Find the right pattern and make your dietGrowing them at home has several advantages. Firstly, turkey meat is dietary and extremely tasty, and secondly, the bird itself grows to impressive size. How to start growing turkey poults at home
There are several criteria by which a bird is selected for breeding. In appearance, healthy turkey poults differ from weak, which immediately catches the eye.
Healthy chicks - active, clean, responsive to sound and light, the down is dry, soft, with a uniform coating of the whole body.
Chicks are contraindicated for any draft, which should be considered, first of all, upon delivery. It is advisable to prepare a place in advance, since the quality content of the poults from the first day affects their condition and further development.
The cage where small turkey poults are located should be warm, necessarily dry and with the possibility of airing. It is best to install a pan so that it is easier to clean and the chicks are cleaner.
This dwelling is heated and illuminated with ordinary and infrared lamps. After all, 3-5 day turkey poults, growing at home is heavier than the young, should be at a temperature of 33-35 degrees. When chicks are cool, they gather in piles, try not to move, do not approach the stern, when it is hot - they can lie with their beaks open and wings spread out.
Lack of light and heat in the cage, even the shortest period of time threatens with crowding and piling up turkeys of one upon the other in search of heat, which leads to rapid death. This is especially true of chicks aged 4 to 7 days.
In the cage there should always be a drinking bowl with clean water at room temperature and a tray with food. Moreover, it is necessary to ensure that the turkey poults do not get wet and do not trample down the food. Therefore, in order to cultivate turkey poults at home for beginners does not seem to be troublesome and difficult, they recommend vacuum drinkers and trays with sides.
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Starting from the 10th day of life, poults can be transferred to a looser cage with a temperature of about 20 degrees and an open-air cage for walking in fresh air.
Proper feeding and ration.
Feeding chicks is a very important point. At the initial stage, when growing turkey poults at home, the diet consists of a combined feed with the necessary vitamins, microelements, and various natural additives.
Finished feed should not exclude the use of chicks, especially at the initial stage, mashed cottage cheese, steamed millet, boiled eggs. Turkey poults eat finely chopped greens with pleasure( green onions, wets, nettles, carrot tops, clover).
For the prevention of intestinal diseases, drinking water may contain a small solution of manganese, and for better digestion, a tray with fine gravel, shells and chalk must be put separately.
In the early days, the risk of death associated with improper digestion is very high. If the turkey “froze” for a long time with its eyes closed, ruffled, wilted and lowered its feathers, it means that it has stomach problems. It is necessary to urgently invest it deep into the beak of a black peppercorn pea.
In the first week turkeys are fed with food at intervals of three hours, after - enough four meals a day, with the obligatory addition of a mash to the ration.
Blending is a mixture of bran or chopped grain( millet, rolled oats, wheat) with greens, sour milk. The mixture should always be fresh, crumbly and not soured. Giving should be so much so that the poults can cope with it for 15-20 minutes.
From 1.5 months of age, turkeys are fed only with dry feed, greens, and finely chopped vegetables.
Knowing how to care for poults from the early days, providing them with proper and balanced nutrition, good conditions for keeping, you can avoid unpleasant moments associated with illness and death of chicks.
Features of walking poults in the
aviary. Raising poultry means having special and free space for them to walk. Therefore, starting from 10-13 days of life, turkeys need to be let out to fresh air.
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For this class, an open-air cage should be equipped, fenced and covered with netting, to protect against drafts and predators. It is better if the entire territory of the aviary is sprinkled with sand or sawdust.
As in the pen, drinkers with water and feed trays must be present. Turkey poults, especially on warm, hot days, consume a lot of water, it is necessary to monitor its quantity.
In addition to the feeders, place trays for gravel, shell, chalk in the aviary.
The heat also adversely affects the condition of the birds, they can refuse to eat, move a little, and this leads to slow growth and weight gain. Therefore, the aviary should be equipped with several places with a canopy.
Turkey poults love to climb, take off on roost, which also needs to be installed both in the main pen and in the aviary.
Small domestic poults grown at home are afraid of dampness and moisture. Do not let them out into the fresh air for dew, as well as immediately after the rain.
Features of temperature and light mode
Small chicks need around-the-clock lighting. For this, the lamps are placed at a distance of 1.5-2 meters from the location of the birds. In the first days it is necessary for their full adaptation, finding the feeders and trays with water.
If you arrange the lamps with a blue or green tint, the bird will grow more actively. Also, for rapid growth, the light day on the contrary prolong. Using fluorescent light bulbs will significantly reduce power consumption.
Every day of growing up, daylight should diminish slightly, and ultimately come down to 16 hours.
Turkey poults from birth do not know how to keep their body heat warm, and acquire such skills only by two weeks of age. Ensuring proper thermoregulation - the main condition for how to grow poults in the home successfully.
The first 4-5 days the temperature in the house or cage should be maintained at 33-35 degrees, and only after 10 days can you gradually begin to reduce it to 22-20 degrees.
Read also: The optimum temperature for keeping chickens in the first days of life
Incandescent lamps at the same time are located at the edges of the heated room, and not in the center. Thus, the chicks will be able to choose for themselves a more comfortable place.
To preserve heat in the cage, heaters are never used, and are not installed on the sides, in order to avoid crushing of poults to a warmer edge.
Proper cultivation of poults in the home( there is plenty of video on this topic on the Internet) provides for separate maintenance from other types of poultry, to prevent transmission of infectious diseases.
Peculiarities of
turkey poults behavior Sometimes, among the poults, cannibalism occurs. He expresses himself in the grip of both his body and the bodies of his congeners.
Causes:
- dry environment in the house, lack of water;
- poor content, feather parasites, insects;
- unhealthy diet, lack of or excess of protein;
- sharing with a group of new turkey poults.
When wounds, scratches, turkey poults appear on the skin, they feel an itch and peck up the sore surface, which leads to deeper wounds and damage. For this reason, many young are killed.
To avoid this, you need to know how to raise turkeys, protecting them from such a phenomenon.
Prevention Methods:
- to monitor the sufficient amount of fiber in the diet of turkey poults;
- to avoid crowding, providing a good walking area;
- to monitor the cleanliness of the premises; to carry out disinfecting operations before settling;
- add abrasives to grind the beaks;
- keep in a bright room, avoid bright aggressive colors;
- trimming the beak - only as a last resort.
Sometimes, to avoid the spread of mass cannibalism, you have to move or remove the most aggressive turkey poults.
Growing turkey poults at home is the most profitable and winning option, it is not easy, but quickly paid back. Having shown maximum attention to the chicks, especially in the first two weeks of their life, one can absolutely do without serious losses and in the end result get tasty dietary meat.
Problems of growing turkey poults - video
