Birds of a feather flock together? Well, when your homesteading vision doesn’t exactly line up perfectly with your resources, you make do with what you’ve got. This year we raised two Bourbon Red turkeys with our backyard flock of laying hens and two Khaki Campbell ducks. Here’s how raising turkeys went for Johnson Home:
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Can you raise turkeys and chickens together in a mixed flock?
The internet will give you mixed reviews on raising turkeys.
Some say it’s okay. Some say it is not okay.
While, yes, I did hit the internet for the opinions of other homesteaders who blog about this topic, I did choose to vet the blogger/homesteader.
I chose to take the tried and true, lived out experiences of those on the internet choosing to share their experience with raising a mixed flock.
In my personal opinion, I went with a homesteader who has done this more than once and with success.
To answer the question, YES you can raise a mixed flock BUT it is with risk.
Which breed of turkey?
That’s going to be up to the homesteader.
For us, we chose Bourbon Red turkeys, which:
- are a heritage breed
- were offered to us for FREE
A friend had some poults ready to go and offered them to us for zero cost so we took the opportunity to cross off another 2024 Homesteading Goal–
raising turkeys for Thanksgiving dinner.
How did you raise the turkeys with the other birds?
Turkey Housing
Pat and Charlie came to us as poults in June.
(Yes, we name our birds even if we’re going to eat them. We believe in ethical practices and giving the animal the very best life we can before they become sustenance for our lives.)
The weather was fine for them to begin their stay at Johnson Home outside.
We started raising turkeys in the “nursery” of our chicken run. This is a separated area of the chicken run where the other flock can see and meet the newbies but not have direct contact.
- feeders and waterers are separated in the nursery
- protection from predators and weather provided
- fresh bedding can be added as necessary
The turkeys stayed in the nursery for about 3 weeks.
Some days they were given access to the yard with the other laying hens and ducks with supervision from a human.
Quickly, the little turkeys grew taller than the other birds which told us they were now able to hold their own against those enforcing the pecking order and thus, could be released from the nursery.
Raising turkeys as babies in a protected environment until they are big enough to be introduced to the rest of the flock can be done in a:
- mobile chicken tractor if you raise your own meat birds
- a large dog kennel with the plastic bottom removed
- using bird netting and a staple gun to create a make shift separated area in your run
Turkey Roosting
Turkeys love to roost and up high!
Still protected from all predators, aerial and woodland, and weather, we allowed them to roost wherever they wanted inside the run.
If we did not get the flock in for the night early enough, one turkey would inevitably jump on top of the run’s enclosure from the outside and would have to be encouraged off with a rake to be put up in the protected space.
Turkey Eating and Drinking
We allowed the turkeys to eat and drink with the chickens and ducks after they were big enough to leave the nursery.
Our flock consists of two ducks and a barnyard mix of laying hens, 10-11 hens; no roosters.
Turkeys eat a lot and by our experience with Bourbon Reds, they are excellent foragers.
Our flock was fed every morning a mix of layer feed and Kalmbach’s Henhouse Reserve.
The turkeys were fed 2 cups of Kalmbach’s 22% Meat Bird Start to Finish feed as well each morning.
This was accomplished some days by adding it to the regular morning feeders for all. Some mornings my son was able to separate the turkeys and feed the Meat Bird feed just to them.
Turkey Foraging
At Johnson Home, we love nothing more than to see our flock foraging our one acre property for fresh grass and bugs.
What we don’t love, however, is how they inevitably end up in my garden and herb beds tearing out mulch!
A year ago, we invested in electric netting by Premier 1.
We are able to attach the netting to our run so the flock can come and go to be protected from the weather and predators. This also allows some time to “free range” a section of the yard.
The turkeys chose to be in the “pasture” as much as possible.
According to their droppings, turkeys love to eat lots of grass! Moving the netting to fresh grass every other day was important while keeping turkeys in our flock.
Shop: PREMIER 1 TALL ELECTRIC FENCE NETTING SYSTEM FOR BIRDS THAT LIKE TO FLY
Were we afraid of Blackhead disease?
Upon deciding on raising turkeys for Thanksgiving but knowing we didn’t have a ton of space, I sought the internet opinions of blogging homesteaders who, too, raise a mixed flock.
I wanted their first-hand experience and know-how.
Turns out, Blackhead disease in turkeys is always a risk when raising turkeys with chickens and other poultry and waterfowl.
Each homesteader MUST decide for themselves if the risk is worth it.
Note: it is ADVISED not to raise a mixed flock. Keep chickens with chickens, ducks with ducks, turkeys with turkeys, and so on. AS A HOMESTEADER, THIS IS YOUR CHOICE!
It’s not a bad idea to reach out to your local county cooperative extension office to inquire if there have been any or many local reports of blackhead disease.
Were we afraid of this disease? In a word, kinda. But we chose to persevere and use good eyes.
Keep an eye on your flock
This is Good Animal Husbandry 101: OBSERVATION.
Daily observation of your flock is imperative.
Even if your children are responsible for feeding the flock, cleaning the waterers, collecting the eggs, etc. As an adult, take a peek at your flock yourself at least once a day.
We learned this the hard way this year.
While raising turkeys with our mixed flock this summer, we lost a hen.
Henri’s Story
Henri was always an odd bird so when I noticed she had been acting strange, it was days later that I understood that she’s not just being strange, something is wrong.
Turns out that Henri had sour crop and by the time I realized it and tried some holistic ways to treat it, she was too far gone.
Ol’ Henrietta got special treatment for her last days. Lots of pets and prayers, and a special funeral service with fresh picked zinnias from the garden as her body was given back to the circle of life in the woods behind our family’s farm.
I hadn’t been putting my own eyes on our flock much that week.
There was simply too much to do in the garden and kitchen and I trusted my 12 year old to do what he needed to do to care for our flock. He mentioned she was acting weird but I blew it off. I now wish I had taken it more seriously.
No one likes to lose an animal! So, take your daily observations seriously.
Watch for strange behavior, lethargy, who’s not eating, take a gander at the poops!
Poop checks!
When you see (or in a duck’s case, hear) a bird poop, go check it out immediately.
What does it look like? Anything strange? Should you take to the internet to figure out if what you’re seeing is normal or does your flock need some remedy?
Take Note: you’ll come to learn your animals
I cannot speak personally on livestock animals like goats, cows, sheep, pigs much as I do not have any on our small homestead property.
However, we do have pigs being raised on a friend’s land down the road. We visit often with scraps and always take note of their appearance, behavior, and poop too!
You’ll start to learn your flock/herds mannerisms and personality. When something is off, you’ll know it’s not normal and needs your attention.
This is stewarding your animals well. Just the way God intended us to do when He gave us dominion over them.
Harvesting Turkeys
This may need to be another post all for itself!
Long and the short of it:
- harvesting turkeys is just like harvesting chickens but larger
- eviscerating is the same but larger quantities
- fast the turkeys 24 hours before harvest for a mostly clean crop and poop shoot
- killing or processing cones will need to be slightly larger to hold the turkey
- secure their feet before doing the deed as they jump and jerk a lot (some call it “electric shock”) and you do not want to get cut by their turkey toes
- turkeys may be too large for the plucking machine and hand plucking may be necessary
Thanksgiving Dinner
TO BE DETERMINED!!
At the writing of this post on raising turkeys in a mixed flock, we are less than a week out from Thanksgiving day.
My mother is going to prepare and roast our Tom for lunch.
This first time turkey raising experience will either be a delicious success or I’ll have ruined Thanksgiving…
so, stay tuned for an update!
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