Features of care and breeding of turkeys at home
Among the poultry raised in Russian farmsteads, turkeys have no competitors in terms of weight gain and size. Therefore, breeding, keeping and caring for turkeys at home is chosen by an increasing number of poultry enthusiasts.
The choice of turkeys is easy to explain. For six months, with a well-chosen diet, compliance with the conditions of detention and due attention, a tiny chick turns into a huge bird. The weight of an adult turkey, depending on the breed, can vary from 8 to 30 kg. And although turkeys are a little smaller, they weigh at least 6-8 kg by six months. The attractiveness of the species is added by the fact that in Russia there are several well-established breeds suitable even for breeding turkeys at home by novice poultry farmers.
And yet, not everyone succeeds in getting a truly large healthy bird? Why do farmers and backyard owners sometimes face high mortality, poor weight gain, or disease?
Features of breeding turkeys at home for beginners
In most cases, turkeys are bred to produce tender, dietary meat. If you buy young animals for spring-summer fattening, then in the fall you can feast on turkey meat from your own farm. For personal needs, eggs are also used, which are not inferior in nutritional value to chicken.
The main chores of caring for turkeys at home come at a time when small turkeys appear. In the first days and weeks of life, they require constant attention and special nutrition up to 10 times a day. Upon reaching the age of one month, the turkey poults grow stronger and switch to mixed feed and grain mixtures. They can and should be released for walking, which allows you to save on green fodder and prevent the bird from accumulating excess fat.
At home, for breeding turkeys, it is enough for novice poultry breeders to purchase one family, consisting of a male and 4–5 turkeys, for which one nest is prepared.
Turkeys begin to hatch at about eight months, producing several dozen eggs per year. You can get offspring of a bird using incubation. In order for the young to be of the same age, eggs are removed from the nest and stored upright at a temperature of 10-15 ° C. In this case, long-term storage negatively affects the quality of the embryos.
Details on breeding turkeys at home and the peculiarities of incubation can be found in specialized literature and other articles on the portal. If it is decided to entrust the hatching of the offspring to the turkey, a spacious nest is built for the bird, raised above the floor level. The structure is surrounded by a side, and a soft loose bedding is made at the bottom. After 26-28 days from the moment when the laying hen sits on the clutch, turkeys appear.
At first, turkeys are kept with additional lighting and at elevated air temperatures:
- in the first five days, the air should warm up to +33 ° C;
- the next week the chicks are at + 27 ° C;
- from the eleventh day, the room temperature drops to +23 ° C.
With proper care of turkeys, breeding and keeping them at home will not be difficult even for poultry breeders with little practical experience. In addition to maintaining the required temperature, turkeys, until they get stronger, are protected from drafts and dampness, as well as from infectious diseases. For this you need:
- ventilate the house very carefully;
- it is imperative to clean the litter and remove uneaten food;
- equip the place where the chicks are kept with safe drinkers.
From the first day of life, turkeys receive a balanced feed based on moist mash and vitamin green supplements. As they grow older, dry grain mixtures or specialized feed are introduced into the diet.
A video about the peculiarities of breeding turkeys at home will be a great help for novice poultry farmers, and for those who have experience in keeping other poultry, and are just looking at turkeys.
Keeping turkeys at home for beginners
The cornerstone of raising and keeping turkeys at home is caring for the bird, organizing its feeding and placement. Staying in clean, dry poultry houses, receiving enough nutritious feed and having the opportunity to walk, turkeys grow well.
Maintaining a comfortable temperature, good lighting and the number of heads per unit area is of no small importance. In cramped conditions, even with the rest of the care, turkeys look depressed, are more likely to get sick, and grow worse.
On average, the stocking density of birds per square meter should not exceed:
- 15 heads for chicks up to 5 days of age;
- 10 heads for young animals that have reached the age of 1–2 months;
- 5 heads for turkeys up to 4 months inclusive;
- 1-2 individuals for an adult bird, depending on breed and weight.
When creating conditions for keeping turkeys at home, novice poultry farmers need to take care of high-quality ventilation of the premises, removal of excess moisture that is inevitable when there is a large number of poultry in the house, as well as an acceptable temperature in summer and winter:
- Air humidity should be maintained within 65–70%.
- In the warm season, it should not be hotter in the house above plus 18–20 ° C.
- In winter, make sure that the house does not freeze and the temperature does not drop below –5 ° C.
If the temperature regime is not observed, drafts walk around the house, the bird does not feel well, it chills with high humidity or, conversely, suffers from overheating. As a result, the turkeys do not rush well, the young grows almost no weight gain.
When keeping and breeding turkeys at home, care includes mandatory cleaning or replacement of the bedding, making sure that it is always dry. The wet layer is changed, and if the turkeys are kept on a deep litter poured over a layer of slaked lime, then it is only poured over. Such a coating should be changed in spring and autumn, simultaneously carrying out a complete cleaning and disinfection of the premises.
In domestic breeding, birds often suffer from lack of movement. Turkeys have joint problems, the headband does not accumulate meat, but fat. You can avoid such problems if you include poultry walking in the care of turkeys at home. For this, fenced areas with feeders and drinking bowls are equipped on the site or outside its borders.
Staying outdoors in combination with eating juicy green fodder gives good results, expressed in the rapid development of young turkeys and an increase in the egg production of adult turkeys.
Turkey breeding as a business: profitable or not?
The main purpose of breeding and keeping turkeys is to get tasty and healthy meat. By six months, a carcass of a poultry reaching slaughter weight contains up to 80% of this valuable food product, which is superior to chicken and rabbit meat in a number of ways. Moreover, there is more truly dietary white meat in turkey than red.
In small farms that raise turkeys for personal needs, the egg of this bird is also used for food. Up to 100 large eggs can be obtained from a laying hen per year, which in taste and nutritional value are in no way inferior to chicken eggs, but are stored better.
With proper home care, turkeys grow and gain weight much more actively than geese, chickens and ducks, that is, in fact, they are the leaders among poultry. Depending on the breed, the weight of an adult male can reach 8-30 kg, and turkeys up to 12 kg.
The most serious investment of funds and labor in the turkey livestock falls on the purchase of eggs, incubation and the first month of the chicks' life. Costs then fall by incorporating cheaper grains and free grazing.
Is turkey farming profitable or not as a business? The increasing number of farmsteads from which the characteristic cry of a large bird is heard proves that turkeys in farms and household plots have a great future.