Getting Poults From Penny Hatch: What Actually Works
I ordered my first batch of hatch fowl turkeys from Penny Hatch about five years ago. They arrived and half of them didn't stand up right. Not because the poults were bad. Because I had zero experience with water heating systems that didn't fluctuate more than two degrees over a six-hour window. That was the real lesson. The Rise Of Penny Hatch Fowl Unlocking The Secrets Of These Incredible Turkeys isn't really a secret at all. It's just that most people walk into this assuming turkey poults are chickens in a bigger package. They aren't. The mortality curve in the first seven days alone looks completely different, and if you treat them like standard poultry you'll lose birds you shouldn't have lost.
The Rise Of Penny Hatch Fowl Unlocking The Secrets Of These Incredible Turkeys
Penny Hatch operates as a mail-order poult supplier, shipping day-old to week-old poults directly to your door. Their stock runs the broad-breasted white lines you see at every grocery store, along with some heritage varieties. The birds themselves are solid. The problem is almost always in how they get received and what happens in those first ten days after arrival. Here's the setup I use now after burning through two batches of mortality that had nothing to do with the birds themselves. Pre-warming the brooder is where everyone goes wrong. You don't turn the heat on when the box arrives. You turn it on at least thirty-six hours before. The brooder needs to hit ninety-five degrees at the heat source level and hold it there for an extended period so the sub-flooring, the bedding material, and the surrounding air all stabilize. I learned this after checking my thermometer and seeing the air read ninety-five while the actual floor surface was only eighty-two. The poults huddled under the lamp but their feet were cold. That's stress. That's the start of weakness.
Water first, then feed. When the box opens, don't drop them straight onto feed. Gently dip each poult's beak into shallow water dishes. They need to find water on their own within the first hour, and most won't look for it if you set them directly onto feed. I've seen this cost me four or five poults in a single batch simply because they dehydrated before figuring out where the water was. A shallow tray with marbles on top prevents drowning and keeps the water clean enough for the first few days. Temperament matters more than people expect with these birds. Penny Hatch poults tend to be skittish. They startle easily and will trample each other if something loud happens near the brooder. A television left on low, a door slamming, even a vacuum cleaner in the next room can trigger a stampede event. I keep the brooder in a low-traffic interior room and I don't introduce new sounds or visitors for at least the first ten days. The poults settle faster and feed more consistently when they aren't in a constant state of mild panic. Bedding choice is another thing nobody talks about enough. Pine shavings work but they track everywhere and get soggy fast under turkey poults because they drink more water than you'd expect and splash it around. I switched to hemp bedding and it absorbs better, stays drier longer, and doesn't clump. The cost is higher per square foot but you're changing it less often and the poults stay cleaner, which means less chance of coccidiosis kicking in during week two.
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Feeding schedule is straightforward but the protein requirement surprises people. Turkey poults need a starter feed that's at least twenty-eight percent protein for the first three weeks. Standard chicken starter at eighteen percent won't cut it. These birds grow fast and they need the protein to build breast muscle and skeletal structure. I use a medicated turkey starter with amprolium included. It's not mandatory but it gives you a buffer against coccidiosis during the earliest weeks when their immune systems are still figuring things out. The humidity factor is something I wish someone had told me before my second order. Dry air in the brooder causes feather follicles to dry out and poults to pick at each other. It starts as harmless pecking and escalates quickly into blood-seeking behavior that can wipe out a group. Keeping relative humidity around fifty to sixty percent in the brooder makes a noticeable difference. A simple bowl of water near the heat source does most of the work. I use a small hygrometer now and check it twice daily. One edge case I ran into that took me a while to solve: the heat lamp position. Most guides say hang it so you can adjust based on poult behavior. That's correct in theory. In practice, I found that the lamps from Penny Hatch's recommendations cast too concentrated a heat spot, creating a gradient where poults on the edge were fine but poults near the center would overheat and stop eating. I solved this by switching to a radiant panel heater and setting it to cover a wider area at a slightly lower temperature. The poults self-regulate much better with even heat distribution than they do with a hotspot and a cold zone.
Growth timeline is worth noting because it's aggressive. By week four, your poults will look nothing like the fluffy babies that arrived in the box. They'll be filling out, their feathers will be coming in, and they'll need significantly more space. I move mine into a larger run area around day twenty-eight and that's when the real work begins with predator proofing. Raccoons will figure out a latched gate in a weekend. I use hardware cloth instead of regular chicken wire and I bury the bottom six inches or run it in an L-shape outward. Foxes and stray dogs are also a real threat once the birds get big enough to be worth hunting. There are downsides to buying from Penny Hatch that aren't discussed much. Shipping stress is real even when they do it well. A portion of every order arrives dehydrated or slightly stressed regardless of how good the packaging is. I count the mortality from shipping as part of the cost and I budget for maybe a five to eight percent loss from arrival through the first week. It's not a dealbreaker but it's something to factor into your numbers before you place the order. Another issue is timing. Penny Hatch operates on seasonal cycles and their most popular birds sell out months in advance. If you're trying to raise turkeys for a specific holiday meal, you need to order well ahead of schedule or you'll be working with whatever's left, which might be heritage breeds that mature at different rates than the commercial broilers. That's fine if you want something different but it catches people off guard if they assumed they could just order a Broad Breasted White in March and have it ready for Thanksgiving.
The birds themselves are generally hardy once they get past the critical first two weeks. I've had batches where the mortality dropped to zero after day fourteen and the remaining birds grew out evenly. The key is surviving those first ten days with stable heat, proper protein, adequate humidity, and minimal stress. After that point, they're mostly just big hungry animals that need space and protection. If you're just starting out, I'd recommend ordering a smaller batch first. Six to ten poults is manageable for a beginner and it lets you learn the system without having twenty birds demanding different things at the same time. Once you've got a routine down and you understand how your particular setup affects temperature and humidity, you can scale up. The fundamentals don't change. You just need more heat and more food. The whole process from day-old poult to harvest-ready bird takes roughly sixteen to twenty weeks depending on the breed and the conditions you're raising them in. It's not a short project but it's not complicated either. It's just something that requires attention to the small details most people overlook until it's too late.
