Introduction

Turkeys have been around for a long time. Turkey history actually starts millions of years ago. Their fossils have been found in Pleistocene deposits which means that they have been around more than twelve thousand years and their predecessors go back 50 to 60 million years to the Eocene period. Since the modern domesticated turkey is a descendant of the Wild Turkey, it is surmised that ancient Mesoamericans had chosen to domesticate this species rather than the Ocellated Turkey which is found in far southern Mexico.

Turkeys require most of their care and attention during the first couple months. After this time they become much easier to care for. Turkeys are friendly and curious by nature.There are many reasons to raise turkeys.

1) Turkeys as food

Turkeys are traditionally eaten as the main course of large feasts at Christmas in much of the world, as well as Thanksgiving in the United States and Canada, though this tradition has its origins in modern times, rather than colonial as is often supposed. Sliced turkey is frequently used as a sandwich meat or served as cold cuts. Ground turkey is sold just as ground beef, and is frequently marketed as a healthy beef substitute. Without careful preparation, cooked turkey is usually considered to end up less moist than other poultry meats such as chicken or duck.

Wild turkeys, while technically the same species as domesticated turkeys, have a very different taste from farm-raised turkeys. Almost all of the meat is “dark” (even the breast) with a more intense flavor. Turkey is often found as a processed meat. It can be smoked and as such is sometimes sold as turkey ham. The white meat of turkey is generally considered healthier and less fattening than the dark meat, but the nutritional differences are small.

2) Turkeys as pets

While most that raise turkeys raise them for eating, some keep turkeys as a pet. This has been known to destroy their commercial value as Thanksgiving dinner.

And some do both, keep some as a pet while eating the others. There are many different breeds of turkeys; however there are two varieties, domestic and wild. The wild turkey lives and breeds in the wild and some are kept as pets. It can fly and is said to be smarter than the domestic. The domestic turkeys are the type eaten on thanksgiving and they cannot fly. The domestic and wild turkeys are physically different.

Animal welfare groups such as Farm Sanctuary claim that turkeys are bright and social animals that can make suitable companion animals. US President George W. Bush noted the long tradition of keeping turkeys as pets in his 2001 National Thanksgiving Turkey Presentation speech. Bush noted that Abraham Lincoln’s son Tad kept a turkey as a White House pet.

3) Turkeys provide built-in pest control service

Turkeys may have the most varied diet of any animal known. They eat a variety of foods depending on availability, preference, and nutritional needs. All age classes eat insects when they are available. In the summer turkeys eat large quantities of insects, grass seeds, berries, and green leaves. Turkeys eat bugs, mosquitoes, ticks and flies too.

4) Turkey dung as fuel

Turkey droppings are being used as a fuel source in electric power plants. One such plant in western Minnesota provides 55 megawatts of power using 700,000 tons of dung per year. The plant began operating in 2007. Three such plants are in operation in England.

Ideally, before you raise turkeys, it is helpful that you know the terminologies and interesting facts about turkeys so that you wouldn’t be thrown off guard when you read any related materials about turkeys. Raising turkeys on a small farm can be fun and profitable because they can be rotated like any other cash crop on your property.  If you have a few acres that you could rotate pastured turkeys on, this could be a good side business for the small farmer.

Here are some terminologies to broaden your horizon when you raise turkeys:

Tom:
Adult male turkey

Hen:
Adult female turkey

Poult:
Young one of turkey

Snood or Dew bill:
The fleshy protuberance near the base of the beck

Caruncles:
The fleshy protuberance on the head and neck usually pink or red in color which appear from about 5^th week of age

Dewlap:
A large flap skin seen immediately below the chin

Bread:
A tuft of hair attached to the skin of the upper chest region

Strut:
Mating behavior of male turkey

Shooting the red:
The development of caruncles and this is supposed to indicate the most difficult time in the life of young turkey

Debeaking:
Poults should be debeaked to control feather picking and cannibalism. Debeaking can be done at day old or 3-5 weeks of age. Remove the beak at about one half the distance from nostril to the tip of the beak.

Desnooding:
Removal of the snood or dewbill is to prevent the head injuries from picking and fighting. At the day old the snood can be removed by shumbnail or finger pressure. At 3 weeks of age it can be cut off close to the head with sharp
scissors.

Detoeing or toe clipping:
Clipping is done at day old by removing the tip of the toe just to the inside of the outer most toe pad including the entire toenail.

