Are Turkeys Easy to Raise? Turkey Farming Techniques and Precautions
The turkey is also a type of bird. Turkeys are 3 to 4 times larger than ordinary domestic chickens. Turkeys were introduced to China starting in the 19th century, and today turkey has become a popular food that is widely favored by consumers in our country. As a result, many people in the farming industry seemed to see a business opportunity, and more and more people began raising turkeys. Next, I will introduce several little secrets for raising turkeys.
Are Turkeys Easy to Raise?
1. Turkeys are easy to raise. The turkey's appearance differs from that of a chicken: it has a tall body, and some varieties can reach 1 m in height, with very well-developed breast and leg muscles. The head and neck are almost bare of feathers, and there are coral-like caruncles on the head. The color of the caruncles often changes: red when calm, and turning blue-white or purple when excited.
2. Feather color varies by breed. Adult male turkeys have a fleshy wattle hanging from the beak or covering the beak, and the coral-like caruncles on the neck and under the beak are especially well developed; the feathers are glossy, there is a tuft of bristles on the breast, the tail feathers are well developed and can spread into a fan shape, like a peacock displaying its tail; there are spurs on the shanks. The female turkey has a small head, a fleshy crest on the forehead, small caruncles, is also smaller than the male turkey, and has no spurs on the shanks, and the tail feathers do not spread.
Turkey Farming Techniques and Precautions
1. Newly hatched turkey poults react slowly, are delicate, and fear the cold. Feed quality should be good, light should be strong, and extra careful care is needed. Within 4 weeks of age, the rearing density on litter-covered floor should be 20-25 birds/sq m. From 1 to 4 days of age, full-day lighting is best. After 5 days of age, it can be gradually reduced to 14 hours of light. The brooding room temperature must be kept between 35-37 degrees C within the first week. After that, it can be lowered by 1-2 degrees C each week until heating is no longer needed. The diet of young poults requires high protein and high energy.
2. Nutritional standards during the brooding period: metabolizable energy 2680 kcal/kg, crude protein level 26%. The reference formula is as follows: cereal feed 46%, soybean cake 38%, wheat bran 3.3%, fish meal 6.4%, sophora leaf powder 3%, bone meal 2%, calcium carbonate 1%, salt 0.3%, with appropriate additions of trace elements, vitamins, etc. Turkey poults like spicy flavors, so some green feed such as scallion leaves, garlic leaves, and Chinese chives can be mixed into the feed appropriately to help digestion and increase appetite; at the same time, it can also have a certain inhibitory effect on pathogens.
3. Note that the temperature in the brooding room should be maintained at 34 degrees in the first week, then lowered by about one degree each week until it reaches 18-21 degrees. If it is too high, the poults drink more water, have loose droppings, open their mouths, and pant; if it is too low, the poults huddle against the heat source in piles and often make sharp cries. A uniform distribution is the suitable temperature.
Prevention and Treatment of Common Turkey Diseases
1. Mycoplasmosis. Turkey mycoplasmosis is also called “1-day-old airsacculitis”, “airsacculitis deficiency syndrome”, or “turkey syndrome-65”. This disease is an infectious disease that exists widely around the world and can occur in turkeys of all ages. It can be transmitted directly through hatching eggs, and can also spread horizontally through opposite-sex mating, air, personnel, equipment, and other direct and indirect contact.
2. Prevention and treatment: Establishing Mycoplasma-free breeding turkey flocks is an important measure for disease control. Turkey breeding farms at all levels must refuse to introduce turkeys carrying Mycoplasma, strengthen veterinary epidemic prevention work during the rearing process, regularly monitor turkey flocks, and immediately cull and dispose of any that test positive. In order to reduce the occurrence of Mycoplasma in the next generation of turkeys, hatching eggs can also be soaked in some antibiotic solutions.
How to Distinguish Male and Female Turkeys
1. Spots. The colors of good and poor turkeys are basically the same, with little difference: females are mostly light ochre, while males are mostly red, blue, green, purple, black, white, and brown, in seven colors. However, the black-and-white spots on the bodies of good and poor turkeys differ in size: those of good ones are large and sparse, evenly arranged, about the size of a peanut; those of poor ones are small and dense, about the size of a soybean.
2. Feathers. The feathers of good turkeys appear soft and thick, while the feathers of poor ones appear tight and thin.
3. Shape. Under normal rearing, good turkeys of the same age are larger in body shape than poor ones, so sellers of poor birds often deceive buyers by claiming the turkeys are simply young.
In the article above, I explained in detail the management during the laying period, the management during the brooding period, and the feeding management during the growing period. If you are thinking of raising turkeys, you can take some notes, and I hope what I have said can be of some help to you.