Can turkeys be free ranged

[CarolinaChickenKeeper]

My midget white turkeys free range. They were hatched and raised by my silkie chicken, and hence think they are chickens. Everyone is pinned and housed together. Unless you put a top on your pen, or clip wings, a turkey will be able to fly over a fence. My turkeys come and go as they please. Every morning the fly over the fence to graze on fresh grass and presumably bugs. Occasionally roost on the fence. And, at night they fly back over the fence to sleep in the coop with there chicken buddies.

 

[ray2310]

Turkeys love to free range

In this picture they free ranged right into our garage and onto the work bench! I think they can sense when the doors open!

We hatched our turkeys in spring and they have been hand raised. They have a beautiful 8 x 16 foot Turkey House, with a large feeder, temperature controlled exhaust fan, beautiful roost, Yet they insist on sleeping outside - preferably on top of their fully enclosed run! Turkeys also tend to get themselves into trouble when ever possible - if I let them out of their run too early in the morning they end up flying into our fenced in garden for snacks, taking a walk up the road to the neighbor's house to beg for treats, sit on whom ever's vehicle is in our driveway, my personal favorite is when I look out our living room picture window and see all 5 turkeys standing in my windowbox of flowers looking in at me! Needless to say, our turkeys only free range in the afternoons then we take them back to their run after dinner and lock them up for the night - where we've built them an outside roost and a tarp roof so that they aren't in the rain all night and are safely in their run.

Our Turkey Hens also LOVE to be held!! And when you hold one, the others are very jealous! On more than one occasion, while sitting in the yard, have had all 5 turkeys on my lap at once - luckily the Tom's have outgrown snuggling - but are always eager to strut around showing off!

This is our first year raising turkeys, and it will not be our last. They are full of personality. We have had chickens for several years and thought they were fun

Next year we are going to hatch our turkeys with chicks - hoping to get them to learn to roost in their house at night!

 

[khs2424]

When can you start letting them out? I'm scared to let mine out and free range because I fear they might not come back in the pen. They are 8 weeks old BTW.

 

[blackbelt]

My advice is to get 4 maybe 6 two is not a good idea in my opinion. As far as free-range any breed will do. Mine I just put in the freezer, at the end of Feb beginning of March I'll get more and pen them then let them out as they get feathered and use to their surroundings, if you own dogs or have neighbors that do proceed with caution. I have game cameras around my homestead so every now and again I get a pic of a fox. I do have some info on turkeys at my site if your interested. Also their is a demand for the feathers,feet etc so keep that in mind.

 

[porkchop48]

Quote:
I was thinking of getting 8-10 of them... Enough to share with the family.

I do own a dog but he is around the chickens and ducks daily. I am hopefuly he would get use to the turkeys as well. The one neighbow has a ton of dog but them poor things are tied up 24/7 and the neighbor is about 1/2 a mile down the road.

I think we may be them a large secure run and keep them penned though... Not 100% sure yet.

Off to check out the site.

Thank you all for your suggestions.

 

[Magic Birdie]

I can't see why not

If chickens can, then I guess turkeys can

 

[kfacres]

they can be free ranged, with quite a bit of success... the key is making sure they are not too dumb to come home at night. We had a pair of BBW birds that were free ranged, and got off on a tangent one day, didn't return that night. I searched, never found them, after 3 days, i finally found them lucky to be alive.

I now have added a trio of younger bronze birds into the pen, with hopes that it will increase the average brain power enough to keep them home. We'll see- this weekend will be the first time they get let out since over a month ago.