How many turkeys are grown for meat at home

Turkey breast

Growing turkeys for meat is a fairly promising poultry industry, and has a number of advantages. The bird grows rapidly and gains weight, an adult male, depending on the breed, is able to gain weight over 20 kg, the female is 2 times less.

Turkey meat belongs to dietary products, suitable for people with allergic diseases, pregnant and lactating women, small children. It is appreciated for its rich content of vitamins and amino acids, low cholesterol levels. The presence of folate and vitamin K in the liver makes it especially beneficial for people with low hemoglobin levels.

Sometimes the carcass of a home-grown turkey reaches 35 kg

Overview of turkey breeds for meat production

The number of turkey breeds is significantly less than that of other farm birds. Therefore, poultry breeding requires finding the best option for growing in certain conditions. These birds are afraid of drafts and dampness, do not tolerate very strong heat and cold. Experienced poultry farmers advise to choose only breeding birds, from which you can get a good return.

The following breeds of turkeys are most popular:

• North Caucasian bronze - these turkeys are distinguished by good acclimatization to various conditions of detention, appetite and resistance to infections. Their breeding is more common in the south of the country. Males are able to reach a mass of 14 kg, females - 7-8 kg.

Pale turkeys - or as they are also called the North Caucasian bronze

• White broad-chested - birds grow very quickly and adapt well to different climates. The breed is divided into 3 groups: light, medium and heavy. The live weight of males of the last group is 23-25 ​​kg, turkeys - 10 kg. It should be borne in mind that these turkeys slow down their growth after six months of fattening, so it is better to stop growing and start slaughter after this period.

Wide-breasted white turkeys

• Bronze broad-breasted - adult males reach a weight of 17-22 kg, females - 10-14 kg. Turkeys are distinguished by high egg production - up to 120 eggs per year, this is especially true for poultry farmers who plan to breed turkeys on an ongoing basis. The only drawback of birds is poor adaptation to grazing conditions.

Bronze broad-breasted turkeys

• Moscow Bronze and White - both breeds of birds are characterized by a powerful constitution and excellent reproduction. The average weight of a male is 13 kg, that of a female is 7 kg. Moscow ones are distinguished by good acclimatization, bronze ones - unpretentious to feed and keeping conditions. In addition, Moscow bronze turkey poults are distinguished by their high vitality.

Moscow turkey breeds: white and bronze

Features of fattening adult turkeys for meat

Turkey poultry nutrition table

You can feed turkeys for slaughter from any age. There are fundamental differences between fattening adults and raising turkeys for meat. In any case, the bird should gain maximum weight by the time of slaughter. To do this, you should follow the correct feeding regimen and ensure proper conditions of detention.

Adult turkeys begin to feed intensively 20-30 days before slaughter. This usually happens from August to October. During this period, turkeys need to provide free grazing. This will allow them to eat greens rich in vitamins and minerals. The main food for poultry should be compound feed and various flour mash.

How to make compound feed at home

The usual feed for a turkey is 800 g per day. You can cook it yourself, it includes:

• Corn;
• Chopped greens;
• Cottage cheese;
• Milk;
• Flour mixtures;
• Waste: egg, meat, fish.

12-14 hours before slaughter, the turkeys are transferred to a dark room and feeding is stopped, providing only water.

Features of growing and fattening turkey poults for meat

Growing turkey poults for meat requires special attention in the first 15-20 days of chicks' life. Since they still have poorly developed thermoregulation, it is necessary to ensure the correct temperature regime - 35 ° -37 ° and air humidity 75%. After 10 days, these indicators gradually decrease. Breeding in the early days requires lighting around the clock so the chicks can find food and water.

Approximate Feeding Rates for Turkey Poults

The litter should always be clean, for this it needs to be changed frequently. Chopped straw and crushed corn stalks, dry shavings, sunflower husks can be used as bedding. On 1 m², you can place ten turkeys until they reach eight weeks of age, then five chicks for the same period. Later, three turkeys are settled on 1m².

When purchasing turkey poults for fattening, you should choose mobile chicks, firmly on their feet, with clean fluff and shiny eyes. A scarred umbilical cord, dry bottom, retracted yolk are also signs of a healthy turkey. Usually, turkeys for growing for meat are taken in the spring, so that over the summer by autumn they can gain the necessary mass.

