Content of the article:
White wide-breasted turkeys - growing and caring for this poultry is not only interesting, but also profitable. In order to get excellent dietary meat, it is necessary to choose the right breed and follow simple maintenance rules.
- Favorable conditions for keeping turkeys
Turkeys feel great in a normal barn, it should be roomy so that the birds can move freely. In the room it is necessary to install perches( wide bars) at a height of about 80 cm from the floor. Each individual is provided with 40 cm of free space where she will feel comfortable. In the barn there is a nest, measuring 50 × 70 cm, where birds can carry eggs. Five hens need one nest. It should be located at a height of 50-60 cm, it is important to make steps.
Turkeys are not capricious, however, they need to create favorable conditions in which birds will feel comfortable and not get sick. How to keep turkeys at home:
- in summer, the temperature in the room should not exceed +20 ° C, and in winter not lower than -5 ° C( if necessary, install a stove to maintain heat);
- special openings( hoods) are made on the walls of the shed so that it is well ventilated;
- birds are afraid of dampness and drafts, such conditions are detrimental to them;
- litter of straw or sawdust is changed 2 times a week.
At various times of the year, white wide-breasted turkeys need special feeding and care. In the summer, you can equip a playground and make sheds where they can walk freely. Be sure to put the drinkers, as well as feeders. Supplement the diet with fresh grass, such as alfalfa, clover.
In winter, at a temperature of no more than -5 ° C, turkeys are released outside. If the temperature falls below, it is necessary to scatter straw on the snow, this will protect birds from freezing.
Feeding turkeys at home
Successful rearing of poultry depends on proper and balanced nutrition. The main diet of turkeys should be grain and feed. In the summer it is important to give more greenery: tops of carrots, green onions, dandelions. Birds love wheat, barley, and corn; dry grain is best given in the evening. Excellent birds eat both dry and wet mash( better to give in the morning and at lunch).
In winter, birds need vitamins that are found in common vegetables: carrots, beets, cabbage. During the summer season, experienced farmers stock up on hay, and give it to turkeys in the winter in a wetted form.
Cabbage is a necessary ingredient for turkeys, regularly adding it to the diet, poultry meat will be soft and tender.
How to raise turkeys at home
Compared with other young poultry, turkeys are the most enduring. The main thing that they require is a calm and cozy atmosphere. At home, the cultivation of white wide-chested turkeys, begins with the selection of a warm place. This may be a box, its bottom is covered with straw or chips. Their house should be constantly lit, it is important to maintain one temperature not higher than + 37 °.
The bottom of the box cannot be covered with a newspaper, as the legs of the poults on it slide and become injured.
Kids need to change the water 3 times a day, topping up with only a warm drink. It is important to feed the chicks at least 8 times. In the first month in the diet should be small cereals and boiled eggs. Large grains and grass are gradually added:
- young nettle;
- clover;
- cabbage leaves;
- green onions and lettuce leaves;
- Alfalfa.
Special feeds filled with vitamins are added to the diet, they accelerate the development of healthy chicks. Turkey poults need vitamins A and B, as well as animal proteins.
Twice a week you need to disinfect the gastrointestinal tract, a weak solution of potassium permanganate.
For the first months, chicks of white broad-chested turkeys require special feeding and care, but then they will grow well. Adult individuals are not at all capricious, therefore breeding of this species of bird will bring one pleasure. 
