Turkeys For 2013

[Sally8]

I am not trying to mix the six week olds with the day olds. It's the days by themselves in separate containment that are so aggressive to each other. Old turkeys are in different area. Poults have plenty of room. I'm going to check on them now and see how they made it through the night.

Hmmmm Let us know how it went. I would say that it's just a matter of establishing pecking order.

I had another poult hatch last night. Funny that most look like hen, the Royal Palm instead of Chuck who also has Bronze with the Royal Palm.

 

[kuntrygirl]

Hey everyone, I enjoy this thread. I have a question about aggressive poults, just a couple days old. I decided to try two sets of turkeys for my first time. I have 8 midget whites that are 6 weeks old...sweet as can be to each other, never seen them peck or pull. Then Sunday I got my second batch, day old red slate poults; 2 of bronze color, 4 of the yellow/grey, and one grey. They are very aggressive to each other, seems the darker ones are more aggressive to the lighter ones, but they all participate. I'm using the same set up I had for the MWs, red bulb etc. I thought maybe if I separated the light ones they would calm down...they did all seem to take a breather when they were separated. But then I thought it might be more trouble when I put them back together, so back they went. The rough activity picked up right away. The grey one seems especially intent on poking out eyes. I really I'm not set up to have three sets of turkey poults. Will they move past this phase...or what else would you suggest? Thanks.

The aggressive ones will kill the others. You will have to separate them or you will have some dead poults. I tired that with staggered hatches and got the same results as you. The older poults tried to killed the younger poults. I had to have 2 separate brooders. :/

 

[kuntrygirl]

I sold some of my poults to a customer on yesterday and just let me say that I highly recommend a care sheet to include the temp in the brooder. The family was a VERY nice family. Throughout the process of them buying the poults, we had lengthy conversations about caring, feed, etc. So they came over and bought some poults and I told them if they had any questions, DO NOT hesitate to contact me and I didn't care if they called me every 30 minutes because I was not sending my poults on a suicide mission.

So they called me with a problem in the brooder about 1 hour after leaving my house. Their brooder was 3' x 6' and they couldn't understand why the poults were 5 feet away from the light. I asked them what was the temp in the brooder and they told me 120 degrees. I was like , "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO"!!!! That is too hot!!!!!!!! I told them the the poults were too hot and the poults were telling them that which is why they were 5 feet away from the light. I told them to adjust temps and monitor the temps EVERY 30 minutes and that someone needs to be on watch and monitor them throughout the night along with the temps. I am glad that they called me because the babies would have been dead by morning.

I need to go back and look on the care sheet to see if I addressed temps. Selling poults to new owners so sooooo scary. Makes me want to keep all of my babies and not sell them until they are about 3 months old.

 

[chicken pickin]

I know it is sooooo scary selling babies to people. I have sold many chicks. Many sales I felt comfortable with a few I was nervous about because the knowledge of chickens was not there. One couple came to pick some up not too long ago and didnt know they needed a brooder and had no clue what the heat lamp was. so they obviously werent ready for them. I told them TSC had everything they needed and to go asap. I hope they listened, I had a feeling they were gonna put them outside with the big girls hoping they would take care of them. ButI could be wrong.

I also just sold a few and the couple seemed to know a bit, but a few hours after they picked them up I got an email saying a chick drown in the water dish, I asked them what they were using and they said a self waterer. They replaced it with dishes of water I urged them to please put marbles on the bottom so drowning wouldnt happen again.

I plan to use care sheets soon for chicks and poults for customers I also encourage them to contact me with any questions they may have. But I also try to remeber alot of people are very new to chicken and turkey raising and dont have the knowledge and dont know where to find it. Ill do my best to educated them while they are at my house but after that its out of my control. I try not to think about it to far beyond that.

 

[chicken pickin]

The aggressive ones will kill the others. You will have to separate them or you will have some dead poults. I tired that with staggered hatches and got the same results as you. The older poults tried to killed the younger poults. I had to have 2 separate brooders.

