# Chickens and turkeys together?



## ilovetodig (Apr 15, 2007)

Can you raise chickens and turkeys in the same pen? They will have access in the daytime to free-range, but penned up at night. Also does each hen need its own nesting box?


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## Handyman (Sep 11, 2009)

I did and didn't have any trouble. They were pastured too. 

I think the general rule is 1 box/3 hens.


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## ilovetodig (Apr 15, 2007)

Thanks handyman. That's a big relief. Any other advice or hints for a new chicken raiser? We haven't gotten them yet. It will be another month.


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## 6e (Sep 10, 2005)

Well, I'll give you my experience. 
When we first moved out here I did raise some turkeys with chickens and all the turkeys got black head and died. Then later read you weren't supposed to raise turkeys with chickens due to disease. But then I read on a thread the other day to keep turkeys from getting black head, give 1/4 tsp of copper sulfate for every gallon of drinking water and keep that in front of them all the time. It guards against the worm and carries the protozoa that causes cocci which is what causes black head in turkeys. I still don't know that I'll raise them together. But I am going to try the copper sulfate.


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## sherekin1261 (Mar 17, 2004)

I think it will depend on your birds and how much space they have. Our Narraganssett Toms were ok with the chickens, but the hens, especially when they were wanting to breed, would kill them. 
Now with the BB whites we have, its the reverse. The hens are ok, the Toms are brutal. They gang up on the chickens. So try it and you may be ok, but be prepared to intervene until you know for sure.

All of our birds are pastured too.


Good Luck

Shere


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## Wisconsin Ann (Feb 27, 2007)

We had turkeys and chickens in the same hoop coop, pastured during the day, together at night. During the winter months the turkeys would wander around outside in the snow, chickens just sort of looked out and said "nope, not going out" and stayed in the coop. No problems. 

The roosters learned not to even TRY to breed the turkey hens.  Those turkey girls would chase them all over creation, nipping at tail feathers! ound: golly that was funny.

anyway. The poults were raised with the chicks. Just keep the feeders and waterer areas clean and dry.

One advantage to it is the chickens are hardwired to return to the coop at dusk. turkeys tend to just wander around like little kids, and then roost wherever they happen to be when it gets dark. BUT with our turkey/chicken coop, the turkeys learned from the chickens to return to the coop. Those turkeys we had in another coop NEVER figured it out...I had to herd them in before dusk or they'd just stay outside.

ETA, we did only have ONE tom in the coop. There were a dozen toms wandering around from the other coop in the same area, but only the ONE in the chicken/turkey coop. Make sure you put some form of "house" inside for the random chicken to get out of the way. I used an upside down storage tub with a hole cut out of the end. An Aframe structure...something. Once in awhile you'll have a chicken who wants to roost with the turkeys. the turkeys tend to be annoyed with that.


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## trbizwiz (Mar 26, 2010)

I just started the copper sulfate pentahydrate Sunday on my chickens. I figured I would get my chickens good and healthy prior to the turkeys getting here. They all lived through the first few days so far. i also gave it to my cattle. Same concentration 1/4 tsp to gallon of water. 
The copper sulfate I bought from lowes was called root kill. But the only ingredient is copper sulfate pentahydrate. Just read the label carefully if you take the same approach. 
Cyngbaeld was nice enough to post a link to a supplier http://www.coppersulfatecrystals.com/products.html
this guy has it for $25 for 10 pounds but shipping to me is $15
the farms stores carry the stuff in the pond dept, 25 pounds for about $60, so I guess it just depents how much you will use.


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## Wisconsin Ann (Feb 27, 2007)

If you don't need a lot (just a few pounds) stop in at a neighboring farm to see if they would sell you some. Most farmers are more than willing to help out a small homestead/farm.


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