Cutting a Turkey's Wing

[FarmersHatchery]

I am wanting to stop my turkey's from jumping on the roof of my buildings and on my cars. They are free range Royal Palms. I've heard about clipping their wings to prevent them from flying, but should I cut both or just one of the wings? I am afraid that if I just do one wing they will still get on the cars. They aren't in a pen, so climbing up a fence in not an issue.

Also, how often do I need to trim the wings? Should I not do it on certain age birds, like a two week old turkeys?

Thanks!

 

[Kevin565]

I would not clip a two week old birds wings. You are only suppose to clip one wing because if you clip both they can figure out how to get enough wind other them to still fly. However, Turkeys can still jump fairly high and many easily land on your cars still.

 

[FarmersHatchery]

Oh, sorry meant to put two month old turkey, lol.

And thanks. I think I'm just going to have to build a pen for them then just clip one wing so they can't get out. Thanks!

 

[Oregon Blues]

You clip one wing, so they are out of balance and can only go in circles if they manage to get off the ground. They can still hop and flutter, but they won't get far and won't get very far off the ground.

I've not seen the turkeys do it, but my too-heavy-to-fly geese will flap their wings to assist with climbing fences.

 

[erinszoo]

We clipped one wing on some of ours that were flying, however, it didn't help. They still can fly over the fence and up in the trees. We finally had to cover their pen ... we live in a neighborhood though and had to worry about them getting out. Not sure how to keep them off of cars.

 

[SuzanneW]

Hi, I see that your question has been wonderfully answered but just thought I would add that we had to clip our turkeys. It was quite funny really as I am looking out of the window, I saw the occasional head bobbing past lol. Trouble was, in the good weather, I would leave our back door open, where their food is stored and would often find one of our turkey's head stuck in there munching away

My husband said to wait until they were too big then they won't fly over, but even he saw the futility of that one lol - too much money being spent on food!!

So we clipped just one side and at an angle. Sadly though, we cut through too much and caused bleeding. But thankfully, we have some great stuff that you spray on and it turns gold and this acts as a healing agent and stops others from attacking and it has obviously worked and not only that, but despite them being very hungry still, they are not able to fly over. Unlike chickens where you have to keep up the cutting - domestic turkeys get so big and heavy that that alone will stop them.

All the best

Suzanne

 

[frank53061]

You Took the words right out of my mouth LOL good advice.

 

[cecosugi]

I just wanted to share my experience, because this particular thread gave me the answer I was looking for.

A little while ago, I wrote to a fellow BYC about my turkey, Ting, jumping my fence. Here is my email to her:


"Our fabulous little girl turkey is now a big girl, and we can't get her to stay in the pen. It's a 6 foot fence, and she hops over it with no problems. I wouldn't care that she jumps the fence and follows me back to the house every morning, but she has decided that cars and trucks are also a fine place to perch. So she jumps on our cars (and our guests cars), poops profusely, then SCRATCHES at the tops of them. OMG, that's not going to work.

I thought about putting a hot wire at the top of the fence, but she doesn't always land on the top of the fence. Sometimes she just bounds over it, like Superwoman Turkey.

I love this turkey dearly, but I can't have her scratching the paint on my friends and family's cars. So I think the only solution is to find a PET home for her. I'm just not sure how to do that. How do I know that someone won't eat her? I wondered if the people that you sold your extra to would like another. As I recall, they were PET people, not DINNER people. I'd give her to someone, if I knew they wouldn't eat her. She's WAY too friendly and social to be dinner. One of ours kids runs our driveway every evening (for exercise). That silly turkey will run with him, and bobs up and down, does this crazy dance, when he stops to jump rope. She's just precious.

None of my other feathered friends can get high enough off the ground to even come close to clearing our 6' fence, much less a regular sized fence. But Ting can (and does) jump to the roof of the barn. She likes to perch up there, like a buzzard. "

After I wrote that, I found this thread, and immediately decided that was my answer. So I clipped one of Ting's wings, and hoped that it was going to work.

I am happy to say that it worked!!! It's been several weeks, and she's doing great, INSIDE her pen. So now Ting can live happily ever after.