Wednesday, February 24, 2016

What is wrong with my turkey's wings?

If you notice the wings of your waterfowl and turkeys are dropping down or sticking out, they might have a condition called split wing or angel wing. It's a condition where the last joint in the wing goes in a different direction.

The most common cause in waterfowl is too high a percentage of protein in the starter feed. A 16% to 18% medicated feed seems to work well. If you are raising them for meat, after their skeleton has stopped growing you may feed a higher protein grower of around 20% to 22%.

In turkeys it just seems to be the nature of the beast. You start seeing it at about ten days in about a quarter of them.

It is rare to see angel wings in chickens.

To fix it hold the wing in one hand, grasp the very last part of the wing and tuck in under the rest of the wing so the feathers are parallel with the wing bone. 

Tape it this position for two days, three at most. 


Remove tape. If it’s still not correct re-tape it. We have found that small strip of duct tape (no pun intended) works best.


As always, ask further questions in the comment section.

--Dale, aka Turkeyman

10 comments:

  1. It's unclear to me what is being taped together. Is the end of the wing being taped to the next section up?

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  2. Yes. You tuck the outside end under and tape it.

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  3. All my outdoor poults, raised with mum, seem fine. The ones inside, out of an incubator, are showing 50% incidenc

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  4. Could you re-post your question? It didn't all come through

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  5. Wish you would go on BYC Back Yard Chickens and set these people straight. They say there is no way turkeys can get angel wing.

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  6. I have a baby turkey with this i find it weird. But having issues wrapping the bird without it freaking out. Tried a different method that failed but im willijg to try this. Also wondering doe it affect the bird long term if your using them for meat??

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    1. Are you asking about angel wings. If so a turkey for meat will be just fine the way it is. It's only for show or if you don't like looking at it that in needs to be fixed

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  7. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  8. What tape did you use on the poult

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  9. Most any kind of good tape will work

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