[harry]

do waterfowl carry the worm that gives turkeys blackhead ...i have ducks and geese but want a few turkeys this year

[HesterF]

Oooooh, I was going to post the same question. Interested to see the answer.

H

[taz08]

would love to know too ,, and keeping hens with turkeys too,,,

[harry]

hens with turkeys is useually ok provided both regulary wormed,.. turkeys at young stage

[Brijjy]

I keep my lonely turkey stag with the hens and ducks. They are wormed twice a year and he is wormed with them. I hatched out 15 turkeys last year and when they were big enough, they went into a pen next to the chickens and ducks. The only problem I've had with the turkey and the ducks is that him and a tame male muscovy will have a scrap if I'm stroking one of them. There's a lot of jealousy between the boys! However they've a big enough range to get away from each other.

[Marches Farmer]

Blackhead is caused by a protozoa and wild birds such as pheasants can also be carriers and earthworms can carry an intermediate stages and then be eaten by poultry.  Moving birds to new ground and keeping runs clean will help but chickens may recover but remain carriers.