Turkeys and Meat Chickens

Broiler Chicks

The Broiler Chicks and Turkeys arrived a week ago via US Mail. We ordered them from Townline Poultry in Zeeland, MI and they ship when they are a day old.

We learned our lessons last fall with our first batch of broiler chicks. Make sure to feed them broiler starter and after 10 days, feed them 12 hours on and 12 off. They grow fast, so be prepared to butcher them at 8 weeks. We opt to have another local farm take care of that for us at $3.00 a chicken.

The hatchery sends a few extra chicks with the batch in case any are dead when your shipment arrives. We didn't lose any till about day three, but still have 52 chicks after one week. Do some research on checking for pasty butt. Chances are that one or two will need this taken care of.

The Turkeys started off a little slower than the broiler chicks for the first couple of days. We use a higher protein feed (26%) turkey starter. They also make a medicated starter that is higher protein, but we are going without the medication. We did use chick saver the 1st couple of days for both the broilers and turkeys. Buy it at your local feed store and add it to the water. This helps give them a good start and adds electrolytes. We will add it to the water for all of our chicks, chickens and turkeys on extremely hot days. It's not expensive (about $1.99 for a 3 pack).


We had everything ready before the chicks and turkeys arrived. Then all we had to do was fill the water and put them into the pens. We dunk their beaks into the water as we place each chick into the pen to let them know where the water is.