In the first 10 days of life, chicks are fed every two hours. Usually a special food is prepared, which includes:

• Hard boiled eggs;
• Wheat and corn flour;
• Green onions;
• Carrot;
• Wheat bran;
• Cottage cheese.

You can prepare it like this: rub the eggs through a sieve, add a small amount of corn or wheat flour, finely chopped onions and carrots, mix with boiled millet porridge.

It is better to serve such food on sheets of paper, and from 3-5 days you can teach them to feed from special troughs. Do not forget about the presence of fresh water in the drinking bowls; half-eaten food must always be removed, otherwise it will turn sour.

Feeding rates

After three days, poultry farmers are advised to put separate feeders for fine river sand and fishmeal, since the chicks are in dire need of mineral supplements. In the second week of life, dry food is added to feeding with wet mash, which is poured into separate trays.

These feeds are made up of carefully crushed grain (60%), peas (25%), sunflower meal (2%), chalk (5%). After 10 days from the moment of hatching, it is necessary to introduce large quantities of young greens into the diet of turkey poults - nettle, onion, clover, alfalfa, dandelion. Up to 1 month, there is a transition to 6 meals a day.

Upon reaching the age of two months, the chicks are fed 4 times a day with the same wet mash with an increased amount of inexpensive fish or animal minced meat based on curdled milk.

Whole grains are allowed to be given after 40 days of the chick's life, you can also start feeding with compound feed for chickens.

Compound feed intended for other farm animals is not suitable in this case. It is important to add fats, salt, chalk, shells, bone meal to the diet.

How much time will be spent on growing turkey poults for slaughter depends on the quality of the feed and the correct feeding regime. During the summer, they should reach the greatest weight, since during this period all conditions for pasture feeding are created.

On average, a turkey is ready for slaughter in 4-5 months, here is how much compound feed will be required to grow one individual, not counting greens and other additives:

• The female will eat 16 kg of compound feed in 4 months;
• The male will need 32 kg for the same period of time.

Uzbekistan field turkey

Upon reaching 4 months of age, young turkeys are prepared for slaughter using the intensive feeding method. It consists in the forced intake of food. For this, special dumplings are prepared, which include:

• Corn flour - 20%;
• Oat flour -15%;
• Wheat bran - 25%;
• Barley flour -25%;
• Salt - 1%;
• Baker's yeast -3%;

The ingredients are mixed with milk or water to form narrow and long pellets. The turkey's beak is opened and the prepared food is introduced. This procedure is carried out 2 times a day, which allows you to add 25% of the daily food intake to natural feeding. In addition, there is a daily weight gain of 100 g.

Such fattening lasts 15-25 days, but after 10 days the turkey is ready for slaughter. Turkeys need to be fed a little more time until fully ripe.

By observing the conditions for keeping and feeding turkeys, providing a balanced diet, you can guarantee success in raising poultry for meat.

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Video: Slaughtering and plucking a turkey

The turkey is the largest and most common bird in the backyard. This is primarily due to:

• its unpretentiousness in nutrition and maintenance;
• rapid weight gain;
• taste and dietary properties of meat.

But in order to achieve good results, as in any other business, it is necessary to seriously approach the issue of raising this bird. First of all, you need to stock up on at least a minimal baggage of knowledge in the field of breeding turkeys at home.

General information about turkeys

We owe the appearance of turkey in our vastness to America. It was from there, about 500 years ago, that she came to Spain, where she took root well and became widespread throughout the world. Through genetic experiments, a variety of breeds have been bred that have certain characteristics. The most common types are:

1. Bronze turkey. It belongs to the light type. The average weight of a male is 7-8 kg, of a female 5-6.
2. Moscow bronze. The live weight of a turkey is 10-19 kg, a turkey is 8-10.
3. Canadian broad-breasted breed. This is the heaviest bird. The live weight of the male reaches 30 kg.
4. Moscow white. Weight 12-13 kg.
5. White broad-breasted. Their weight is 20-25 kg.

Other species of this large poultry are also found in the farmsteads. Regardless of the breed, all of them are a source of a dietary product-meat, which does not have fat deposits, is rich in enzymes and proteins, is easily digested and has a bright taste.

