FARMING TIPS
What It Takes To Start A Turkey Farming Business
turkey farming is one of the unique business ideas you can venture into.
Turkey are very good scavengers consuming earthworms, small insects, snails, kitchen waste, termites. grasses, LEAFS, vegetables, etc,
“Turkeys only need a lot of care when still young. Day old till 4wks, Young poults need to be kept warm by being kept close to a source of heat
Turkeys start laying eggs at six to eight months and this production period is up to 24 weeks from the point of lay. Under proper feeding, a single turkey lays as much as 60-100 eggs annually. Nearly 70 percent of the eggs will be laid in the afternoon. When it comes to hatching, it can hatch as many as 15 at each sitting.
Specifics for breeding and incubating turkeys are quite different from chicken.
It is very challenging when turkeys start laying eggs because they do not want anybody to see them.
The incubation period is 28 days. There are two methods of incubation. Natural incubation with sitting females; naturally turkeys are good brooders and each can hatch 10-15 numbers of eggs. Only clean eggs with good eggshells and shape should be placed for brooding to get 60%-80% hatchability and healthy poults.
Turkeys require particular conditions which are different from those for other poultry birds. First of all, turkeys need a lot of space by virtual of their size.
Specifics for breeding and incubating turkeys are quite different from chicken.
Feeding
start your turkeys on starter mash. Make sure there is plenty of starter mash in the feeders, and that the chicks have fresh clean water at all times. Common varieties of turkeys include broad-breasted bronze and Broad-breasted white.
Feed for turkey poults must contain at least 24 per cent protein (not found in many commercial feeds), 2 per cent calcium and 0.9 per cent phosphorus.
Turkeys require about six square feet of space each.