city turkey?

[TimBaumann]

I live in Swakopmund which is a coastal town in Namibia! A friend of mine has some turkeys on their farm and they are really cool! I read that some people keep them in their backyard in a city but I think most of them live at the edge of the city and have a huge backyard! This is what my backyard looks like!
It's about 149.5 square meters which means 1609.2046 square feet! There are no trees just some small bushes but I want to get some grass!
The fence is about 2.5 - 3m (about 9 feet) tall. The two long sides have walls that are about 6m (about 19 feet) tall. The 8.5m wall where the gate is, is about 2.5 m tall. My rooster flies onto this wall every morning and evening to crow! Would a fully grown BB turkey be able to fly up there? My main concern is if this is enough space for a single tom? He would be kept with my chicken! Do you think this could work? I only want a turkey if this is enough space! I don't want to keep an unhappy turkey!

 

[aoxa]

I'm sure that would be enough space for one turkey.. Just keep a breed of them that doesn't fly well. My wild turkey and my royal palms roost in high trees, so those two breeds would not work well for you.

BBs are heavier, so I think you'd be safe with them. Clip one wing to be safe though.

Also, why don't you get a hen instead of a tom? You don't want your tom to try and mate your chickens... Especially a heavy BB. They could easily break the neck of a hen they were trying to mate.

 

[Chambertin]

Well you're free to look at my posts and coop to prove it but I live happily with two turkeys.
I live on the 18th and 19th floors here in China and we have two turkeys living on our balcony. They share the 8m x 8m just under square area with the chickens, all 23 of them.

They dont like being in the dog crate when its raining, and the chickens really dont know what to think of them half the time, but everyone gets along. The roo used to peck at them a little too much, but thanks to mother nature the turkeys are on the better side of that arrangement now.

When they were young they could leap quite well, but now they seem very disinterested in climbing anything over 1 meter. Then again the look down from here promptly discourages the light hearted birds from random wall jumps.
I read of some turkeys who dont even like to roost once fully grown too, so a 2 meter wall should be more than enough.

I'd say go for it, get a young turkey so the chickens can get used to it as it grows up. A sudden addition of a much larger bird would cause some confusion for sure. My tom is amazingly quiet and only ever talks if there's somethign interesting happening, or they ran out of food sooner than expected.
I really like them, but the rest of the family only wants chickens.

 

[TimBaumann]

I'm sure that would be enough space for one turkey.. Just keep a breed of them that doesn't fly well. My wild turkey and my royal palms roost in high trees, so those two breeds would not work well for you.
BBs are heavier, so I think you'd be safe with them. Clip one wing to be safe though.

Also, why don't you get a hen instead of a tom? You don't want your tom to try and mate your chickens... Especially a heavy BB. They could easily break the neck of a hen they were trying to mate.

I was thinking of getting a BB since those are most common around here. I wanted a tom because I'm fascinated by their gobbling sound and especially their display when they puff up and make those rumbling sounds. will a tom really try mating with a chicken or do only some toms do this?

 

[TimBaumann]

Well you're free to look at my posts and coop to prove it but I live happily with two turkeys.
I live on the 18th and 19th floors here in China and we have two turkeys living on our balcony. They share the 8m x 8m just under square area with the chickens, all 23 of them.
They dont like being in the dog crate when its raining, and the chickens really dont know what to think of them half the time, but everyone gets along. The roo used to peck at them a little too much, but thanks to mother nature the turkeys are on the better side of that arrangement now.
When they were young they could leap quite well, but now they seem very disinterested in climbing anything over 1 meter. Then again the look down from here promptly discourages the light hearted birds from random wall jumps.
I read of some turkeys who dont even like to roost once fully grown too, so a 2 meter wall should be more than enough.
I'd say go for it, get a young turkey so the chickens can get used to it as it grows up. A sudden addition of a much larger bird would cause some confusion for sure. My tom is amazingly quiet and only ever talks if there's somethign interesting happening, or they ran out of food sooner than expected.
I really like them, but the rest of the family only wants chickens.

What?? On a balcony? That's so weird! I never ever heard of any one that does this hahaha! I need to go to china! I'd have all sorts of animals on my balcony!

 

[aoxa]

I'm sure that would be enough space for one turkey.. Just keep a breed of them that doesn't fly well. My wild turkey and my royal palms roost in high trees, so those two breeds would not work well for you. BBs are heavier, so I think you'd be safe with them. Clip one wing to be safe though. Also, why don't you get a hen instead of a tom? You don't want your tom to try and mate your chickens... Especially a heavy BB. They could easily break the neck of a hen they were trying to mate.

I was thinking of getting a BB since those are most common around here. I wanted a tom because I'm fascinated by their gobbling sound and especially their display when they puff up and make those rumbling sounds. will a tom really try mating with a chicken or do only some toms do this?

That's what I was told they would do. I understand your fascination. That is what I wanted at first, and was told that the toms may try mating the chickens. I ended up getting 3 hens and one tom. The reason I worried is because I have seen inter-species mating with ducks and chickens.

My tom is really good around the chickens at this point though. He's so beautiful when he shows off

 

[TimBaumann]

wow your tom looks great! I have never seen (except on pics) a white turkey! I only touched a brown one but I don't know what type! Probably BBB! How hard is it to tell male from female in chicks? I figured I'd just buy one chick and see what it turns into!

 

[aoxa]

wow your tom looks great! I have never seen (except on pics) a white turkey! I only touched a brown one but I don't know what type! Probably BBB! How hard is it to tell male from female in chicks? I figured I'd just buy one chick and see what it turns into! 

They are called Poults, and it's difficult to sex them until they are a bit older. Especially when you only have one.

I started out with two. I was sure they were both toms.. than both hens.. than toms.. They ended up both being hens, but they had be questioning things for a while

There as no doubt when I bought my pair of Royal Palms who was the male and who was the female. The boys usually are bigger than the girls. Not sure which age this would be distinguishable, but my pair were almost 4 months old when I got them.

Guess which one is the tom

But anyway.. all four are the same age, though the two brown ones are Eastern Wild Turkeys.

I just love my turkey hen Betty (one of the wilds). She was/is so attached to me.