Features of fattening turkeys at home

Proper nutrition and maintenance of poultry directly affects its growth and meat quality. Raising a turkey for slaughter is not at all difficult. You can start feeding both an adult bird and newly hatched turkey poults. The difference is this.The fattening period for an adult is approximately 20-30 days, during this time, weight is gained, and nutrient saturation occurs. Most often, the time frame for active feeding falls on the month of August-October. The turkeys are grazed, they just need any greens. Feed should contain as much nutrients as possible. Can be purchased and fed with compound feed. The norm is 800 grams per day per individual or cook it yourself from grain, chopped herbs, cottage cheese, milk, flour mixture, add egg, fish and meat waste.

But the turkey poults that have just seen the light of day, require special attention. Conditions of detention and proper nutrition are also important. The percentage of survival, the harmony of development and the rate of growth depend on the observance of these standards. The first 15-20 days are the most critical. Turkeys must be kept in a room where it is warm enough -25-27 degrees, the floor must also be warm and clean (the litter must be replaced frequently). Lamps for additional heating are used around the clock. Gradually, at two weeks of age, the young are taken out into the street (provided there is no dampness) for 30-40 minutes.

In feeding, you should adhere to the basic important rules. The turkey poults must always have food (mixed feed or dry mixture). The first month of life they are fed with a damp mash of yogurt or milk. Such a mixture is given 7-8 times a day, it is carefully monitored so that it does not sour and does not become a good environment for the development of harmful bacteria and viruses. As the turkey grows, so does the frequency of the mash feed. After a month, they switch to six meals a day, from two to four. In the first days of the life of young animals, it is recommended to give porridge cooked in milk, such food is a good start for further growth. It is good to add chopped greens to feed. It can be nettles, clover, onion feathers. As well as fish oil and some yeast. At the age of 1 month, turkeys are fed with finely crushed grain. To ensure good digestion and prevent parasites, a mixture of chalk, charcoal, and sand is placed in a specially designated container. Don't forget about water. It should be clean and at room temperature. Changes in weight are an indicator of the growth of the young. As soon as you can clearly see the sexual characteristics of the young, the females should be separated from the males, since they also differ in the rate of weight gain.

You can start feeding turkeys for slaughter from 3-4 months of age. For this, they are limited in movement and significantly increase the amount of feed. In addition to natural feeding, forced feeding is also used. The bird's beak is opened and food is injected into the esophagus. These can be bread rolls and a kind of dumplings, which are prepared as follows. Corn, barley, oat flour, wheat bran, a little salt and bread yeast are taken, everything is thoroughly mixed and poured with milk. From the resulting substance, thin flagella are twisted. They are also used as an additional feed, which is given twice a day, gradually increasing the amount of food. How long the intensive feeding period lasts depends on what result you want to achieve. The average time for obtaining good indicators is 20-30 days, but after ten days of intensive feeding, slaughter can be carried out.

How long it will take to raise turkeys for slaughter depends entirely on the quality of its content and nutritional value. On average, it is 4-5 months. During this period, turkeys, depending also on the breed, reach the greatest mass. To calculate the correct amount of feed required for feeding poultry for slaughter, you need to consult a professional or consult the scientific literature. Quite often on forums on the internet, professional amateurs share tables where they describe the daily feed rate in grams per head.Alternatively, you can use this information, but for a guaranteed result, it is better to get expert advice.

Full feeding can be ensured only when using a complete feed, saturated with the necessary vitamins, amino acids, micro and macro elements. The easiest way is compound feed. It is made in special factories and contains all the necessary nutrients. Approximate consumption of compound feed:

• To grow young animals for 1 individual, 52 kg are needed (33-34 weeks of fattening);
• The female eats about 16 kg of feed in 16 weeks (for slaughter);
• Male - for the same period eats -32 kg.

Rational nutrition can be provided by self-preparation of feed. To do this, use crushed grain, various cereals, flour (bone, barley), herbs, dairy products, vitamins, antibiotics, fats, yeast. A well-prepared mixture and correctly calculated norms, as well as the frequency of food intake, will ensure the normal development of the bird and will contribute to good weight gain.

How long it takes to grow a turkey for meat depends entirely on the effort you are willing to put in and the results you want to achieve. In addition to belonging to the breed (depending on this, the timing also fluctuates), the moment for which you grow the bird is also important:

• providing meat for personal use;
• cultivation for sale.

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Slaughter preparation

The bird is ready for slaughter when its weight reaches more than 12 kg, usually turkeys already at 8 months of age grow to these parameters. Broilers are ready for slaughter even earlier, they are subjected to the procedure after 4-6 months. If you are late, the meat will not lose its dietary value, but it will not be as tender.

