Question on Turkeys

[gsganzer]

I'm thinking of getting a few turkeys from a neighbor. These are bred wild turkeys, not a meat variety.

Do I need to put them in a coop each night, like I do with our chickens and geese? Or will they roost in a tree, out of reach from coyotes? If I need to pen them up, how readily will they follow other fowl into the coop?

[mfaley]

That’s an interesting question. We have a lot of wild turkeys and I am sure I could not contain them unless they were always locked up. It’s pretty rare that I see coyotes getting a hold of turkeys so they probably would be fine under normal circumstances.

If you are going to raise them from eggs they may respond differently by staying in a coop or if you raise them and feed them perhaps they would stick around. What do your neighbors do with theirs?

[Pat]

Tame wild turkey? Gee, this is an interesting question you pose. If they are genetically equivalent to wild wild turkeys I'd suspect that instinct would prevail unless they are imprinted on you or your chickens and see themselves as part of your flock. You might want to keep them penned till you can hatch some of their eggs under chickens and let thosehatchlings imprint on your chickens.

My cousin once got a gosling and a chick at Easter time. The chick imprinted on the goose and followed the goose everywhere, even out into the rain to play in puddles. The poor bedraggled chicken got sick from exposure a couple times. I suppose if we were clever we could have sprayed the chicken with silicone waterproofing or something to keep him from getting soaked.

If the turkeys you get were imprinted on domestic fowl maybe they won't just fly away.

Very interesting... Let us know what happens.

[img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img] Pat [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

[egon]

Away back in the 80's there was fellow out here got an incubator and raised pheasants and wild turkey. It was a pretty ramshackle operation.

Pheasants turned loose would stay around. The turkeys, well once they could fly would dissapear as soon as they were let of an enclosure. Only way to kep them around was to clip the wings.

Farm turkeys of my youth were very similar to wild turkeys but had much less flying ability. They would roost in trees at night.

Horned owls dinned on them regularily. Coyotes didn't bother them much.

It sure made for a nice barefoot walk in the farmyard.

Egon

[gsganzer]

I think imprinting is the key. They're wild turkeys, but he raises them from eggs. They'll walk around my yard once in a while, but they never seem to stray far from his place. I think they just hang out with his chickens, because that's all they know.

[Pat]

Clipping wings or pinioning them will put an end to tree roosting and give the coyotes a better chance. Maybe a leash or collar and invisible fence.

[img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img] Pat