Chickens & Turkeys together

chooktropo · **Joined:** Tue Feb 01, 2011 10:09 pm **Posts:** 1

Hi, I have about 60ish mixed chickens that all live free range they are never locked up that just roam around were they want. I would like a pair of white turkeys to also free range with the chickens but before I do that I would like to know if the turkeys will be ok and not attack the chickens or will the chickens attack them? Can they all live together?

andre · **Joined:** Tue Oct 13, 2009 5:21 pm **Posts:** 612

Under low population density, such as your outfit sounds, they will be fine.

Under higher density, such as stock that has been penned for a long time, the turkeys run the risk of contracting blackhead. The mechanism is the chickens carry worms that contain the blackhead organism. The worm eggs can lay about in the pen for up to a couple of years and infect the turkeys.

Under low population density, the small number of blackhead organisms that the turkeys pick up are not a problem (generally).

Regular worming of your chickens and cleaning of any pen flooring is a good practice too.

oozcorpse · **Joined:** Sun Nov 04, 2007 8:15 am **Posts:** 2715

I don’t run my turkeys and chooks together after age 4 weeks
And [just to confuse you] I don’t recommend they run together at all if you have the space to keep them seperate - not just for the Blackhead issue but also the issue that some Toms can get a bit 'over amorous’ and try to mate with the chooks and the chooks can get crushed on occasion. Also turkeys can get nasty towards chooks and attack them.
Turkeys and chooks can and DO produce offspring – they are called ‘Mules’ = just about the UGLIEST thing on the planet [smilie=a_holycrap.gif]

– but they are also just about the tastiest [smilie=a_biggrin.gif]

and as with all Mules they are infertile
I do keep Blackhead meds just incase regardless

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