My sister works at a vet clinic and a female turkey has just come in needing a home. If I take it, does it need a friend? I have three hens - not sure if turkeys and chickens intermingle… Any other reason not to take it?
TIA
My feed store has a tom turkey named Trey as a mascot. Trey hangs out in the warehouse or the store proper greeting customers and posing for selfies. He seems pretty happy just hanging out with people. They thought about getting him a girlfriend but were afraid he would become aggressive.
A female should be fine, especially with the chickens. After my experience with wild toms who become convinced that my yard belongs to them, I wouldn’t take a tom for anything.
Hmm… They say they need a higher protein feed, but probably would let her free range with the chickens, so do I still need special feed?
Had a horribly aggressive rooster for years - could’t ever turn your back on him and I kept pitchforks “just in case” everywhere so you could fend him off. Can’t imagine what a turkey-size aggressor would be like. This is a Narrangasset(sp?) hen so they are supposedly more docile and friendly. Just trying to decide where she will sleep and how to convince her to sleep there (with the chickens?) vs my trees.
My daughter has several turkeys who happily free range with her chickens.
[QUOTE=AKB;8373015]
My daughter has several turkeys who happily free range with her chickens.[/QUOTE]
Do they sleep together? And my stupid hens like to sleep in the one part of their nighttime enclosure that isn’t rain proof. Is it at all true that turkeys can drown because they look up at the rain? I seriously asked my vet this who raised turkeys and he said yes, they are that dumb, but I think he was just trying to talk me out of turkeys…
Personal opinion: yes.
I saw a grief stricken chicken once, throwing herself over her dead friends chest (natural death in the enclosed yard of a coop) and making distressed clucks.
It gut hit me.
Based on the wild turkeys we get, they do tend to hang out in either pairs or flocks. She’d probably be happiest with another turkey hen.
We have quite a few turkeys…as in, a LOT of turkeys. They free range the farm and do their own thing, including natural breeding and brooding. Which is why we have so dang many - barely any time to butcher! They’re delicious though.
Anyhow - they have families and groups that remain together. Their behavior is fascinating. I have some jousting on my Youtube even.
Will a single turkey be fine? Probably. But I think they would be happier with friends, even if just chickens.
As for their intelligence, they’re on the lower end of the bird spectrum, but ours certainly aren’t completely stupid. We rarely lose one, mostly thanks to the Livestock Guardian Dogs.
They are happier with friends - they flock in the wild, so naturally group :). I’ve seen them somewhat bond with chickens, but I think they like other turkeys. I like them - they are amusing.
Going to town I drive by a farm that has some loose fancy rabbits, several guineas and looks like a couple fighting roosters, a peacock, a turkey hen.
Those are on the barditches and right by the road, that has a 4 way sign, so they don’t get run over that much by fast vehicles.
They also have a dromedary, zebras, ostriches, a couple big ponies/small horses, donkeys, some assorted calves and goats and I am probably forgetting something else right behind fences by the road, all running together.
I have not seen any pigs, but those are so hard to contain and so destructive, they may have had some that didn’t fit, so didn’t make it.
They all seem to kind of get along, graze and peck around together, if in pairs of the same kind or singles.
As long as they have friends, they all seem fine, no one stressed about life.
You could try her with your chickens and see how that goes.
Trey, the feed store turkey likes people. They have chickens he could hang out with but he’d rather be in the store greeting customers. He loves being petted and scritched. The only exception is at Thanksgiving time. He disappears into the chicken yard and stays there until the holiday is over.
Well, if no one else claims her today we will give her a try with the chickens. She had a wound filled with maggots so the vets cleaned that up and she is recovering. Thanks for all the feedback!
Totally semi unreleated but we have a peahen that hangs out with a group of jake turkeys. She goes everywhere with them its pretty funny to see. Neither the jakes nor the peahen belong to anyone and just wander between the few farm properties.