When most people think of a turkey they think of Thanksgiving dinner. While most who raise turkeys raise them for eating, some keep turkeys as a pet. And some do both, keep some as a pet while eating the others. There are many different breeds of turkeys, however there are two varieties, domestic and wild. The wild turkey lives and breeds in the wild and some are kept as pets. It can fly and is said to be smarter than the domestic.

The domestic turkey are the type eaten on thanksgiving and they cannot fly. The domestic and wild turkeys are physically different. Domestic turkeys are much larger than the wild turkeys. Wild turkeys have brown tipped tails, while the domestic is white. A wild turkey is much faster than the domestic turkey. The fastest wild turkey can run up to 35 mph, while a full grown domestic turkeys pace is a slow walk (females are a little faster because they weigh less than the male). Wild Turkeys have better eyesight and hearing than domestic turkeys. Only male turkeys gobble, female turkeys make a clucking sound but cannot gobble. Only the male turkey can fan his tail feathers, females cannot.

The turkeys crop is also called the craw. When turkeys feed they swallow lots of food which is stored in their crop. They then go to a safe place to loaf and process the food. Before you raise turkeys too, you need to know that turkeys don’t have teeth, but they grind their food (even hard seeds and nuts like acorns) in their second stomach, the gizzard. This is the muscular stomach below the crop which is the glandular stomach. Look for the gizzard in the giblet bag.

All commercial turkeys produced today are the white broad breasted turkey breed. This breed was first used for commercial turkey production in the late 1950’s. By the late 1960’s the majority of the industry used this turkey breed.

The cost of raising a turkey is affected by many factors, including buildings, equipment, labor, feed costs, and interest on loans. Feed costs amount to almost two thirds of the cost of raising a turkey. Geographic location, degree of automation, and size of the farm all contribute to differences in the costs of raising turkeys.

If you have chosen to rear turkeys for yourself, you may want to try rearing turkey organically. It really is not that difficult especially if you have an area that they can free range once they are old enough.

You will want to be careful about diarrhea with your young turkeys as most turkey farms deal with this on a regular basis, they will use antibiotics in the water in order to keep the turkeys from dehydrating. If you’re going to do it organically, people have had success by using acidophilus in the water to keep the turkeys from getting diarrhea in the first place. If your turkey has had diarrhea for several days you’re going to have to switch to antibiotics, which of course no longer makes them organic, but it’s better than losing the turkey. Your babies are going to become important to you, and providing them with the proper housing, food, and herbal medications to keep them healthy is going to be important if you decide to raise them organically.

The other item that rearing turkey requires is a proper heat source for all the baby turkeys. You may want to put a red heat lamp in your turkey facility. This will allow the turkeys to stay warm under the lamp, but make sure you have enough of them for all the turkeys to stay warm. Turkeys naturally will pile on top of each other in order to stay warm, and if you have too many, the bottom turkeys can suffocate. Keeping your loss on your baby turkeys to a minimum is going to be vital if you want healthy adults.

You also may discover that one day your organically grown turkeys are wandering around in a drunken state, this is a natural response to a lack of certain vitamins and minerals. Some organic farmers rearing turkey have found that alfalfa can solve this problem. It usually happens around four weeks of age if it’s going to happen, so starting then at about three weeks on a bit of alfalfa can help avoid the problem altogether. Once again, if you’re turkeys do not come out of this or show continual signs of drunkenness, you will have to purchase turkey vitamins and minerals to add to their water.

Rearing turkey organically is a lot of fun and really isn’t that difficult. If have an area that you can turn them out during the day so that they can free range on their own you’ll find that they don’t have to eat a lot of extra food. Also, make sure that your turkey pen is secure from predators or at least herd them inside for the night. The profit margin on rearing turkey baby’s organically is quite a bit, so when it comes time to market your organic turkeys make sure you explain exactly how you reared them so people will want to pay the higher cost.

While turkeys are relatively easy to raise there are some common mistakes that could happen that can be avoided with a little bit of research.

One of the things you need to be careful of when your first beginning to raise turkeys is that they need a certain amount of warmth and will get it one way or another. Often, turkeys may pile up on each other smothering each other in order to stay warm, resulting in death of the lower ones. You can solve some of these problems by making sure there is enough heat sources for the amount of turkeys you are growing. You may need a red lamp for every set of 20 turkeys within your turkey herd. By making sure you have enough warmth as well as not having corners for them to pile up in their habitat, you can avoid this common problem and death.