Even males at the age of 2-3 years have to be slaughtered, because as producers they lose value, their meat is further processed and suitable for consumption. It should also be remembered that the slaughtering procedure is carried out before molting, otherwise it will not be possible to pluck the carcass perfectly because of the large number of hemp.

Prepare the bird before slaughter. It is important that the stomach and esophagus of the turkey are free of food at the time of manipulation. Otherwise, it will be more difficult to gut it, and the quality may suffer: after 2 days, the goiter and cloaca will acquire a bluish tint:

• On the eve of the scheduled day, you cannot feed the bird, the minimum period is 14 hours, but it is better if it is not there for a day.
• It is necessary to place the turkeys in a dark room, but water should be freely available, this will help free the intestines from feces, the bird will not lose weight.
• It is allowed to give a solution of Glauber's salt, it will make the turkey feces liquid, it will leave the body faster.
• It is good to include rye flour or bran in the bird's diet, before slaughter.
• A concentrated saline solution is needed, for its preparation you need salt - 400 g, this amount is dissolved in a liter of boiling water.
• Then the liquid is cooled and already cool is poured into the throat of the turkey, half of the carcass must be filled. Calculating the amount is simple: 1 glass per 1 kg of carcass.
• The throat is tied tightly with a string, and the body of the turkey is hung by the legs in a cool room or clean and dry cellar. After 18 or 20 hours, the thread is untied, and brine is poured out of the carcass.

How to freeze meat?

When it is decided to freeze the meat, then this should not be done right away, the necessary processes must end in it, then the quality will be much higher. In addition, in uncooled carcasses, freezing occurs only from above, the lower warm layers give in to it with difficulty, and the decomposition process can begin.

The most favorable time for freezing at home is winter. After pre-cooling, the meat is frozen. They are taken outside in frosty weather and immersed in very cold water.This is done several times until ice glaze with a thickness of at least 0.5 mm and no more than 1 mm appears on the skin. Then the carcasses are wrapped in paper (but not newspapers), and placed in a box, covered with straw. It is stored in such a container at 8-12 ° C.

How long meat is thawed also matters. Defrosting very quickly is not recommended, since the liquid at the time of freezing is displaced from the muscle fibers and freezes between them. With gradual defrosting, it returns again, and the meat restores its nutritional properties. If this is not done, the dissolved substances will not have time to penetrate back, and it will become of inferior quality, it will be dry and less looped.

If everything is done correctly, you will end up with an exceptional, nutritionally valuable and tasty product. It will be gladly purchased by acquaintances and retail outlets for sale, and the farmer will not be left behind.

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Growing turkeys for meat at home is a profitable business. Today, when the stores are full of products of dubious quality, many tend to breed livestock on their own to obtain natural products. Turkey meat is highly valued for its low calorie content and excellent taste.

The principle of growing turkeys for meat

Features of choosing the right breed

Among poultry, breeders often choose turkeys for meat production. This category of birds has a lot of advantages over other types of living creatures:

• accelerated weight gain;
• easy care;
• high survival rate of turkeys;
• small feed costs;
• dietary natural meat.

The main advantage is a quick set of muscle mass. Male representatives of meat orientation can reach 30 kg, females 15. Turkey meat is often prescribed to people with all kinds of diseases of systems and organs. Meat products contain many vitamins and useful amino acids. Meat breeds gain optimal weight in 2-3 months. Among the most popular representatives of meat breeds:

• big6;
• wide-breasted white;
• baht8.

Only breeding individuals give a good return. For 2-3 months of proper nutrition and care, birds gain 20-30 kg. To use the maximum production data of the breeds, it is necessary to create optimal living conditions for birds, close to natural ones, and also provide them with the correct, balanced feed.

Features of the content

Growing turkeys can be a great income. Many novice breeders build their business on breeding meat turkeys. If you have a country house, then there will be no problems with organizing a poultry house. When keeping turkeys, it is important to take into account that the bird does not like the neighborhood with other birds, does not tolerate heat, drafts, dampness and too severe frosts.

There are special requirements for a turkey barn. The room should be quite large, because the birds are large in build and should have enough space at their disposal for free movement. In the turkey house, the optimal microclimate must be constantly maintained, which is achieved by the equipment of the correct supply and exhaust ventilation. If even one requirement is not taken into account, the productivity of birds will be significantly reduced. Birds are very susceptible to temperature changes and may even die if the situation is not corrected in time.

