Turkey Poults: First year observations.

This is my first year raising turkey poults. My purpose for this is to sell them for food and raise money for my farm, so I chose Broad Breasted breeds of Whites and Bronze Breasted turkeys. I chose these breeds because they were specifically bred to grow muscles rapidly making them large enough to slaughter at around 20-25 weeks of age at approximately 20’ish pounds.

So, upon arrival 1 died immediately. Within 4 days 3 more died. I began with 16. It has been a VERY cold April so far and shipping took several days so the poor little things were freezing. 

Once they got warmed up I had to teach them how to eat and drink. Not as easy a task as chicks. So I used 3 of the 50 chicks I also purchased at that time to teach the turkeys to eat and drink. That worked well but I still had to encourage the turkeys to eat by digging in their food, dipping my fingers in their water and touching their beaks with it. Not to mention I added other foods to catch their curiosity like, venison, lettuce, strawberries and apples all put through the food processor. 

When I lost the fourth turkey poult I was surprised. They had been doing well just an hour prior to me vacuuming the front porch (AKA the chick brooder). I later learned that turkey poults are so sensitive that even being startled can put them into shock and kill them within mere hours. 👀 

It was then that I got some helpful advise from some other turkey farmers. Turkeys don’t like rain, loud noises, sudden changes of any kind and they need you like they need their mom (unlike chicks). When they go into shock, they’ll drop/collapse. If this happens and they don’t seem to be active as they were before or interested in food or anything, you have to massage them. Circular motions all over to get their circulation going again. Do this several times taking small breaks in between. You should see signs of improvement within 20 minutes to an hour. Then all should be well.

So, as a result of the shock factor from the vacuum, I was no longer able to vacuum the porch. The dander from all the chicks was over powering. I had to keep opening the windows and ventilating with a window fan facing outside. Like the dander wasn't bad enough, the turkeys learned how to fly at only 2 WEEKS!! I was shocked! No one prepared me for that. The chicks usually take a month. Well, they immediately took over the entire porch, which is quite large. And they do not have fear like chickens do. Nope, they saw me as Mom, not the lady with food. So every time they saw me they'd come running looking for food and comfort. When I just sat with them they would open up a bit, start strutting, run laps on the porch back and forth and just sit on my lap and nap. So I guess you could say, its kind of like having a puppy.

At 5 weeks of age, they had completely ruined the rug on my porch. Oh yes, the poop. Poop machines!! My gosh. The dander was totally out of control. I was dusting sometimes twice a day and frankly, I was having a very hard time getting anything done out there without being totally bombarded by the turkeys. So I got some advise from other turkey farmers who said, "Put them out!" So I did.

I have been consistently letting them out all day and forcing them back into the coop at night to sleep. Every morning I open the door they come running out and drop at my feet in the sunshine. They stretch out a leg and a wing and take a brief nap. It was pretty funny. They were sun bathing, probably because they'd been cold overnight.

After about 5 days, I added the chicks to the coop. I picked a time when it was going to be cold and rainy. This way, the chicks would be forced to stay inside the coop for the day, maybe longer and develop a sense of "home" so that when I did let them out to explore their run for the first time, they'd know to return to the coop for safety and food.

All in all, I've decided that raising turkeys is much more challenging than raising chickens. I hope they're lucrative.