28 degrees with frost tonight...

[jc12551]

My turkeys normally sleep in an oak tree. This will be our first severe weather since they hatched in May and I am not sure if I should wrestle them into the chicken coop tonight or not. In the coop they would sleep on the ground, which is slightly wet. I don't have enough perches for the chickens and the turkeys in the coop; the turkeys don't like the boards I have in there anyway.

We will have several months of weather like this (Dec., Jan., Feb.) and I don't know if I want to do the turkey wrestle everyday or not. I am making an effort to catch my BTW Japanese bantams before they go up in the tree with the turkeys tonight.

Any advice?

 

[Frosty]

How old are they?

 

[jc12551]

Hatched 5/11; 5 months old. Fully feathered, pretty well fed. I let them go in the tree. I am afraid they may kill another chicken if I put them in the coop. If they are going to be free-ranged then I guess they should be "all-in" with it. It took about an hour, but my son and I chased down the bantams and imprisoned them in the coop

We have had a terrible time getting two of the hens to roost in the coop. Hubby is building a small coop/run just for the six bantams that will be fully enclosed (only he doesn't know it yet

)

 

[ivan3]

How high do they roost? Be aware, raccoons pick off turks at night by scaring them from the tree, then climb down and dispatch them. Keep live traps set or a dog staked at the base of the tree (a good dog). Wild Easterns wil roost 40-60 ft. up in the Oaks and Hickories, here. Our neighbor's domestics (Slate/Bourbons) roosted low in a big Osage Orange tree above the chicken run - they were killed in the middle of the night during a snow storm (chased from tree and pretty much completely eaten just outside the run fencing).

 

[Frosty]

I never had a raccoon scare one from a tree, but we did have great horned owls picking them off from the trees... actually, they were picking off the wild turkeys so I took the hint and locked mine up. That seems to be more of a problem when there is snow on the ground and other game is scarce.

But to answer your question, at 5 months they should be able to handle those temps. I had some that were 2 1/2 - 3 months old when winter hit and they made it through a ND winter with no supplemental heat.

 

[jc12551]

They roost about 12-15 feet up. I seriously don't think the height would matter to a raccoon. If it can climb 10' it can climb 20'.

We haven't seen any raccoon or opossum sign yet, but I am sure they are around here. I have seen coyotes, dogs, owls, hawks, a cougar, cats, and last night a gray fox! We are shopping for some game cameras this weekend.

Frosty-that is saying something about your birds! My mom used to live in ND. She moved back South to take care of her mom. She lived in Tuttle.