What am I doing wrong?

[TMNfarm]

Last year, a friend and I split an order of Royal Palm poults. I got 10 of them, but only 3 made it to adulthood. Several died as young poults, only a few weeks old, and at least one died because it chose to fly into my dog kennel as a juvenile. What I had left turned out to be two Toms and one hen. I was thrilled when she finally started laying this summer. I collected her first 14 eggs and incubated them in three separate hatches. They were all fertile and all of them developed, but I only ended up hatching 4 of the eggs. One died within the first day and the other three lived for about 2-3 weeks, then all 3 died within 3 days of each other for no apparent reason. The hen disappeared and I thought maybe she had been taken by a predator, but she came back about 2 weeks ago with 11 poults in tow!! I was super excited! I set her up in a secure coop where she could safely raise her little ones. Everything was going great until yesterday. I found 3 dead poults in the coop. Their waterer was empty and my 13 year old son who is in charge of feeding and watering them swore they had water the night before. I didn't believe him because I was sure that was why they had died. We immediately filled their water and everyone but one drank and appeared healthy. I was expecting one more to die, but this morning when I went out, there were 5 more dead!! I only have 3 left! What am I doing wrong?? They have been getting chick starter because I didn't have anything else. Yesterday, I got game bird starter and was going to start them on that.... Would that be enough to be losing them? They always seem to die right around 2-3 weeks old... I'm getting really discouraged.

 

[R2elk]

Last year, a friend and I split an order of Royal Palm poults. I got 10 of them, but only 3 made it to adulthood. Several died as young poults, only a few weeks old, and at least one died because it chose to fly into my dog kennel as a juvenile. What I had left turned out to be two Toms and one hen. I was thrilled when she finally started laying this summer. I collected her first 14 eggs and incubated them in three separate hatches. They were all fertile and all of them developed, but I only ended up hatching 4 of the eggs. One died within the first day and the other three lived for about 2-3 weeks, then all 3 died within 3 days of each other for no apparent reason. The hen disappeared and I thought maybe she had been taken by a predator, but she came back about 2 weeks ago with 11 poults in tow!! I was super excited! I set her up in a secure coop where she could safely raise her little ones. Everything was going great until yesterday. I found 3 dead poults in the coop. Their waterer was empty and my 13 year old son who is in charge of feeding and watering them swore they had water the night before. I didn't believe him because I was sure that was why they had died. We immediately filled their water and everyone but one drank and appeared healthy. I was expecting one more to die, but this morning when I went out, there were 5 more dead!! I only have 3 left! What am I doing wrong?? They have been getting chick starter because I didn't have anything else. Yesterday, I got game bird starter and was going to start them on that.... Would that be enough to be losing them? They always seem to die right around 2-3 weeks old... I'm getting really discouraged.

You don't mention if you have or had chickens in the same area. If blackhead is a problem in your area and you are keeping these turkeys on ground that has been frequented by chickens in the past, that might be your problem.

 

[TMNfarm]

I do have chickens. I don't believe blackhead is an issue here. The ones that I hatched out lived in a brodder inside... Never saw the light of day. I was hoping mama turkey was going to do better at keeping them alive. I just came home to another dead one. Now I only have 2 left... I'm just sick....

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

I have never lost a poult, I think they too young for blackhead, the thing with turkeys is they are not chickens, they need more heat when they are young and are prone to chilling, they really have to shown how and where to eat and drink for the first couple of weeks, they also fall over easy and are clumsy and can't always right themselves, I have raised poults on chick starter and haven't seen a difference, so I don't think it's your feed, I don't let hens raise my poults, I think in the wild there are large losses to a hatch, that's why they have such large clutches. After the first few weeks of babying they really take off, but before that you really have to put some time into them, checking often, if they don't start right, sometimes they can't recover. I brood at 100 degrees the first week, lowering by 5 every week, I put shiny blue glass rocks where their food is and some in the water, I also keep them on paper towels for about 1-2 weeks so they can stand better and don't consume shavings

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

Mine now are thriving at 3 weeks old, no heat at night and spend most days outside

 

[ivan3]

I do have chickens. I don't believe blackhead is an issue here. The ones that I hatched out lived in a brodder inside... Never saw the light of day. I was hoping mama turkey was going to do better at keeping them alive. I just came home to another dead one. Now I only have 2 left... I'm just sick....

Have never incubated them, so can't comment on that. Dehydration, however, can kill them quick. However, what sort of setup did you place your hen and poults in? You've seen them drinking, have you seen them eating the starter? I'd get busy assigning son to catching grasshoppers/cicadas/large grey moths (the white ones tend to contain toxins), tear off one wing or leg and drop them next to hen/poults. Either mama will grab it and place in front of poults, or poults will fight for it (mama might have already been teaching them this before she returned). Augment diet with "live protein" as often as possible, until you are sure they are eating the starter. Next time, keep the hen in a secured location. When the poults start to hatch, make sure both waterer and feeder are within reach of the still setting hen - when she drinks/eats she'll be instructing the first hatchlings from her "brooding" position, as the hatch might continue for several days. Once hatch is complete feeder/waterer can be moved to some distance away. Our setup (haven't lost any that have fully hatched, in about a decade): One of our 2011 "cicada cohort" (11 year cicada flush - used about 2/3 as much starter with that bunch):

 

[robin49]

I was reading turkeys need to wait on feed for about 6 hours or so just fluids. Also make sure their feed was blended up really well like dust. For some reason they can't eat or digest it well. Once I blended mine mine did very well. They do need heat though