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Broilers are poultry bred specifically for meat production, respectively distinguished by their precocity. Broiler meat is especially tender and juicy because it is young. The most popular cross-country boilers for growing turkeys at home are: BIG-6, station wagon, bronze-708, BYuT-8, hidon.
There are no special external differences between broiler turkeys and ordinary ones. Broilers differ in meat characteristics and some features of the content.
Requirements for keeping broiler turkeys at home
How to grow broiler turkeys at home so that they productively reach slaughter age? They should be provided with the necessary conditions for housing, care and feeding.
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Most often, turkeys are sensitive to temperature conditions, so the first condition: the room must be warm – not lower than 20 degrees. For the same reason, the floor should be covered with hay, sawdust, straw or other suitable material.
All broiler turkeys are afraid of high humidity and drafts: when organizing a turkey house, this must be taken into account. In order for fresh air to enter the room, you need to take care of a ventilation system that you can do yourself.
Some breeds and crosses of broiler turkeys are photophilous, they will have to install additional lighting.
Turkeys value personal space. If another bird encroaches on the broiler’s territory, fights cannot be avoided. Therefore, in one room for 40 turkeys there should not be more than 5 turkeys. If the content is aviary, the ideal situation would be when there is one broiler male and two turkeys in one place. The area of the turkey house should be calculated based on the requirement: square meter per broiler.
To avoid infection of turkeys at home, the poultry house must be kept clean. Before the first settling of broilers, and then every spring, the room is disinfected with hot water with the addition of caustic soda. The bedding needs to be changed periodically.
Place for walking broilers at home
If turkeys eat a lot at home and move little, obesity cannot be avoided, as a result of which the quality of meat will suffer. To prevent this from happening, you need to organize a spacious place for walking. The pasture should be sown with perennial (clover, alfalfa) grass, then during the walk, the turkeys will receive fortified food. Part of the walking area can be sown with useful annual greens: peas, oats and others. This will also help reduce feed costs.
You can walk broiler turkeys at home not only in the warm season, but also in winter (not in frost and not in strong winds). In cold weather, it is desirable to cover the earth tightly with straw. A place for walking broilers should be provided with a canopy that will protect the turkeys from rain and the scorching sun. Also, a high fence should be installed around the perimeter of the pasture so that the broilers cannot fly over it and escape.
Perches
Broiler turkeys sleep on perches at home, so they need to be properly built. It is best to install perches in the back of the house in the form of an amphitheater: each subsequent row should be at least 50 cm higher than the previous one. The bottom row should be 80 cm from the ground. The length of one perch is made at the rate of 45 cm per bird.
Perch bars should be thick enough to support the heavy weight of several broiler turkeys. The ends of the logs should be rounded. It is necessary to check that the perches are smooth, without splinters and cracks.
Nests
Many novice farmers are interested in the question: do broiler turkeys carry eggs at home? Of course they do. Only usually females are already allowed for meat by the reproductive age. It is for broilers that egg production is not the main task. Nevertheless, nests in a turkey house are necessary, at a minimum, for breeding broiler turkeys.
You need to locate the nest in the quietest, darkest and warmest place in the turkey house. To ensure dryness and warmth, a litter is laid on the bottom of the nest. It is necessary to constantly monitor its condition: put it on if necessary, clean it and change it periodically.
The dimensions of the nest should be such that up to 5 broiler turkeys can comfortably fit in it (more often they do it – 60 * 60 cm). It is better to build a roof-slope over the nest – so turkeys will not sit on it.
The type of socket for installation is selected depending on:
- poultry house area: in one or several tiers;
- number of laying hens: individual or nest constructions;
- financial ability: purchased from suppliers or made independently.
Feeders and drinkers
Properly selected equipment for feeding and watering broiler turkeys at home is the key to their rapid growth and health.
When choosing feeders, you should be guided by the following rules:
- The use of the feeder must be safe for rearing broiler turkeys;
- for broiler turkeys, it is necessary to choose rubber or silicone feeders, because chicks are born with soft beaks that can easily be hurt on hard edges or the bottom;
- galvanized feeders should not be used for dairy products, otherwise broiler turkeys may be poisoned as a result of a chemical reaction;
- choose feeders that provide each broiler with at least 40 cm of personal space, otherwise the turkeys will start to fight (there are cases of death).
- There should be separate containers for different feeds. For dry ones, hopper-type feeders are convenient, for top dressing – sectional, for grass or hay – mesh.
- Feeders should be set at a level equal to the height of the broiler’s back.
- It is necessary to additionally strengthen the structure so that strong and heavy broilers cannot turn over the feeder and be left without food.
Like any living creature, a turkey at home cannot survive without water. Broilers have a higher fluid requirement than other poultry. Therefore, in the access zone of turkeys in drinking bowls, there should be fresh and clean water around the clock.