You’ll also find turkeys need a certain amount of particular vitamins and nutrients in order to grow healthy. While your birds may be doing well when immature, as they grow if they don’t get the proper nutrients bare legs can actually grow crooked to the point where they cannot walk. This can be solved by making sure you’re fulfilling all of their vitamin and nutrient needs via processed turkey feed, perhaps alfalfa, or vitamins and minerals in their water. Just make sure you’re getting the right amount for your turkeys and if you’re raising organic turkeys, you cannot use processed food, vitamins or even medicine.

Also, diarrhea is a common problem in turkey herds. You can try to avoid this by again giving them antibiotics on a regular basis, but some people have found that acidophilus in the water works very well. This is great, if you’re raising organic turkeys, as acidophilus is a natural inhibitor of diarrhea. If despite this you wind up with diarrhea in your turkey herd, you will have to put them on antibiotics, and it’s usually something you put in their water.

Raising turkeys is not difficult, but there are some common problems that are associated with turkey herds. Read up on your Internet, there are several stories available that will show you exactly how people encountered the problems, and exactly how they solve them. Turkeys can be great for a small farm, and you can even raise them as free range turkeys and wind up marketing them as organic or free range.

Look to common organic turkey sites, turkey farm sites, and other sites concerning how to raise turkeys and you’ll have a lot of information at your fingertips. Remember, turkeys main concern is going to be warmth and enough food and water to solve their vitamin and nutrient needs. Make sure that you’ve an optimum and with no corners for turkeys and then give them their food and water that they need to survive and thrive.

You might have started raising turkeys and you are thinking of keeping turkeys with chickens, would that be a good move?

Most professional turkey growers are not open to that idea. Turkeys are highly susceptible to the Blackhead organisms. 100% mortality results if they contract the disease and they have not been protected with proper medication. A lot of chicken carry Blackhead organisms but these organisms have no apparent effect on them. One of the cardinal rules of turkey growers is avoid the practice of keeping turkeys with chickens.

What is Blackhead disease? And why is keeping turkeys with chickens not the best move a turkey grower could ever do?

Histomonas melagridis is a type of protozoan parasite present in turkeys, and are sometimes found in chickens and game birds, that act together with facultative bacteria thereby producing the condition called Blackhead. With an incubation period of 15-20 days, the parasite is ingested in the Heterakis worms’ ova or as larva in earthworms or feces. Turkey transmission is deemed rapid despite the fact that it is not easy to infect birds orally. Recent studies show that infection may readily occur via cloaca or posterior opening when birds are on contaminated litter.

Symptoms of the disease in turkeys are depression, loss of appetite, poor growth, sulfur yellow feces and cyanosis of head. Nitro-imidazoles and nitro furans have been used as treatment to Blackhead disease. There are some herbal products based on essential oils, like Herban, have been successfully used. There are several drugs available and are used by professional growers, though these drugs are not sold in small quantities or in some locations that are easily accessible to small growers.

The best way to prevent Blackhead disease is to avoid keeping turkeys with chickens or other fowl animals. You have to maintain good sanitation in your turkey housings. If possible, use concrete floors. You have to make sure to do regular worming to better control intermediate hosts.

Care, sanitation, and isolation are keys to a successful disease control program in turkeys. Some professional growers say that if turkeys are not care for properly, they will look for ways to die!

Successfully breeding turkeys is all about following the science — or at least, the instinctive breeding practices of the birds. First thing you have to know is that turkeys reach sexual maturity at 7 months and must be mated immediately to produce batches of fertilized eggs. Unlike chicken egg production, breeding turkeys is riskier since unfertilized turkey eggs are considered unmarketable and are therefore destroyed immediately. (There is no market for such eggs and are usually considered very low in nutritional value.)

For small farms, a breeding tom can be mated with as many as 10 hens. However, to ensure that there are large volumes of fertilized eggs, alternating 2 toms during the entire breeding cycle is the norm.

The health of the female turkeys should also be considered when breeding turkeys. The birds should be outfitted with canvas saddles to protect their backs from overeager males. Clipping the toms’ toenails also ensures that the female remain healthy as the fertilized eggs develop within a 25 week cycle. As a rule, hens normally lay between 88 and 93 eggs each. Some hens are slaughtered for meat afterwards, but you can also try molting the hen — or give the hen a certain resting period of about 90 days or 3 months — so that it can be mated once more. The second laying cycle usually yields lesser number of eggs (70 to 80 fertilized eggs,) but this can still be considered as profitable.

Lastly, all bird species need nests in order to lay eggs. The use of community nests of at least 0.5 meters wide and 0.5 meters deep for 5 hens should be enough to keep the eggs safe.