Im trying staggered hatches for the first time. I am setting turkey eggs every weekend. All the poults will be 1 week apart is that ok to put the poults together in the same brooder?

Also do you sell poults as day olds or do you wait a while til they eat drink and you know they are strong?

 

[kuntrygirl]

I know it is sooooo scary selling babies to people. I have sold many chicks. Many sales I felt comfortable with a few I was nervous about because the knowledge of chickens was not there. One couple came to pick some up not too long ago and didnt know they needed a brooder and had no clue what the heat lamp was. so they obviously werent ready for them. I told them TSC had everything they needed and to go asap. I hope they listened, I had a feeling they were gonna put them outside with the big girls hoping they would take care of them. ButI could be wrong.

I also just sold a few and the couple seemed to know a bit, but a few hours after they picked them up I got an email saying a chick drown in the water dish, I asked them what they were using and they said a self waterer. They replaced it with dishes of water I urged them to please put marbles on the bottom so drowning wouldnt happen again.

I plan to use care sheets soon for chicks and poults for customers I also encourage them to contact me with any questions they may have. But I also try to remeber alot of people are very new to chicken and turkey raising and dont have the knowledge and dont know where to find it. Ill do my best to educated them while they are at my house but after that its out of my control. I try not to think about it to far beyond that.

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm the same as you. I try not to think about it but I can't help it. I feel like I am contributing to the death of my animals by selling them to people who don't know. My family says that I get "too involved" and my personal feelings take over my decisions to sell things and I won't make any money that way. Well, I'm guilty of that . It's not about making money. It's about giving people the opportunity to enjoy these beautiful animals that we have and give them the birds the chance to live a productive life and possibly provide food to their families. And if they are gonna kill everything up, then they can't enjoy the babies that I hatch. That's why I always stress to them, CALL me about ANYTHING. I don't care if it's 2:00 AM in the morning. If there is a problem, I want to be there to help them out. Maybe my feelings are too wrapped up and I care too much. I don't know. :/

 

[kuntrygirl]

The aggressive ones will kill the others. You will have to separate them or you will have some dead poults. I tired that with staggered hatches and got the same results as you. The older poults tried to killed the younger poults. I had to have 2 separate brooders. :/

Im trying staggered hatches for the first time. I am setting turkey eggs every weekend. All the poults will be 1 week apart is that ok to put the poults together in the same brooder?

Also do you sell poults as day olds or do you wait a while til they eat drink and you know they are strong?

That staggered hatch should be ok for the 1 week olds but more than that, you may be asking for trouble. I would just monitor them when you first put them in because there will be one in every bunch that wants to run the show. :/

I try to keep my poults at least 1 week. I want to make sure that I am comfortable with them eating and drinking and having grown a few feathers. The poults I sold last night were 10 days old and those little buggars were trying to fly out of their brooder, so I know they were healthy and strong. One of them got loose as I was bringing them outside to show the customers and ran his little self into the BIG chicken yard. He was in for a shock when a chicken stopped him in his tracks and pecked his head. He re-thought that escape.

 

[turkeyman23]

I am located

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...

I am wanting to buy some turkeys to raise I'm new to this and I only want 2 turkeys to start off with... Any help???[/quote

Where are you located I know that some places near Sturbridge Massachusetts such as klems will sell you as little as 3 but no less."
I am located in kentucky will they ship them.?.. Do they have a website???

 

[Alex Farmer]

Ok I have a bourbon red hen and I know she has been breed but this is her first year laying and she has layed 24 eggs and is still not sitting on them! What is going on. What should I do?

 

[kuntrygirl]

Ok I have a bourbon red hen and I know she has been breed but this is her first year laying and she has layed 24 eggs and is still not sitting on them! What is going on. What should I do?

24 eggs? So she has been laying for over 3 weeks. If it were me, I would take some of those eggs and either put them in the incubator or under a broody hen. Do you have either? I will be hard to tell which egg was layed first.