It is very important to observe the density of stocking of birds when breeding. Large turkeys lead a rather active lifestyle, so they should have a lot of space at their disposal. Stocking density will entirely depend on the developmental characteristics of the breed that the breeder has selected.

For rapid growth and optimal development, turkeys need sufficient free range during the warmer months.To do this, next to the poultry house, you should fence off the area and build a manhole from the barn door so that the birds can freely enter and exit. In the cold season, walks are strictly prohibited, because the risk of colds as a result of hypothermia is very high. Another important stage in the successful breeding of meat turkeys is timely vaccination, which will allow avoiding mass deaths of birds even during the quarantine period.

When breeding turkeys for meat, you must first take into account all the features of the selected breed. There is a special feeding system, which implies some general provisions. However, it is impossible to get the most out of the breed without learning about the breed characteristics.

How to fatten?

You can feed birds at any age

Growing turkey poults at home requires special care at first, while immunity is being laid. Birds of this species grow very quickly, therefore, in order to achieve certain quality indicators of meat products, you need to know how to feed the bird, so that it quickly forms muscle mass, and does not store fat. You can start feeding birds at any age, while it should be borne in mind that food for turkeys and adults will differ significantly. There are several feeding methods:

• forced;
• self-pecking.

The first method involves feeding the birds with specially prepared formulations. To make the mixture, take 20% corn flour and barley, then add 15% bran and wheat, 5% yeast and 1% sodium chloride. All ingredients are mixed and moistened in water. After that, they are placed on their own in the avian esophagus.

This feeding method allows poultry to be fed to the required body weight in just a couple of weeks. In the first days, manipulations with feeding are carried out twice, then the number of feedings is gradually increased. When pushing food, it is necessary to carefully fix the bird with one hand so that it does not twitch.

The second method involves free-range feeding. Feeding is carried out in the fields after the melons are harvested. In addition to self-biting, the birds are given standard food 2-3 times. The advantage of the method is cost-effectiveness, accelerated weight gain, in less than 14 days.

How to fatten chicks?

Breeding turkeys at home involves organizing a good balanced diet and living conditions from the first days after hatching from the egg. Turkey poults for slaughter begin to be fattened from the age of four months. An increase in nutrition is planned for August - harvest time. The best option is to organize free-range meals. The basis of the diet is cereals, wet mash and a sufficient amount of greens.

If it is not possible to create optimal conditions for free food while walking, or walking is simply limited, for some reason, the diet will consist of:

• cottage cheese;
• meat and bone meal;
• greenery;
• boiled vegetables;
• sprouted wheat.

With such a diet, after a month, the birds are completely limited to walking. In the house where the fattening turkeys are kept, the lighting is dimmed. During the next time period, fattening is carried out with protein products with combined feed. The fattening period will depend on the breed chosen, and can range from 1 to 6 months.

Features of feeding adults

Not all birds are suitable for fattening

So, we grow turkeys at home. Before you start feeding an adult turkey for meat at home, you need to conduct a routine inspection. Not all representatives are suitable for feeding. It is necessary to select representatives who have not reached the required weight, as well as birds with protruding bones and a skin fold without fat.

The selected individuals are kept separately and fed according to a different system. For young animals, feeding is shown up to 5 times a day without grazing.The basis of the diet is combined feeds, which are specially designed for feeding meat-oriented birds. If you organize the supplementary feeding correctly, you can fatten the birds in six months.

Will the birds be profitable?

We grow turkeys for meat. Growing turkey poults at home is a very interesting business idea. Naturally, the success of the campaign will completely depend on the correct organization of maintenance, feeding and care. Today, many breeders have re-entered turkey farming. Until recently, agriculture and poultry were in a deplorable state.

First of all, it is important to establish a line for the sale of meat products. It will not be difficult to do this, because its high taste indicators are highly valued by gourmets and people who are forced to constantly diet. In addition to meat qualities, turkeys have a fairly high level of egg production, and their eggs are large in size.

Feeding secrets

There is a feeding system where you can get exactly the meat you need. So that the increase in body weight occurs as soon as possible, but at the same time the bone tissue is not injured, it is necessary to introduce into the diet a large amount of all kinds of vitamins and microelements, among which the main one is calcium. The use of combined fortified mixtures can significantly reduce costs and save more than one ruble.

