Heritage Turkey

[Marlinchaser]

Quote:
I had a guinea taken from a branch probably 30 feet up, it was full grown, not as big as a turkey, but I would think a preditor could take down a full sized turkey if it was sleeping, and at night if it decided to fly off would probably end up on the ground, which would put it at more risk. I hadnt intended to let this one stay out, but as I tried to convince him to come in he just keep flying higher in the tree, when the others were set loose in the AM and thier buddy wasnt outside waiting for them they took the hint, and havent attempted to stay out since.

 

[deerman]

For one a Great Horn Owl will pick them off. Even the wild turkey

 

[smoothmule]

can I jump in with a question?
I have 3 young Spanish Blacks. The Tom is 5 months old and he's a big pet (still likes to be carried around and prefers handfeeding, will lay down on command - yea I know that's weird) September 28th, we bought 2 young hens for him, a month or so younger than he is. They seem to have bonded pretty well but the hens still stay together more than they do with him. He's been here since he was a couple day old and is free range in the day, coop at night.

Now the question. I am still turning him out in the day (only when I'm home), when will it be safe to let the hens out? They aren't real friendly with me yet and I worry they will take off. I will be keeping them up during the breeding season but I'd like them to have advantage of free range while they are growing, I think it's more healthy. I do worry they will fly off or simply not come back in, even with the Tom in the coop.

 

[chickenannie]

Typically, I always pen up birds for 3 weeks to re-home them, before I ever let them out to free-range.

It also depends on how much land you have, how much they like it there (does it provide their needs for food, water, and shelter, nesting areas in season, etc.) But the fact is, that heritage turkeys DO wander fairly far.

The tom will not "keep" them around. The turkeys must stay because they want to (you must keep food and water available to them at your place). My tom basically followed my hens around, not the other way. The hens decided where to forage each day and the tom just tried to keep up. The tom seemed more interested in "staying at home" actually, unless he was chasing the shiny hubcaps on my neighbor's blue pickup down the lane at full speed!

My hens would gradually, over a period of months, explore further and further afield. During nesting time (most of the summer) they didn't wander far because they wanted to be close to their eggs and nests and then their little babies.

One trick I used is to keep a couple of birds penned up, and I found that the free-ranging ones don't really want to go too far away from the penned up birds. It helps if they're in the same family unit and grew up together though. For example, I would free-range half the family one day, then the other half the next day. That kept them from going too far.

Oh, and once I had more than 10 turkeys, I started clipping their wings and put them out in a fenced pasture. It was fine for 3 months, until a fox started coming around and killing them each night (they had 4 foot roosts because they couldn't fly high). So that created a whole new problem and now I have to pen up my pastured, clipped wing turkeys each and every night at sundown.

Good luck!