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[crealbilly]

I have 5 two week old burbon red poults brooding. Im needing some advise on what I should do as far as keeping them about the house. I have my chickens in a large fenced in yard with with their own coop. I also have electric fence run around the chicken yard. I lost count how many preditors (fox, racoons, coyotes, posumn, bobcats) etc... That have learned about electricity by trying to get after my chickens.

I'm on approx 20 acres and I mow about 3 acres, the rest is wooded and parie grass. My property backs up to the Shawnee national forest in southern IL and I have no control other than a shot gun as to what animals wonder out of the forest onto my property.

I really want for my burbon Reds to have free range of the property without becoming a meal for a preditor. From what I've been reading they need a familiar "safe" place with food and water and roost for the night. If I don't build them something I'm sure they will find a tree to roost in at night as I've seen many wild turkey roost in my trees.

What would you build for these burbon Reds for a "safe place" to escape - with food and water and to roost at night? Would it best to close them up for the night?

 

[LRH97]

Nice to see someone else from good ole' So. IL! I always kept mine penned, they didn't get free ranged. However they did have a nice big open pen to run in. I used five foot fences, and they didn't ever try to hop them, even though I know they were more than capable of it. They slept, laid, and ate in a a building about the size of a medium garden shed (can't remember the exact dimensions) and that was plenty of room for four turks. If you want to free range, I'd keep them locked up for a week or two to associate your coop as "home" and then monitor them closely while they range. With you living close to the Shawnee, you'll have a whole host of critters lurking I'm sure. You'll want to make sure the turkeys don't wander too far as well. As far as the coops go, set it up much like a chicken coop, except with nesting boxes that are slightly bigger. I usually make mine about 18"x18". Best of luck!

 

[crealbilly]

Thanks LRH97 - I forgot to say I also have a very good watch dog (german shepard mix) loose at all times. He is great at keeping a lot of critters out of the mowed yard. I'm kind of depending on him to help keep the turkeys safe too. What I'm most concerned about is the burbon Reds wondering across the creek into the overcut. Do you have any issues with your turkeys taking up with wild turkeys? Wild turkeys are plentiful around here even though i have an electic fence around my garden - I've had flocks of wild turkeys in my garden and roosting in my pine trees at night.

Last year I raised two BBB with my chickens I had a wild turkey Tom fly into the chicken yard. All I can say is that Tom was delicious.

 

[LRH97]

Thanks LRH97 - I forgot to say I also have a very good watch dog (german shepard mix) loose at all times. He is great at keeping a lot of critters out of the mowed yard. I'm kind of depending on him to help keep the turkeys safe too. What I'm most concerned about is the burbon Reds wondering across the creek into the overcut. Do you have any issues with your turkeys taking up with wild turkeys? Wild turkeys are plentiful around here even though i have an electic fence around my garden - I've had flocks of wild turkeys in my garden and roosting in my pine trees at night.

Last year I raised two BBB with my chickens I had a wild turkey Tom fly into the chicken yard. All I can say is that Tom was delicious.

Nope. Haven't had that problem. I've also only seen a wild hen once before in our yard in the 18 years I've been on this property. I have heard plenty of stories of friends that have had only female domestic turkeys that have gone missing for weeks and come back with strings of babies following them. So it's definitely not unheard of for domestics to interbreed with wilds. Having an "alarm/security system" (your dog) around definitely works too. I can also attest that fox attacks have dropped here significantly since we added our geese to our flocks. They make great sentries as well.