The basics on how to raise turkeys for profit are not simple, but they aren’t difficult to do either. If you are intent on going into this business venture, knowing a few things before you start with it would help you make more profit with less effort.

The first thing in how to raise turkeys for profit is you need to know what kind of turkey to raise. There are three major kinds of turkeys, all originating from the United States. These are the Wild Bronze, the Broad Breasted White, and the Broad Breasted Bronze. Out of these three, the Broad Breasted White is the one mostly used for commercial purposes. This is because this breed has had more selected breeding pressure than the others.

For the housing of your turkeys, a 10 feet by 10 feet enclosure is enough space for a small flock of turkeys. A simple expansion project you can do for any space you have is to build a sun porch. An 8 feet by 10 feet sun porch, along with the above mentioned space is an ideal space for 20 large or 30 small turkeys.

The best feeders are hanging feeders. This is because you can adjust their height depending on the age of your turkeys. As they start off young, you can keep them on the floor and raise them so that the turkeys would not have to bend down when eating. This is because when bending down, they tend to scatter their feed, which would be a waste. For the water, chicken fountains and water pans would do the trick to quench your turkeys’ thirst.

There are up to 4 different classes of feeds. If you want to know how to raise turkeys for a profit, you need to invest on these 4 – prestarter, starter, grower, and finisher feeds. As you can deduce from their names, they are given to the turkeys in different stages of their life, from newborns to ready to sell. Purchasing the right feeds make all the difference in getting your turkeys to be attractive to buyers.

If you are finding ways on how to raise turkeys properly, then this is the article for you. It’s important for you to know more about the things that you should avoid doing to be successful in raising turkeys. It is actually true that turkeys are fairly easy to take care of, but there are just some things that you need to take note of to be sure that you will be successful in raising your pet turkeys.

With that said, you have to make sure that you will be able to provide enough warmth for your pets; it does not matter how you will be able to produce this warmth, just as long as you will be able to provide it. When you fail to provide this needed warmth, the turkeys are likely to pile up on each other, resulting in the death of those at the bottom. One suggestion on how to raise turkeys properly and how you will be able to give the needed warmth is to purchase a red lamp that will already be good enough for about 20 turkeys.

Another additional tip on how to raise turkeys effectively is by making sure that they are getting all the nutrients that they need in order for them to grow healthily. You will be able to provide the needed nutrients by buying them vitamins; when you take for granted this aspect of their growth, your pet turkeys might have a hard time walking as their feet are not developed correctly due to lack of vitamins. Purchasing the right turkey feeds and putting vitamins on their water regularly will do the trick and prevent this tragedy from happening. Just always make sure that you have the right dosage for everything you are giving your pet turkeys.

To be able to fully master how to raise turkeys perfectly, you also need to be aware of the fact that turkeys are really prone to suffering from diarrhea. You can make sure that your pets do not experience this by providing them enough antibiotics regularly. If you are currently raising an organic turkey, you just have to use acidophilus and mix it in their water.

Just remember that when other people ask you how to raise turkeys effectively, you must tell them that it is not difficult to do so. The truth about raising turkeys is that you only need to know what you should not do, and then you will surely become successful with it.

Housing Your Turkey

To give sufficient turkey care make sure your turkey has a good home. A turkey will need around 6 square feet of room each. There are some who advise caring for turkeys inside; some recommend leaving them out in the garden or yard, but beware of predatory creatures being a risk. Wherever you choose ensure there is nothing hazardous in the area.

Wood shavings are perfect for turkey litter. Sawdust and newspaper are not appropriate as they can cause harm if the turkeys eat it or slip up. Turkey litter should be scooped up in the same way as cat litter would.

If you decide you prefer to look after turkeys inside, provide fine gravel or sand. Turkeys outside will take care of that themselves.

Feeding Turkeys

Feeding turkeys will vary depending on how old the turkey is. Check with the feed shop staff how much you should give, as amounts of protein will be different. If you are using food that is medicated for disease prevention, you should cease feeding this for a significant time prior to slaughter.

Young Turkeys

Turkey care for young poults will require more than caring for turkeys that are older. Keep a heat lamp near the floor by the young. The temperature should be set at around 38°C, then lowered by a couple of degrees each week from then on.

Ensure that when caring for turkeys they know where their feeder and water is available. If they do not know this they could accidentally eat litter. Adjust the height of feed and water according to the turkey’s growth.

(Feed from 0 – 6 Weeks)

(Feed from 12 – 18 Weeks)

(Feed from 18 Weeks to Finish)