I have always bought my chickens at 6+ weeks old and haven’t raised chicks from days old before. I also am raising two meat turkeys for the first time. Two questions:
1) Any suggestions on improving the setup? I have an electric heater on the outside warming the room on general and the hot plate for them to be on or under. Cardboard and a shower curtain are the bottom with shavings on top. Some firewood for climbing (which they love!) and a bowl of dirt (which they also love). I put the food and water containers in bins to reduce the waste and mess and it’s been helping alot.
2) The turkeys are growing much quicker than I thought they would! What age must I separate them? They are about 2 weeks older than the chicks. Also, their feathers look raggedy. Is this because the brooder is too short and they keep knocking their wings against the top?
Photo of the setup with one of the turkeys jumping off of the firewood and one up close 🐓🦃
by BelleBottom94
2 Comments
Those guys are ready to go out into the barn.
They’ll still need a bit of heat (heat lamp) if you still get frost.
Nice! Turkeys are fun to raise, and your brooder looks good. I have a few tips:
Young turkeys need significantly more protein than chicks to help them develop their joints, so what type of food are you raising them with?
They look like they’re almost fully feathered and ready to go outside, so I would probably start transitioning them. The feathers on their heads take a while to go away. They grow incredibly fast, and if they get bored they may start picking on the chicks while in the brooder (outside mixed flock of adults is a different story).
Feather raggediness may be coming from incomplete nutrition, lack of access to a dirt bath, and/or also because they’re meat birds (whiter ones tend to have less down and feather structure).