Last year I only hatched one poult from a batch of scrambled shipped eggs. He looked lonely so I bought a couple of chicks to keep him company. They all grew up together until mature and I could integrate them with their respective flocks. I had no problems. Tom still treats his foster sisters with respect - in fact, in the pecking order, he's behind them. I guess he never figured out he's bigger than they are
. Once fully grown, I house my chickens and turkeys separately at night, but they free range together by day.I don't think turkeys are dumb, but it's suspect. I have a lot more trouble getting poults to eat and drink than I do chicks. But, if you tap with your finger in the feed bowl, they seem to follow suit once they're a couple of days old. I threw my wedding ring in their water bowl because they pecked at it when it was on my hand, but in the bowl they could see the entire circle and weren't interested. I guess it looks more like a worm on my finger. They also don't seem interested in food grouped together in a bowl, but if I sprinkle a little chick starter on the ground they'll peck at the individual grains. Same with egg yolk. My last batch actually wouldn't eat the chick starter for the first 2-3 days and only ate the yolk (hard boiled and crumbled), again if I put small crumbles on the floor. At about 5-6 days old, they began eating starter from a bowl instead of off the floor and I could eliminate the yolk.
One of my poults, on day two, fell into his water dish in the middle of the night (it's a standard chick waterer with the jug in the middle and ring of water around the edge). He didn't drown, but he was soaked, and apparently his beak had gone underwater because he was making a really strange gurgly breathing sound. I wrapped him in a towel and turned him upside down so the water would run out via gravity, and snuggled him to my body to keep warm. Eventually the gurgly sound stopped, but it took a while. I don't know if he would have made it if I hadn't woken up and helped him. So not dumb exactly, but they need more TLC than chicks do for the most part, lol.
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