Christmas Turkeys

[Terrier15 52]

Hi,

 

I wanted to do some turkeys for Christmas, but other things got in the way.

 

I still want to do it but need some advice:

Am I too late to start incubating them in the next couple of weeks if I want them for Christmas?

Can they live with chickens?

Is there anything else I should know before I try it?

Ed

[jiggy 3,209]

I'd buy poults at 6 weeks old the first week in September they will be sexed females and the hard work is already done. It's a lot more difficult to hatch turkeys than ducks or chickens unless you know what your doing and you will end up with half cocks. The chicks can be weak too they are similar to pheasants getting them out of the egg is the hard part and getting the turkey cock to tread the hen if he's too heavy. Best of luck if it works out as many have zero success rate. If I was going to rear them from hatchlings I'd try to get your hands on day old chicks and go from there. Depending on the breed If you are rearing organic get them earlier they will be slow to grow but if your feeding turkey grower then its time enough setting eggs the first week of July or your birds will be 30 pound monsters at xmas.

[Terrier15 52]

Thanks for the advice, at least it's not too late to try this year!

I will try and find out what sort of turkeys they are. I have two different people offering them to me so will have a think.

They will be fed on organic stuff they find, constant chicken layers pellets and corn.

[jiggy 3,209]

I've had organic bronze turkeys that were still only 23 pound after been kept on until Easter. The grower and finishing pellets really piles the weight on. Chopped Cooking apples fed along with turkey grower pellets will still give a sweet tasting bird. I find bronze turkeys in general a far moister sweeter bird than a white turkey.

[jiggy 3,209]

Another thing to watch out for with home hatched birds is disease. The benifit of buying poults off of a large breeder is they are vaccinated on a large scale with a gas spray in poultry sheds. Rhinotrachea disease can get in on them and they sneeze a lot with white froth in beak and nostrils this will be eventually fatal unless treated with an antibiotic like tylan. Keep them dosed for gapeworm aswell. It's hard to stay 100 percent organic unless they are completely free range on fresh ground all the time.

[Terrier15 52]

Thanks Jiggy - do they struggle to get out of their shells? Or are they similar to pheasants in that it seems they just want to die?

Thanks for your help, eggs I can get are Norfolk bronze, lavender slate or a mixture of the two.

[jiggy 3,209]

The turkey cock was too big and clumsy to do the job so blank eggs was the biggest problem. But they were bronze your lavenders and Norfolk would be smaller I'd imagine and might work better and hatch them under bantams. After failing to hatch I bought poults a few times and it's nearly like they came with disease or quickly went that way. Since i started buying off a large breeder who vaccinates I've never had any problems and I dose them with tylan (antibiotic) as soon as they come just to give them a good start. Prevention is better than cure. They don't do that well if running with chickens and ducks on sour ground either. Fresh ground isn't always easy if you have a lot of free range birds. I've got rid of everything now anyways and it's far stress free ?. I just get a dozen bronze ever September and they are gone by Christmas. Good look anyway I won't even get started on incubators all I had out of them was 1000 egg omelettes at the end and very few chicks.?

[Terrier15 52]

Thank you for your insight and help! My plan was to incubate them and let them run with my chickens....

From your advice I think I will have to think of another plan!!

I know where I can get young turkeys from but I doubt they have been vaccinated etc. I will have a search around and see what I can source.

Thank you,

[jiggy 3,209]

? don't be afraid to try it once just to say you've done it but buying day old chicks in any breed works out cheaper in the end when you take losses into account unless you get free eggs.

[Terrier15 52]

Hi Jiggy,

 

I have been offered some free eggs, that's what prompted me to rethink about doing it this year.

 

I think I will have a go, what's the worst that can happen!

[jiggy 3,209]

Hi Jiggy,

 

I have been offered some free eggs, that's what prompted me to rethink about doing it this year.

 

I think I will have a go, what's the worst that can happen!

high expectations, high humidity ,high temperature ,high electric bill, high blood pressure (mine) and the smell of rotten eggs in the spare bedroom that explode when putting them in the bin. It's quite an enjoyable pass time apart from that.???Let me know how it goes. Good or bad.

[Rabid 1,936]

I've been rearing turkeys for many years, I hatch all my own, and every few years buy in some fresh stock.

 

It can be done, it's not easy, turkeys live to die in the first few months.

you need the incubator settings just perfect or they will struggle to get out the shell, the problems brought on by that are numerous, and often they won't survive.

 

once you get it Sussed it's a breeze, I reckon on 90-95% fertility, 80-85% hatch rate, and 80% survival rate, taken many years to get to that, when I started I would be lucky if I got 10% survival rate.

They can live with chickens, but watch out for a few diseases, blackhead been most common.

They will not do great on sour ground as already stated, and to get them heavy enough you really need to be feeding grower pellets, all mine are free range but I still feed growers, amongst fruit and veg, maize and wheat.

My first hatch is always timed for end of April, but the first hatch is mine and weekly hatches after that are sold as day old or poults, and I keep a few back from each week to give me different size birds.

 

ps, nowt wrong with having stags in amongst them, some folk want the much larger heavier birds.