Turkeys with chickens... is it safe?

[NoahsArk06]

I have almost 20 chickens . I really want to get a baby royal palm turkey. Is it better to hand raise them? Or let a broody hen raise them? I don’t know if they will be aggressive towards me or the chickens though?

 

[R2elk]

I have almost 20 chickens . I really want to get a baby royal palm turkey. Is it better to hand raise them? Or let a broody hen raise them? I don’t know if they will be aggressive towards me or the chickens though?

If blackhead is a problem where you live, having turkeys with chickens can be a death sentence to the turkeys. The chickens can be carriers of blackhead which can be a deadly disease to turkeys.

It is not advisable to have a single turkey unless your sole purpose is to process it for food. Turkeys are very social birds and do best in the company of their own kind.

I do not recommend brooding turkeys with chickens because of the problems that imprinting can cause. Turkeys end up bigger than chickens. Not being able to understand that there is a difference between them and the chickens can lead to harmful interactions once the turkeys are adults.

In my opinion, most human aggressive turkeys are ones that were imprinted by people when the poults were young. I go out of my way to avoid imprinting any of my turkeys. I also do not try to make pets out of them. My turkeys behave like turkeys.