individual nests, which makes it easy to monitor each hen's production. When they were younger I put 2 ceramic eggs in each nest to encourage them to return to desirable nestsites, but as their nests became more established it became unnecessary to leave the ceramic eggs to encourage them to return to the same site. The fake eggs were removed when they started becoming broody.

The hens do try to brood regularly, but I keep the eggs picked up to decrease that tendency. If the hens are still on their nests in the evening when it's time to go into the coop, I pick the hens up off their nests, which seems to prevent the brood from getting too deep. I've had several hens that start a low grade brood for several days to a week, but not go into a full hard brood with this method. I suspect it may become more difficult to prevent full brooding as the season progresses.

 

[Sydney Acres]

my turkey is hatching. Question can you leave the tom in with her when she brings the babies off the shelve? She is a first time mom.
Someone said she would make a completely different sound when babies were hatched and she is. She had 6 eggs and I saw 3 babies.
she is a sweetgrass/ he is BB/gray slate cross.
Pictures soon...

How much you need to intervene will depend on the hen and tom involved, and if you have just those 2 adults, or if there are other turkeys, chickens, etc to take into consideration. Some toms will not injure the babies at all and are quite trustworthy, and others will try to kill the babies. Some hens will defend their babies effectively, others won't try, and some will trample the poults in the attempt. Basically, anything can happen.

Most hens won't try to take the babies off the nest for a few days, especially if there are still a few eggs that need to hatch. The poults don't need to eat or drink for the first 3 days.

For my chickens that brood, I keep the broody and chicks in a separate run that is beside the main run if the main flock is in a breeding run, or within the yard if the main flock is free ranging. That allows the hen to remain as a recognized part of her flock, and gets the flock familiar with the chicks. When the hen starts acting like she wants to get out (which is typically when the chicks are 3-10 days old, but 5-7 is average), I let her out when I can be available to monitor them for 1-2 hours. I find that it is important to take my cues from the hen. She knows her ability to defend her chicks, and she knows the aggression levels of her flockmates better than I do. She also knows what level of stress her chicks can tolerate. But despite how much I rely on her judgment, I like to stick around and give her some backup protection at first, just in case something unexpected happens. I assume that broody turkeys are similar in the details, but I don't have any experience with them, so I could be wrong.

 

[Sueg4332]

How much you need to intervene will depend on the hen and tom involved, and if you have just those 2 adults, or if there are other turkeys, chickens, etc to take into consideration. Some toms will not injure the babies at all and are quite trustworthy, and others will try to kill the babies. Some hens will defend their babies effectively, others won't try, and some will trample the poults in the attempt. Basically, anything can happen.

Most hens won't try to take the babies off the nest for a few days, especially if there are still a few eggs that need to hatch. The poults don't need to eat or drink for the first 3 days.

For my chickens that brood, I keep the broody and chicks in a separate run that is beside the main run if the main flock is in a breeding run, or within the yard if the main flock is free ranging. That allows the hen to remain as a recognized part of her flock, and gets the flock familiar with the chicks. When the hen starts acting like she wants to get out (which is typically when the chicks are 3-10 days old, but 5-7 is average), I let her out when I can be available to monitor them for 1-2 hours. I find that it is important to take my cues from the hen. She knows her ability to defend her chicks, and she knows the aggression levels of her flockmates better than I do. She also knows what level of stress her chicks can tolerate. But despite how much I rely on her judgment, I like to stick around and give her some backup protection at first, just in case something unexpected happens. I assume that broody turkeys are similar in the details, but I don't have any experience with them, so I could be wrong.

Thank you for the advise.

 

[TurnipTruck]

So pretty; can't wait for mine to look like that!! How old are your poults?

They are about 11-12 weeks. These buggers grow fast!

 

[TattooedMama]

They are about 11-12 weeks. These buggers grow fast!

I can't wait!!