Beginners Guide to Keeping Turkeys
In this beginners guide to keeping turkeys, Janice Houghton-Wallace, the author of “Not Just for Christmas”, offers some tips and advice for newcomers to the fascinating world of keeping heritage turkeys at home.
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Articles and guides to help you keep turkeys at home or on a smallholding.
Articles are grouped as follows:
Many British smallholders decide to raise a few turkeys for the table, although, in recent years, there has been a rise in interest amongst poultry keepers wishing to keep small flocks of pure breed turkeys at home.
There are several breeds of turkeys, and although they need larger housing and consume more feed than chickens, they are not difficult to raise. One of the main requirements for keeping turkeys healthy, and preventing diseases such as Blackhead, is to isolate them from chickens. With sufficient space to free-range on their own, turkeys will thrive.
Black turkeys were introduced to England as long ago as the early 1520s from Spain and later became known as Norfolk Black turkeys, named after the county of Norfolk where they were kept. The Norfolk Black was one of the first to be standardised in the UK.
There are now 10 varieties of turkey standardised in the UK and 8 in the US (called heritage varieties). Sadly some of these are facing the threat of extinction. Many could easily be lost, and compared to other poultry, there are very few people keeping turkeys.
Turkey Club UK produces breed standards and promotes the conservation and keeping of turkeys. Our Turkey Forum also provides a place to meet and ask questions and there are some article below to help you get started with turkeys.
These articles cover the basics of keeping turkeys.
In this beginners guide to keeping turkeys, Janice Houghton-Wallace, the author of “Not Just for Christmas”, offers some tips and advice for newcomers to the fascinating world of keeping heritage turkeys at home.
A garden shed is ideal for turkeys to live in. For example a trio of turkeys in a small 6 x 8 foot shed would
Feeding turkeys is not that dissimilar to feeding chickens in that turkeys require a starter crumb, then a grower’s pellet and a maintenance diet once they
Some articles to help you with your Turkey hatching eggs. Whilst these articles talk about chicken eggs, the principles are the same for Turkeys.
We often take great care of incubation, trying to get as many chicks to hatch as possible, but how much attention do we give to
Do you need to clean hatching eggs? Experts disagree on whether it is necessary. I only wash very dirty eggs. This is how to clean eggs for incubation.
Ahen turkey depending on her variety, can lay something like 50 to 75 eggs in a year. Once she starts to lay, you may want to
Bumblefoot is the common name for a form of pododermatitis, which means inflammation of the foot. It can occur in any poultry or waterfowl and is usually only noticed on the underside of the foot when they go lame.
Blackhead is an ancient poultry disease caused by a tiny single-celled parasite called Histomonas meleagridis. It is usually carried by the harmless caecal worm ‘Heterakis