The basis of the diet of poultry for fattening is cereals, which are digested for a long time, so the diet must necessarily contain foods that increase digestibility. These products include: greens, straw, nuts, vegetable oil or finely chopped bacon.

Two weeks before slaughter, it is necessary to remove fish oil from the diet, otherwise after slaughter the carcass will have a fishy smell and taste. Feeding corn and alfalfa color the carcasses in a pleasant yellow color, which significantly increases the demand for the product. If it is necessary to make the color of the meat lighter, at the end of the fattening, reinforced feeding with corn and alfalfa is started.

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Conclusion

Today, farming is starting to revive little by little, and many have even decided to open their own turkey farming business. The fact that in a couple of three months you can get a carcass of 30 kg makes them quite attractive for home maintenance and sale. In order for the bird to develop well and grow quickly, it is necessary to provide optimal conditions for keeping, feeding and caring for them.

The main requirement is that the birds are not exposed to a draft and a strong temperature drop. As soon as the turkey poults reach the age of four months, they are transferred to fattening, and this must be done for another month. We grow birds at home.

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Reviews and comments

Diet turkey meat is useful for children and adults, and especially for people prone to allergies. Poultry meat has a lot of taste advantages, and everything that is grown at home will be an environmentally friendly product and can be used for food without thinking about the dangers to health.

Growing turkeys for meat at home

Feeding turkeys

The very first food for them will be a boiled egg, carefully chopped, about 5 g per baby. For a variety of feeding, you can offer them homemade or store cheese, as well as millet. In the first three days, the chicks are fed in small portions, but often (after 3 hours) well-cooked cereal porridges. Chicks need to mix in food with grated carrots and finely chopped grass or green onion feathers, which is very useful for them as a fight against intestinal parasites.In the future, you need to observe which porridge will be eaten best of all, and that one should be offered, always mixing various greens.

Feeding turkeys

From the fourth day of the chicks' life, you can give a mash based on milk, yogurt or skim milk, adding a little cottage cheese. It is advisable to prepare it immediately before feeding so that the food does not have time to sour and disappear.

From the age of one week, babies can add more varied greens to their food. Fresh plants will serve as a vitamin complex in the diet of turkey poults, therefore, between feedings without porridge, you can give finely chopped or twisted dandelion through a meat grinder, cabbage leaves and clover, plantain or nettle, previously scalded with boiling water. Sometimes you need to add fish oil to cereals, which contains a lot of vitamins for the growth and development of poultry.

At a month and a half, turkeys can include whole or sprouted grains in their diet. Boiled food waste or chopped apples and pears are added to the mash.

Attention! When feeding potatoes, it is imperative to remove the sprouts from it, and drain the water after the decoction of vegetables, thereby excluding poisoning and death.

Turkey diet

From two months, the diet of grown birds should include trace elements and vitamins necessary for growth, four meals a day are recommended. Along with the compound feed, alternating, you need to add corn and millet grains, yeast and bone meal, shells and chalk, and table salt should be added in very small quantities. Compound feed must be strictly poultry, you can not give feed intended for large animals, which contains a lot of salt and few nutrients. The high salt content will soon kill the bird.

If the poultry feed is difficult to access, then you need to prepare it yourself. You will need grain 60% crushed into fine grains, 25% legumes, 25% sunflower meal and 4% chalk, all this mixture will be considered mixed feed.

Advice! In the summer, prepare brooms from a set of acacia, birch, poplar and linden. You need to hang them indoors so that the birds can reach them. Also, dry broom leaves are ground and added to the mash.

From autumn to spring, 3 g per day are added to the mash, chopped needles and silage, rose hips and rowan berries to provide feed with valuable natural vitamins. Sprinkle food for chicks on a flat, level surface, such as heavy paper or waste material. Each time you feed them, you need to pour fresh clean warm water, frequent water changes contain fewer microbes and this measure will become one of the methods of disease prevention.

How and what to feed turkeys

Important! Cleanliness of feeders and drinkers will protect birds from diseases.

For babies, water should be poured into a container so that they cannot get into it. After the end of drinking, it is advisable to remove the container so that the chicks do not accidentally get wet.

The drinker for adult turkeys should be heavy and up to neck level, and the feeder, as for chickens, should be in the form of troughs or troughs. In winter, it is imperative to warm the water and pour it slightly warm into the drinking bowl.

