Baby turkeys question

[Lrosell31]

this is the first time raising turkeys. And I was wondering when my baby turkeys can sleep outside. Next week they will be 7 weeks old. I have been letting them go outside with my adult ducks and adult chickens for the last couple weeks during the day. They seem to all be getting along. I will have them in separate areas to sleep outside. And the weather next week will be in the low 40’s at night. I have four baby turkeys. They are jumping out of there inside sleeping area and wandering around the house at night.

 

[peacockfarmer]

Turkeys that old can be out all day but locked up at night. THEY need a roost up high. Turkeys like to be off the ground at night. They are sitting ducks on the ground at night and they know it. Train them to sit on a roost pole or 2x4 about 6' off the ground and later 12' off the ground. I worry about owls after sundown with babies out and all my birds get put up and locked up tight every night in a tall building with roosts as I have described. Otherwise bobcats and raccoons will take babies like that at night.

 

[Lrosell31]

I didn’t know they need to roost like chickens. My bird coop is made up of some playhouses that we put in our backyard. We also put slide locks on the doors and windows of the playhouses to keep my birds from the predators at night. I keep my adult chickens separate from my ducks at night so there’s no fighting.

 

[quiltchick]

Do Turkeys 'go home to roost' like chickens. If I leave young turkeys out during the day, will they go into their coop at night?
Last year I had 4 turkey poults ( first year for turkeys) that wanted to stay in the run at night and I lost them all in one night as something broke through our fence for the first and only time in 6 years of chicken keeping.
I am building a coop for the turkeys this year and their own run. Just wondering what their evening behavior may be.

 

[R2elk]

Do Turkeys 'go home to roost' like chickens. If I leave young turkeys out during the day, will they go into their coop at night?
Last year I had 4 turkey poults ( first year for turkeys) that wanted to stay in the run at night and I lost them all in one night as something broke through our fence for the first and only time in 6 years of chicken keeping.
I am building a coop for the turkeys this year and their own run. Just wondering what their evening behavior may be.

It will be up to you to teach them to go into the coop for the night.

 

[peacockfarmer]

I had to put up my turkeys and peafowl before dusk every night, but they get in the habit and now I just have a light on in the barn and they put themselves up. They get locked up every night. Ideally a run is chicken wired 100% coverage and is 2 stories tall. My turkeys would rather spend the night in the run than the barn. But in both case the roost is very high up. Heritage turkeys like to roost high up until they get too old to fly that high. Raccoons forced me to apply chicken wire to the very crown of this huge geodesic dome we called the "Turkey Dome"