I'm a turkey newbie. Since we've had a predator kill one of the turkeys and the chicken that was hatched with them, they are happy to go in the barn at sunset. If I don't open the people door they fly over the fence and come up to the house to get me to open the barn door. One of my turkeys can't fly very well so she roosts low in the barn while the others roost high. Here's my question, when I'm going to be gone in the afternoon/evenings should I put them in the barn early or leave the barn door open? I fear the predator might get in the barn if the door is left open. Guess I don't know how they will respond to being the barn for several hours before dark. There are sky lights in the barn. The chickens have a pop door that opens and closes with the sun and they go to roost on their own so the chickens are no trouble if we are not home. I wish the turkeys would use the electric pop door but they won't.
I am for sure a turkey newbie too. I've only had mine a couple of months and have just the two heritage RP's. It has been a slow process fully integrating them, and last night was the first time they went through the auto door to roost so....
I started with a 10x6x6' high chain link dog run that is within the chicken yard fence and sight distance from the main coop. The turkeys spent about 4 weeks in that full time to acclimate them to this being their new home.
One day when I was sitting down there, the turkeys were pacing the front of the run, looking desperate to get out. I had fears they would just fly away but decided to take the chance and let them out, hoping I could stay close enough to them to keep them close. My fears were groundless. They WERE thrilled to get out but stayed very close to the pen, and after about an hour, went back in voluntarily. From that day on, I let them out for longer and longer and as they showed no inclination to fly off, I even let them out and then left to go back up to the house and when I went back they were still there, just milling around with the chickens. Eventually we reached the point that I opened the door of the pen first thing in the morning, and they were out all day long. Still, they had never gone into the main coop.
One day I left the people door open and Madge wandered in to check it out. She got up on the roosts and walked around calling in excitement to Ned, who was pretty sure the coop was a trap, but eventually she got him to try it out too. That night he headed back to the turkey pen to roost, while Madge decided to sleep in the coop. She eventually talked him into trying the roosts and they both slept in the coop that night. Since then (maybe 2 weeks ago), they've slept in the coop each night but would only enter through the people door (even though they exited through the chicken door in the morning - I also have the auto door that opens and closes according to light).
I usually pull the feeder outside during the day, so with access to food to eat all day, they had no motivation to go back into the coop during the day. But when we had the rainy days last week, I left the feeder inside and that is when I observed them going into the coop through the chicken door, so I knew they could do it. Still, when night came, they "forgot" how to get into the coop if I wasn't there to open the people door, so roosted outside until I carried them in.
Last night was the first night they went in by themselves. I left the feeder in yesterday due to the high winds so I'm guessing they went in to get a bedtime snack and decided while they were there they might as well just jump up on the roosts. So I think for the time being I'm going to leave the feeder in the coop and hope to make last night a regular thing instead of an anomaly.
I don't know if that helps? I wouldn't have the option of locking them in early if I was leaving, because I have too many birds to entice in all at the same time. The turkeys are friendly and curious about me but don't like to be handled so I wouldn't be able to pick them up. So for me, that isn't an option and I just have to take my chances that on the nights I am not here, I can get home and put them up (if needed) before predators find them. Last night, knowing I was going to be gone, I did put the month-old chicks up early so they weren't outside when the sun went down and it got cooler. But the rest of the flock were on their own, so to speak.