Nipple drinkers for turkey poults

Keeping turkey poults

Rules for keeping turkeys

Small and tender chicks are very susceptible to the environment, unlike adults, so it is worth considering a few important rules:

• the temperature of the content is 33 degrees of heat from the first to the fifth day of life, 27 degrees to the tenth day and then gradually decreasing to 23 degrees;
• chicks react poorly to a sharp temperature drop and strong drafts;
• chicks do not need to be allowed out in the rain or dew until they are five weeks old. At this age, skin growths form on the necks of the chicks. Make sure that they never get wet on the street;
• avoid damaging the chicks' beak. To do this, a cardboard bedding is laid for them under food, and a solid base will damage the beak and guaranteed death;
• protect chicks from adults on a flat surface without pits, so that the kids are less injured;
• to avoid various diseases and injuries, you must not place them together with other types of chicks. Development and adaptation of turkey poults is slower than, for example, chickens.

Basic requirements for the premises

How to set up a turkey house

It is worth taking care of the previously suitable conditions for keeping, especially in the cold season, otherwise all the work on growing turkey poults will be in vain.

1. In winter, you need to insulate the room as much as possible. Cover the floor with dry straw and trample it down, and when the temperature drops to -10 ° C, provide the house with an additional heater.
2. In the summer period of the year, ensure the ventilation of the room (without a draft) from dampness and excess air humidity.
3. Lighting in winter lasts about 14 hours a day, and additional lighting will increase the egg production of adults.

Walking turkeys

Birds love long walks, besides, they run fast, and in case of danger they can fly. Given their behavior, you need a large space in the form of a mesh enclosure or a quiet and calm environment, if there is none, you should carefully trim the wings of adults.

Walking turkeys

Attention! Restriction in a small space leads to obesity and disease in poultry.

1. Walking is mandatory and will only benefit the birds. Self-foraging, they will get more nutrients, and the presence of bushes or trees will protect them from the scorching sun in summer. When walking in an aviary, you need to artificially create a shade in one of the parts of the fence and take care of the presence of water.
2. At the beginning of the second week of life, the chicks are released for a walk for about 20 minutes, which will be enough for the first time, given the good calm weather. With each subsequent time, the walk increases. Monitor the weather at this time so that the chicks do not catch cold.Important! Chicks are released for full-scale walking only after the appearance of real feathers.

   Chick walks are allowed after plumage

3. On street walking, they place drinkers with water and feeders with food, as well as in a buried aviary. As early as a month and a half, birds will begin to use nests, so they are installed indoors at a height of 45 cm and 35 cm in diameter per individual.
4. It is necessary to release turkeys for a walk not only in summer, but also in winter in calm weather at least 25 degrees, having previously spread straw on this place to avoid frostbite of the limbs of birds. Also, to attract them for a walk, you can lay out brooms of dried nettles and bunches of hay for a long devouring and a long walk, harvested from the summer.

   Fenced turkey walk

Fattening for young meat

From four months of age, they begin to fatten to increase the weight of the turkeys. The month of increased nutrition from August to September should be held on free grazing and three meals a day, including a bag and grain crops in the diet.

How turkeys are fed

For limited grazing, feeding consists of four times per day. The food should be more flour mixture, cottage cheese, egg waste and greens, boiled potatoes and fodder beets, legumes, sprouted grains and including meat waste.

A wet mash should be prepared at the rate of: 80 gr. milk and 100 gr. flour mixing everything. Yeast and malted foods, soaked or steamed grains will help increase your appetite during weight gain.

Turkey poultry fattening diet
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1. The malted food is prepared as follows: pour one kilogram of flour mixture with two liters of boiling water and mix everything, and after two hours add the rest of the ingredients and knead until the food is loose.
2. For the preparation of yeast food: take 50 g of fresh or 25 g of dry yeast for baking dissolve in lukewarm water, and then add 10 kg of dry flour composition a little, then keep it warm for six hours.Feeding lasts 45 minutes, after which the leftovers are removed and then they give root crops or useful greens. Pour a lot of water. In a separate feeder for individuals, chalk and shells should be poured.
3. Of the germinated grains, wheat, oats or barley are usually used. The grain is pre-soaked and then poured onto the racks in a layer 10 cm thick. At a positive temperature above 22 degrees, the grain will germinate in three days.

