by Good day, experienced and novice poultry farmers! Today we will talk about keeping turkeys at home for beginners from scratch. Turkeys are quite capricious and pugnacious birds, which sometimes create many problems for their owners. However, their dietary meat is so tender and tasty!
In addition, females of many turkey breeds are good layers, so when breeding this bird, you can get not only meat, but also a sufficient number of large, tasty eggs.
But not all poultry farmers breed turkeys, as they consider them too capricious, wayward and aggressive. But if you buy breeding chicks, provide them with proper care and balanced nutrition, then there will be no special troubles with this bird.
Keeping turkeys at home for beginners
For newborn turkeys, the conditions of keeping are very important – they must be warm and dry.
To heat the room where they will be kept, you can use heating pads or turn on infrared lamps. The red light emitted by such lamps will prevent possible pecking of growing wings by chicks and, as a result, possible future cannibalism.
Temperature for turkey poults
The following temperature conditions should be provided for chicks.
- in the first 7 days – under lamps +30+34 degrees Celsius, in the poultry house – +28+30 degrees Celsius;
- from 2 to 4 weeks of life – under lamps +26+29 degrees Celsius. In the poultry house – +22+27 degrees Celsius;
- from 4 weeks to 40 days – under lamps +22+24 degrees Celsius. In poultry houses – +19+22 degrees Celsius.
After the turkeys are 6 weeks old, the lamps are removed from the room. But the room temperature is maintained at about +19 degrees Celsius. These young animals can be let out for a walk if the weather is warm and sunny. But only after the dew has gone.
If the chicks were hatched by a broody turkey and are kept near her? Then the temperature in the poultry house is maintained at about +7+25 degrees Celsius during the first 27 days from the moment of their birth, and then the temperature is reduced to +24 degrees Celsius.
Density of landing
It is not allowed for chicks to be kept too crowded! In this case, outbreaks of infectious diseases are possible. For example, coccidiosis, which develops rapidly among turkey chicks and often leads to the death of the entire brood.
Up to 10 day-old turkeys can be kept on one square of the poultry house. But by the age of one month, they are left with up to 7-8 heads on each square of the area.
Newborn chicks do not see the difference between sawdust or small shavings of bedding and feed! Therefore, they often swallow them, which is dangerous for the digestion of turkeys. After all, the sharp edges of the straw often injure the delicate intestines of the chicks. Of course, the sawdust swells in the stomach, as a result of which the young may die.
To prevent this from happening, cover the floor in the room where the turkeys are kept with material or paper.
It is better to keep turkeys from the age of one month on a slatted floor so that their excrement falls onto the tray.
If it is not possible to construct such floors, then after the young animals have become accustomed to the conditions of keeping and have begun to eat properly, they are provided with a thick bedding of straw, regularly adding a fresh layer.
For turkeys, from the moment of birth until 7 days of age, lighting should be turned on around the clock so that the chicks quickly get used to the conditions of keeping and learn to eat properly. Later, daylight hours are gradually reduced to the norm – 12-14 hours per day.
Feeding and keeping turkeys at home
In the first few days, newborn turkeys are given food in special trays with small sides to make it easier for the chicks to eat. If the chicks are hatched in an incubator and raised without a hen, they have difficulty learning to eat and have to be force-fed to prevent them from starving to death.
Usually the feed is poured into the tray in a thin stream and the bottom of the tray is tapped with a finger, imitating the tapping of a hen’s beak. Then the turkeys will eagerly grab the spilled feed.
You can also add some greens to the turkey feed – the chicks will be interested in the green color, and they will peck at the food more willingly. However, in the first couple of weeks of life, it is better not to include a lot of greens in the chicks’ food, as it will be poorly digested in their intestines, and turkeys should receive all the necessary vitamins and minerals from compound feed.
Feeders and drinkers
From about the sixth day, the turkeys’ food trays are replaced with elongated troughs, and by 1,5 weeks of life, the young animals are already given special feeders with corner crossbars, which are needed to prevent the feed from compacting and becoming dirty.
Important! It is better to buy metal feeders for turkeys – they are easier to wash and disinfect.
You can also put automatic feeders for the chicks, into which loose feed is loaded. It pours out of the grooves downwards, and as it is eaten, a new portion enters the feeder. As a result, the food in the feeder itself will always be clean and can be used economically.
Automatic drinkers are also chosen for turkey poults. They are placed on a small elevation. In such drinkers, the water will always remain clean, and it is also easier to water the chicks with medicinal solutions from them.
When the chicks are 2 weeks old, you need to arrange perches for them in the room, since turkeys like to sit higher from infancy. At the same time, their plumage will remain dry and clean.
The cross-section of wooden slats used to make perches for young animals should be 4 by 7 cm, and their upper part should be rounded.
At first, the height of the perch should be 0,25-0,3 m, but then the bar is raised to a height of 0,45 m. The distance between adjacent perches should be at least 0,4 m.
For two-week-old chicks, the norm per head is 22 cm, for month-old turkeys – 0,3 m.
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