The best of the drinkers is nipple: firstly, the water in it is always clean and not stagnant; secondly, the broiler turkey receives exactly as much water as it needs; thirdly, water does not accumulate anywhere, which means that turkeys will not be able to spill or splash it. It is better not to install this type of drinker for very small turkey poults – for them this design will be quite complicated. For broiler turkeys at home, a vacuum drinker is ideal.
Just like with feeders, each broiler turkey should have its own place at the watering hole – at least 4 cm.
If simple drinking bowls from improvised means are installed in the turkey house, the presence of water in them and its purity should be constantly monitored. It is also necessary to ensure the safety of broiler turkeys when using a drinker: to prevent the possibility of a container falling or spilling liquid.
Instead of open containers, it is better to install a vacuum drinker – you can easily make it yourself at minimal cost.
The principle of operation and the manufacturing process of a vacuum drinker, see the video
feeders and drinkers should be washed, periodically disinfected and, if necessary, replaced.
Caring for turkey broilers at home
For broiler turkeys at home, careful, proper care is required, only then they will quickly grow up and be healthy.
Main conditions:
- temperature regime: not lower than +35 degrees;
- proper nutrition;
- round the clock lighting;
- lack of dampness and drafts;
- prevention of infectious diseases: ensure that the temperature of drinking water is at least 25 degrees Celsius for newborns, and room temperature for slightly grown turkeys; control that the turkeys do not get wet; that the litter is clean and bough; monitor the general condition and appearance of broilers;
- ensuring the safety of turkey chicks at home (according to statistics, the most common cause of death of turkey poults is their injury);
- providing opportunities for outdoor activities.
Broiler turkeys at home are prone to infection with parasites: feather-eaters, lice, ticks, fleas, bedbugs and others. Arthropods can live on feathers, skin, and inside.
How to determine the presence of parasites in broilers
- The turkey begins to clean feathers and itch, because he is worried about severe irritation on the skin at the sites of parasites.
- Broiler productivity decreases, while appetite increases.
- Visual confirmation: Some parasites can be seen when looking at the broiler.
Infected turkeys pose a risk to other healthy broilers as parasites can be passed from one host to another.
Prevention of infection with parasites of broiler turkeys at home
Preventing the appearance of parasites is easier than getting rid of them, so do not neglect the following recommendations:
- Inspect broiler turkeys at home for parasites. For this, several broilers are selected from different parts of the turkey house. During the inspection procedure, there should be enough light so that even small parasites can be seen. It is necessary to inspect the head, legs and anus of broilers.
- Periodically, all the structures of the turkey house, as well as the walls and floor, should be checked for the presence of blood-sucking parasites, as they can be found in bedding, crevices, under litter. To determine if there are parasites in the flooring or in the dust, you need to put the material in a white container and inspect it there.
- To identify parasites that attack turkeys at night, the test will have to be carried out at night.
- In order for broiler turkeys to clean themselves at home, you need to install a box in the turkey house in which to pour sand in half with ash.
Prevention of shoots of broiler turkeys
Domestic turkeys can fly at speeds of 20 km/h as they are crossed with wild turkeys that can fly up to 90 km/h. In addition, turkeys are freedom-loving.
To prevent broiler shoots, you can use the following methods:
- Trimming the feathers on the wings.
- Fastening the wings one with the other (inlay or rope).
- Cauterization of wings in newborn turkey poults.
- Walking broiler turkeys in a fenced area.
Feeding broiler turkeys at home
Since the main goal of growing broiler turkeys at home is to obtain high-quality meat, it is very important to properly organize the feeding process. Each breed or cross-breed of broilers will have its own feeding scheme. Consider the general principles.
Giving food to turkey poults at home is required every two hours. Only born chicks are given a mash of crushed millet and eggs. The next day, grated carrots are added to the feed, on the third day – greens (it should be very finely chopped).
The freshness of the food should be monitored: wet food should be prepared no earlier than 20 minutes before the start of feeding and cleaned half an hour after the food has been distributed.
Young broiler turkeys at home are given food 4 times a day. Food should be balanced, fortified and of high quality. The diet includes special top dressing. For better grinding of food, fine gravel with limestone is added.
Adult birds are fed: grain, vegetables, grass (fresh – in the season of its growth and hay – in winter), meal, cake, dairy products. As a vitamin or mineral supplement, they give: chalk, fish oil, eggshell, yeast, shell.
Some farmers think that the more food they give to turkeys, and the more calories the food is, the faster the broiler will grow, and the sooner it can be put on meat. This is not true. With a similar organization of feeding in broiler turkeys at home, obesity occurs, which has a bad effect on meat.
Conclusion
Growing broiler turkeys at home is an ideal way to quickly get juicy, young, tender meat.