What to do if birds are not gaining weight

The next month they do not walk the birds, but keep them indoors and dim the lights. They give compound feed and protein mixtures, and a mash at least twice a day. For a positive result of weight gain, one bird should eat about 800 grams of compound feed per day, and together with a mash, almost a kilogram per unit of an individual. During these months, you should provide many different grains with oats and buckwheat, which will provide sufficient protein and fat. The cake of various plants included in the diet will additionally affect the rapid weight gain of the bird and provide it with amino acids.

Caged turkeys before slaughter

Forced feeding

Pellets are prepared from a special batch: flour from corn and barley, 20% each, from wheat and add bran to 15% each, flour from oats 25% and common salt 1%. Add 5% yeast to the mixture and, per 100 g of the resulting mixture, pour 150 g of liquid of your choice, knead the hard dough. First, rolls of dough are made about 2 cm thick and 6 cm long. The finished pellet is moistened with water and placed in the bird's esophagus. With one hand, you need to open the beak of the individual, and with the other hand, lay the pellet, with a slow movement, gently press on the part of the neck from below and push it into the goiter. With this fattening, it is worth monitoring the filling of the turkey crop with food. Having increased the consumption of food, slowly begin feeding from twice a day to 30% of the food per day. With forced weight gain for an individual, the feeding period is reduced to two weeks.

Poultry machine feeding scheme

Self-feeding

Birds are allowed to graze in fields with harvested melons, cereals or sunflowers. They feed the birds two or three times right in the pasture with unlimited containers with preferably cool water. Warm water, of course, will be worse to drink, so it is worth replacing it several times a day with fresh and cooler water. It is best to equip an artificial shade at the walking site, using the structure of a hut and a shed. With this method, large areas are needed, but the advantage is the insignificant consumption of grain crops, and weight gain is faster and better.

Fatty turkey carcasses

Reference! The older the bird is, the tougher the meat and, accordingly, the worse the taste.

Fattening of adult poultry

First, it is worth inspecting the birds, you may not have to intensively feed everyone in a row. For those who need fattening when probing, the skin forms a fold, while it is very thin without fat, and the bones are sharper and strongly protrude. This also includes the average mass of birds. But a well-fed individual with rounded body shapes and palpable subcutaneous fat in the lower abdomen is already ready for slaughter. After inspection, the entire selected individual is sent to an additional set of missing kilograms. During the weight gain of young animals, it is imperative that they maintain a good appetite, peace and quiet, and given that the bird's eyesight and touch work well, they will pay attention to the shape and even color of food of a lighter color.

Home fat turkey

The fattening period lasts about a month and will be the best time at the end of autumn. Fattening consists of four meals a day without walking. The composition and variety of the forage is the same as for young animals, the prevailing flour mixture. Adults of common turkeys reach up to 12 kg, and turkeys up to 16 kg when breeding purebred birds will have different weight data.

Large turkey on the scales

Advice! During hot summer days, food intake decreases accordingly and leads to a loss of kilograms.You need to feed more vegetation and grated carrots these days, which will increase your appetite and prevent weight loss.

The secret to feeding turkey for delicious meat

1. Tasty and healthy meat directly depends on a properly balanced diet, including biologically active additives and necessary for feathered matter. Compound feed with nutritious components will reduce the consumption of cereals and provide a correct, balanced nutrition for poultry.

   Compound feed for turkeys

2. For the successful assimilation of grain by individuals, vegetation, dried straw or hay should be added to the diet. Nuts or acorns mixed with vegetable oil or finely chopped bacon will provide juicy and tender turkey meat at the output.
3. During fattening, it is worth excluding the intake of fish oil and fish meal 10 days before the end of the term, otherwise the meat will have a fishy flavor. Corn and alfalfa give the meat a yellowish hue. Oats and barley give the meat a lighter color. If it is necessary to lighten the meat at the end of feeding, give more of this grain.

Sorting turkeys and the need for fattening

In conclusion, it is worth noting that for breeding a turkey for meat, you need to monitor its diet. A variety of feed will have a positive effect on the strong immunity and health of the bird. In summer and winter, for turkeys, food must be both wet and dry. Those birds that eat what they themselves find, without human participation, of course, will not achieve much weight.

It is important to take part in the fattening of the turkey and monitor the quality of bird nutrition.

Feeding errors

Video - Feeding turkeys

Video - Breeding turkeys at home