🎈GET THIS NOW: AUTOMATED INCOME MACHINE
How to Brood & Care for a Day Old Turkey
Brooding and caring for baby turkeys might be easy for some experienced turkey or poultry farmers. However, some people (especially newbies or starter farmers) have challenges taking care of a baby turkey. Some of these challenges include how to brood new baby turkeys, what to feed them with or how to vaccinate them or give them drugs.
A baby turkey is a newly hatched or young turkey up to 4 weeks of age. A baby turkey is called POULT. A young male turkey is called JAKE while a young female is called JENNY. An adult male turkey is called TOM and an adult female turkey is called HEN.
Learn More
How to Brood Baby Turkeys
Brooding of turkey poults is the same as brooding of chicks. Before you can brood poults, you will need to set a brooder. A brooder (also called a brooder/brooding house) is the place where you keep day-old poults providing them with artificial warmth, water and feed until they are about 4 weeks old. The equipment and materials required for brooding are:
Brooder guards
Heater
Hover
Thermometer
Hygrometer
Electric bulbs or lamps
Wood shavings or any other available litter materials
Feeder
Drinker
Buckets and bowls
READ ALSO Hot Weather Management Of Poultry maximum Productivity
What to do before the arrival of the poults
In two weeks before the poults arrive, check the brooder house for leaks or cracks where rodents or snakes can exploit. If there are, ensure that they are blocked. Wash, disinfect and fumigate the entire brooder
Purchase this compelling ebook instantly. 21 most important poultry diseases with prevention, control & treatment
Cover the brooder floor with the litter materials
Spread old newspapers on the littered floor
Wash and arrange the drinkers and feeders and ensure they are in good working conditions including other equipment
What to do when the poults arrive
Quickly unbox the poults and inspect them individually for defects and quickly placed under the brooder.
READ ALSO 10 points about poultry chronic respiratory disease
Add glucose or multivitamins in the drinking water and serve the poults immediately. Provide them with starter feed after.
Ensure that the heaters are on and the room temperature is about 95oF to 105oF and this should be maintained both day and night for the first several days then you can slowly drop it by about 5 degrees a week
Watch the poults for the best indication of how you need to adjust the temperature. Cold poults will huddle together, even smothering the ones unlucky enough to be on the bottom. If they are too hot they will get as far away from the source of heat as possible and lay out panting, acting listless. Poults that are comfortable will move around peeping quietly or sleeping peacefully.
Invest in this knowledge-packed ebook promptly. 20 questions to ask your poultry farm manager everyday
Takeaway
Make sure there is plenty of starter mash in the feeders, and that the poults have fresh, clean water at all times. The water should be about body temperature to guard against the turkeys getting a chill.
Twice a week sprinkle grit over the mash so that the poults can digest their food properly.
Watch for pasting up, an ailment in which the droppings stick to the backside of the bird and it cannot eliminate. If this happens gently clean the droppings off with some mineral oil or warm water. All the way through the growth process, ensure that the poults have a clean living space and humane treatment.
ATTENTION: Click “HERE” to join our WhatsApp group and receive More updates directly on your WhatsApp!
After about four weeks the birds can go outside to an enclosed and protected area as long as the temperature stays above 70 degrees. Continue making sure that they have fresh water at all times and feed is plentiful.