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Keeping poultry is a rather serious matter. Anyone who started raising 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 quite ambiguous; in our article we will try to explain why.
Keeping turkeys
At poultry breeding a lot depends on her breed. Domestic turkey is very unpretentious in keeping, as is its cross with a purebred bird, but imported birds require 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. Turkey eggs are superior to chicken eggs in many respects. Breeding turkeys at home is a rather complicated and troublesome task. It is not surprising that meat is highly valued on the market. The need for it is growing every year, so it is extremely profitable to open turkey farms today.
If you compare chickens and turkeys, the latter gain weight faster, and approximately 60% of adult poultry meat is a low-cholesterol diet product.
Conditions of detention
Turkey is a very large bird.When choosing or building a poultry house, this must be taken into account. 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 |
| Basic nutrition | Compound feed | Compound feed |
The fastest growing bird in the backyard is the turkey. This plus successfully compensates for the difficulties in keeping this bird. Turkeys (especially young ones) are demanding of the following conditions:
- to the duration of daylight up to 12-13 hours;
- to the absence of drafts;
- to cleanliness in the poultry house and disinfection of feeders;
- to nutrition.
Regarding the last point, it is important to note here: turkeys should not be fed the same way as chickens. This is a common mistake made by inexperienced breeders. You can use a special table that describes exactly how a turkey should eat.
| Bird age | What to feed |
|---|---|
| 2 days | hard-boiled egg, millet |
| 3 days | add boiled carrots, finely chopped |
| 4 days | add chopped herbs |
| a week | add dry milk and cottage cheese in small quantities |
| 2 weeks | add additional fish and meat and bone meal |
You can’t add too much greens.
A grown bird should have in its diet:
- wheat;
- barley;
- cracked corn;
- wheat bran (usually at the base of wet mashes).
Also, do not ignore mineral supplements.Turkey poults must be kept warm; they can die from hypothermia. Keeping chickens and turkeys together can upset the nutritional balance of the bird. Let's talk about the living conditions of chickens and find out how similar they are.
Nice video about keeping turkeys you can see below:
Keeping chickens
Keeping chickens is more familiar to our farmers. As a rule, there are practically no difficulties in this matter. This popular bird is raised for its tasty meat and eggs, which are consumed in large quantities by the residents of our country.
Laying hens each produce up to 200 eggs per year. Chickens also love warmth, so poultry houses are specially prepared for winter. The optimal 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 feed. 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 cold weather, the amount of grain is also increased so that the bird is not too fatty.
Chickens often suffer from attacks by mites, lice, fleas and other insect pests. If not processed chicken coop and do not maintain cleanliness, the livestock may be destroyed. Keeping chickens involves setting up ash baths. They use 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 parasites that spread infection. You can further familiarize yourself with some of the rules for keeping chickens using laying hens as an example by watching the video below:
Shared content
When you open any professional literature on poultry keeping, you will definitely come across a recommendation not to keep turkeys and chickens together. When it comes to home maintenance, here are our recommendations. When organizing a farm for business, you need to approach the issue more seriously and professionally.
General recommendations
When starting a farm, the main task is to reduce risks as much as possible. Each bird is a farmer’s income, which no one wants to lose. Of course, with home breeding everything is much simpler.
Turkeys do not like either heat or cold; they need to be bred based on this data. It is ideal if such a bird has two poultry houses at once: summer and winter. The summer one should be well ventilated, and the winter one should be warm and light. When keeping turkeys and chickens together, take into account the following differences:
- in nutrition;
- in content;
- in common diseases.
The larger the turkey, the more space it needs to be housed. When raising turkeys on farms, they try to separate the females from the males. This makes it easier to record the egg production of birds. The same rule applies to laying hens. Order on the farm is the key to rapid business development.
Let's talk about why it is still not recommended to keep different birds together. This applies not only to those previously listed. Chickens, turkeys, ducks and guinea fowl - they should all be placed separately if we are talking about the correct content.
Problems when housing 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;
- accommodation conditions;
- number of goals;
- farmer's care capabilities.
According to reviews, problems can be avoided if the farm is small, or when poultry houses are set up at home, where control over chickens and turkeys is maximum.
What problems should you watch out for?
- Poor nutrition. When turkeys and chickens are kept together, the former can accumulate fat excessively, suffer from an abundance of grass at an early age, and so on.
- Aggressive behavior. Some breeds of turkeys can be aggressive towards chickens and slaughter young animals. This requires dividing the birds, since you can lose a large part of the population. In this case, many farmers recommend raising turkeys with chickens from an early age, but no one can give an absolute guarantee that there will be no aggression from larger birds.
- Diseases. Chicken diseases are dangerous for turkeys and vice versa. When an infection (for example, histomoniasis 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 turkey poults. This reason is the most important when recommending not to keep different birds together.
- Turkeys can crush chicken eggs in nests. If this happens, the farmer will have to urgently separate the poultry, which is sometimes very difficult to do.
That is why veterinarians recommend that at the initial stage you set up a farm according to 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 various birds together, fatten them and live in them. Keeping chickens and turkeys in this manner is an exception when it is simply not possible to do otherwise at home.
Reviews about keeping chickens and turkeys together
Some farmers keep poultry together at home. Let's consider their recommendations.
Conclusion
Thus, every farmer should think about keeping chickens and turkeys in advance to avoid further problems.
