# Raising Chickens and Turkeys



## lazydaisy67

Somebody told me they had read you can't raise chickens and turkeys together. Anybody know anything about that? I assume she meant raising them as chicks together from the hatchery as opposed to in your yard together after they have feathered out.


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## horseman09

Turkeys seem to be far more prone to disease than chickens. In fact, raising turkeys *in a pen on the ground *will often bite you on the butt with high mortality. If you free range by day, you'll probably have to pen them at night because of critter problems.

Even worse is raising turkeys and chickens together because of the pecking/size difference and the disease problems. Double whammy for both chickens and turkeys. Raising turkeys on the ground where chickens had been the year before will often result in disease related mortality too. If you are going to raise turkeys in a pen, it is better to keep them separate from chickens and keep them off the ground.


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## *Andi

I have never had a problem with keeping (a few) turkeys and chickens together ... :dunno: I do free range both. 

The turkeys go to the barn at night and the chickens to the hen house, on their own. I only keep a few turkeys ... maybe 6 ... and they are "put up" the first cold days of fall and we start over the next spring.

As for the chicks ... well, again I have kept mine together till they feathered out.

But if you have read my past post ... :gaah: I keep my billy goat near the girls ... (A BIG No No ... in the goat world. )

I think it has a lot to do with the number of birds you keep ... but that is just me. 

Best of luck ... and research ...


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## goatlady

There is a disease called blackhead which can become rampant in turkeys and chickens being raised together in close quarters. I have always raised turks and chicks together, but they free range, the turks seem to roost in the barn when they get too big to get through the coop door and I have never held any turks over the winter. I think it all depends on the raising set-up and space available.


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## lazydaisy67

Hmmmm...not sure I'll get turkey's then. Don't really want to build a whole new coop. I guess I understood that the feed you give builds up their immunity, but if that disease stays in the ground for up to a year I guess that could be an issue. I know my husband's dad raised turkeys together with his chicks, so I wondered just how difficult those buggers were. I also had a friend who got turkeys to butcher and then fell in love with the HUGE tom and kept him. He strutted around the yard like he owned the place along with the chickens.


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## horseman09

lazyd, I'd bet Andi and Goatlady are right in that free range chickens and turkeys, not being concentrated in a pen, would do OK, particularly if your flock of chickens are healthy to start with and your turkeys could roost off the ground and free range by day.


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## crazychickenlady

The blackhead disease that affects turkeys is caused by a parasite that the chickens pick up from soil...I think it is a protozoan. This then infects the turkeys. I have read that putting copper sulfate in the chickens' water will control the disease so that you can keep them together with turkeys, but I have no practical experience with this.


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## Concerned_ Citizen

We have both turkeys and chickens. They are both free-range. I read somewhere that the turkeys are more suspect to getting the black-head disease mentioned when they are very young, developing an immunity as they grow older..... We let our turkeys out very young and had our rooster come up dead, i believe from blackhead.......we did not loose any hens and have not had any issues since.... I also read that it is not good practice to keep their food where they do most of their pooping ( at night in the coop) We built a covered feeding station away from the hen houses, we also keep them hanging off the ground......

Good coop hygiene, free-range, and segregation early on i believe will help in most cases.....

i could be wrong, i am not a professional


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## VUnder

My friend always kept turkeys and chickens together. The turkeys were wild ones that his dad found in the woods. He found the eggs and they hatched them. Those turkeys were mean. If they got out, they ran the dogs under the house and we got scarce too.


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## AraucanaAnne

I started with heritage turkeys by hatching turkey eggs (Bourbon Red, acquired by a local farmer) with broody chickens. The chicken moms raised them as their own and therefore no problems integrating into the chicken flock.

I do keep my chickens penned (or try to!), but my pens are very large, more like pastures -- large enough that they always have fresh grass and it doesn't turn into a mudhole in the wintertime. So far no problems with disease.


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## musketjim

I have a small setup 1 turkey and 6 chickens. Chickens and turkey free ranged in the summer. The chickens are cooped up now and the turkey still wanders loose. No problems so far. This is my first year with a turkey.


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## partdeux

musketjim said:


> I have a small setup 1 turkey and 6 chickens. Chickens and turkey free ranged in the summer. The chickens are cooped up now and the turkey still wanders loose. No problems so far. This is my first year with a turkey.


Me thinks dinner is smelling awfully good right now :flower:


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## Sourdough

My problem with turkeys is that they are savage "Omnivores". After having several half eaten turkeys, I set'about studying how they attack and eat another turkey. They are like sharks as soon as blood is drawn. They attack the knee joint, just one sharp peck on the unsuspecting turkeys knee draws blood, and the others will peck at the victim's knee till the the joint fails and the turkey can't stand up. Then they go for the head till the victim is dead...........Savage vile disgusting animals. Kind of like humans in a cage. I'll raise geese thank you, wonderful animals. And they do NOT need a building and can & will live through a Alaskan winters down to -28 degrees. I have never lost a goose, accept to the wolves. Yes, YMMV


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## cowboyhermit

Sourdough said:


> My problem with turkeys is that they are savage "Omnivores". After having several half eaten turkeys, I set'about studying how they attack and eat another turkey.* Yes, YMMV*


I would sure emphasize that last part, our family has been raising turkeys for many, many years and that has NEVER been a problem with them Chickens yes, under bad conditions (not natural ones) but never with turkeys. For chickens I still use a drop of stop-pick every now and then out of habit, but happy, healthy birds should not have those issues.


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