Turkey vs. Chicken (Avoiding WW3)

[NateJonesAR]

Hey Guys!

The wife and I started turkeys this year. (We have 3 red bourbons, 2 blue slate, and 2 black spanish.) They are 3-4 months old and it looks like our toms our startin' to strut. (See pic of our big RB...Maker!) Anyway, we built them a "hoop tractor" and they seem to like getting fresh grass everyday. We started letting them "free range" yesterday, and they are obsessed with our chickens. (We have a large chicken yard on the other side of the property.) When we let them meet, and it was like WW3. While the turkeys didn't scrap with our roosters or older hens, they did go after our younger members of the flock. Today, they've just been circling the parameter of the chicken's yard. Its probably only a matter of time until they fly in...

Any thoughts? (BTW...we are watching for signs of blackhead, but aren't too worried about it.)

Nate

 

[PalmRoyal]

They are all getting their pecking order down. With my herd, we have Royal Palms, standard chickens, large chickens, bantam chickens and Muscovies with babies hatching. Then, we have the barn cats. Everyone has a pecking order and that was established after a lot of biting, pecking, hissing and "show offs". It all lasted between 2-4 weeks before everyone settled in.