free range turkeys

[bethinoklahoma]

good question Jimmy...
Is this a real cat in question? Im guessing no BUT whats to stop it from bothering
the flock to the point where they no longer lay? My palm turkey hen will hatch lay
well and hatch her own chicks unless something bugs her then its all over....
I have my hands full with training my young lab luke to help gather the chickens
and not chase them to death.... Not sure I cold ever train a cat...

Lancaster was home for many years.... I am heading back that way this summer
for work. Looking forward to it...

 

[OmaBird]

we do have a big tom cat around do you think he would bother full grown chickens an turkeys?

In ten years, I have never had any deaths including poults, from a cat. I have several wild cats and at one time over 18 adult cats of my own. The wild ones live off the land eating rodents, and rabbits and have been here a few years but they don't touch my birds ever. Even after years of being here, I still can't touch them. The cats do not even look intested in them at all.

They do know the difference in wild birds. Quail drive them nuts. They will do anything to get a quail.​

 

[thaiturkey]

Quote:
Our cat, an old, big neutered female runs away when our turkeys spot her and chase over to her. She cannot get to the chicks and their mother is in with them so I don't have worries about them either.

We free range in the sense that the birds can go wherever they want during the day time. At night they are shut away in their coop. If rain comes they shelter either in the coop or under our raised garden gazebo.

I was concerned about birds wandering out or dogs in through parts of the boundary that had only low post and barbed wire. One bird did get out and was mauled by two dogs. I don't want the open land behind the house to look like a prison compound so more wall or chain link was out of the question. We have a lot of branches and trunks cut from some of our rice land and used that to make a rustic stockade in places that weren't already protected by trees and bushes. The turkeys haven't got out and no dogs have got in.

Our turkeys haven't been inclined to fly high or far so our main concern has been dogs and snakes. The latter will get anyway but most are harmless. I heard that geese deal with them so a pair of those might join the flock when we find some.

 

[Kekko]

I guess I have to tell you about our “Barn Kitty”! She showed up wet and miserable sleeping in a chicken nest box two winters ago. She wasn’t even a year old. Found out later from a neighbor that her mother was killed by coyotes and they thought she had been too. We fed her and let her stay in the chicken coop for the winter. She kept the mice down and didn’t bother the chickens and they didn’t bother her. We had her fixed the next spring and give her, her shots each year. She still sleeps in the chicken coop or turkey pens. When I go out in the evening to herd the turkeys to their pens she helps me. She circles and herds them just like a cow dog does cattle. Once in a while one of the Toms will turn on her and chase her a little ways but she gets right back after them until they are in the pen. She did get a couple of day old ducklings last summer that our ducks hatched out but that was my fault for not securing them when they hatched. She catches three to four gophers a week (Big Pocket Gophers). The only down side is she also catches the wild quail that come to eat scratch with the birds. Just can’t convince her that they are off limits. We keep our young birds secured until they are about the size of a bantam hen and the cat won’t bother them “KNOCK ON WOOD”! When we decided to let her stay it was on a trial basis and so far she has a home!

 

[ziggywiggy]

Quote:
I have the same problem but I still free range. As long as everything is put up at night mine are usually OK. I took this picture a few days ago. Not a very good picture but, you can see what I have to contend with. I never shoot anything but ferrel cats because they kill the wild birds. People bring unwanted cats out to the country and turn them loose.I figure it's my job to fence the wildlife out since they were here first.

 

[thaiturkey]

Kekko, lovely cat!

 

[jimmythechicken]

i dont think we have any big kitty's like that here in conn