Content
Bird keeping is a rather serious issue. Everyone who started breeding poultry on small farms or at home was faced with the question of whether it is possible to keep chickens and turkeys together. The answer to this question is rather ambiguous, in our article we will try to explain why.
The content of turkeys
When poultry breeding much depends on her breed. Domestic turkey is very unpretentious in keeping, like its cross with a thoroughbred bird, but imported poultry requires more attention and comprehensive care.
As you know, turkey meat is very healthy, it contains vitamin K and folic acid. It is well absorbed, does not cause allergies, and is dietary. A turkey egg is superior to a chicken egg in many respects. Breeding turkeys at home is a rather complicated and troublesome business. It is not surprising that meat is highly valued on the market. The demand for it is growing every year, so it is extremely profitable to open farms for growing turkeys today.
If we compare chickens and turkeys, the latter gain weight faster, and about 60% of adult poultry meat is a dietary product with low cholesterol content.
Conditions of detention
The turkey is a very large bird. This must be taken into account when choosing or building a house. Below is a table of bird parameters.
| Parameter type | For turkeys | For turkeys |
|---|---|---|
| Adult bird weight | 9-35 kg | 4-11 kg |
| Weight gain | 7-8 months | 4-5 months |
| Nutritional Basis | Compound feed | Compound feed |
The fastest growing bird in the courtyard is just the turkey. This plus successfully compensates for the difficulties in keeping this bird. Turkeys (especially young ones) are demanding on the following conditions:
- to the duration of daylight hours up to 12-13 hours;
- to the absence of drafts;
- to cleanliness in the poultry house and disinfection of feeders;
- to nutrition.
As for the last point, it is important to note here: turkeys should not be fed in the same way as chickens. This is a common mistake made by inexperienced breeders. You can use a special table, which describes exactly how the turkey should eat.
| Bird age | What to feed |
|---|---|
| 2nd days | hard boiled egg, millet |
| 3rd days | add boiled carrots, chopped finely |
| 4 days | add chopped greens |
| a week | injected milk powder and cottage cheese in a small amount |
| 2 weeks | additionally introduce fish and meat and bone meal |
Too much greenery should not be introduced.
The grown bird should have in the diet:
- wheat;
- barley;
- crushed corn;
- wheat bran (usually based on wet mash).
Also, do not ignore mineral dressings. Turkey poults must be kept warm, they may die if hypothermia occurs. Keeping chickens and turkeys together can upset the poultry's nutritional balance. Let's talk about the conditions for keeping chickens and find out how similar they are.
Good video about keeping turkeys you can see below:
Keeping chickens
The keeping of chickens is more familiar to our farmers. As a rule, there are practically no difficulties in this matter.This popular bird is grown for the sake of delicious meat and eggs, which are consumed in huge quantities by the inhabitants of our country.
Laying hens produce up to 200 eggs per year each. Chickens also love warmth, so the houses are specially prepared for winter. The optimum temperature for year-round maintenance is + 23-25 degrees. Speaking of chickens, the breed of the bird and its purpose are also of great importance. The nutrition of chickens, especially if they are fattened for meat, is represented by more fatty feeds. Their diet includes:
- corn and oats (rich in fat);
- pumpkin, corn, carrots, fish oil, sprouted oats, weeds (rich in vitamins);
- chalk, shell rock, egg shells (for calcium enrichment).
Chickens are fed 3-4 times a day, giving only grain at night. During the cold season, the amount of grain is also increased so that the bird is not too fat.
Chickens are often attacked by ticks, lice, fleas and other insect pests. If not process chicken coop and do not monitor cleanliness, the livestock can be destroyed. Keeping chickens implies the arrangement of ash baths. Convenient boxes with a special mixture of:
- ash;
- sand;
- dry clay.
Mix these components in equal parts. Chickens take such baths on their own, they are beneficial and get rid of the parasites that spread the infection. You can additionally familiarize yourself with some of the rules for keeping chickens using the example of laying hens by watching the video below:
Joint content
Opening any professional literature on poultry keeping, you will surely come across a recommendation not to keep turkeys and chickens together. If it comes to home content, then here are my recommendations. When organizing a farm for doing business, you need to approach the issue more seriously and professionally.
General recommendations
When starting a farm, the main task is to minimize risks. Each bird is a farmer's income, which no one wants to lose. Of course, with home breeding, everything is much easier.
Turkeys do not like either heat or cold; they need to be bred based on these data. Ideally, such a bird will have two poultry houses at once: summer and winter. Summer should be well ventilated, and winter should be warm and bright. When keeping turkeys and chickens, differences are taken into account together:
- in nutrition;
- in the content;
- in common diseases.
The larger the turkey, the more floor space it needs when nesting. When raising turkeys on farms, females are tried to be separated from males. This makes it easier to keep track of poultry egg production. The same rule applies to laying hens. Order on the farm is the key to fast business development.
Let's talk about why they still do not recommend keeping different birds together. This applies not only to those previously listed. Chickens, turkeys, ducks and guinea fowl - all of them should be placed separately if it is about the correct content.
Problems when placing different birds together
Sooner or later, every farmer will face problems if chickens, turkeys and other poultry are kept together. It all depends on various factors:
- breeds;
- placement conditions;
- the number of goals;
- farmer's care opportunities.
According to reviews, problems can be avoided if the farm is small, or when the poultry houses are settling at home, where control over chickens and turkeys is maximum.
What are the problems to watch out for?
- Improper nutrition... When co-keeping turkeys with chickens, the former can accumulate fat unnecessarily, suffer at an early age from an abundance of grass, and so on.
- Aggressive behavior... Some breeds of turkeys can be aggressive towards chickens, slaughter young animals. This requires dividing the birds, as it is possible to lose most of the livestock. In this case, many farmers recommend raising turkeys with chickens from an early age, but no one will give an absolute guarantee that there will be no aggression from a larger bird.
- Diseases... Diseases of chickens are dangerous for turkeys and vice versa. When an infection (for example, histomonosis or enterohepatitis) passes from turkeys to chickens, it will be extremely difficult to cure the latter. If we are talking about young animals, then you can lose the entire brood. Chicken droppings are also dangerous for poults. This is the most important reason for recommending not keeping different birds together.
- Turkeys can crush chicken eggs in their nests... If this happens, the farmer will have to urgently separate the bird, which is sometimes very difficult to do.
That is why veterinarians recommend at the initial stage to equip the farm in accordance with all the rules. Chickens and turkey poults are very demanding in terms of care and maintenance. The risk of infection with viruses and death due to improper nutrition is extremely high.
If you are opening a professional farm, remember: the veterinary service will not issue an opinion on it if you plan to walk different poultry together, feed and live. Such a content of chickens and turkeys is an exception, when at home it is simply not possible to do otherwise.
Reviews about the joint keeping of chickens and turkeys
Some farmers keep poultry together at home. Let's consider their recommendations.
Conclusion
Therefore, every farmer should consider keeping chickens and turkeys in advance to avoid further problems.
