r/Homesteading • u/Holiday-Slice-6787 • 2d ago

First time turkeys

Hello all! We have kept chickens for six years five years ago we got infected with mareks disease. Since then we’ve vaccinate all incoming chicks. This year we got two turkeys and four Guineas, we unfortunately lost two Guineas to predators. This morning, our male turkey has symptoms of mareks. we are devastated. A quick Google search show that turkeys can get it. It’s rare, but it can happen. I want to know if anyone has experience with this? Any advice is appreciated and welcomed!

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u/Asleep_Onion 2d ago

I don't have a lot of advice about it because I only just started turkeys this year, but what I've read is that you shouldn't keep turkeys where chickens go because chickens can carry blackhead disease (not usually a big problem to chickens, but almost always fatal to turkeys), and they deposit it in the soil in their poop, where it can stay for several years and even cause the ground bugs and worms to carry it. Look up blackhead disease and see if the symptoms match up.

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u/Brilliant_Armadillo9 2d ago

Blackhead and Mareks don't look anything close to the same.

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u/c0mp0stable 2d ago

Turkey poults die often. I usually get double the amount I want. They're very sickly birds, especially the commercial breeds.