How long to acclimate a new jake

[LeadHead]

I just brought home a year-old Royal Palm jake tonight. He's a pretty mellow guy and I have him penned up but plan to let him range later on. My question is how long to I need to keep him confined until he knows that this is his new territory and won't want to wander off? I sure don't want to lose him but also want him to have all the room he desires.

 

[Jmiller429]

i go a week in confinement. then wean him off it with short blocks of time roaming free, then herding him back to the pen. i do this another 2 weeks, and on the third week allow them to free range.

 

[LeadHead]

Thank you!

 

[AH64Coyote]

I keep them confined for a month and then let them out with the others. I do this for all my free ranging birds (chickens, turkeys and ducks) Haven't lost one yet.

 

[Shad]

My introduction experience extends to bourbon reds, all of my introductions, male or female, have been caged under one day

The Absolute ideal is:

• Introduce him by the roost when the others are just flying up to roost there will be disagreements but they have priorities
• PLENTY of FEED before during and after accepted
• Have at least a few turkeys, but not too many
• Have only one Tom, they seem to need (sometimes violently) each other.

One time I introduced a Tom, as the third, he immediately got attacked by both toms, he immediately started to leave straight for home - 30 miles away, he made it about 125 feet and realized it was quite a ways, turned around and decided he would assimilate into the flock, since I had too many turkeys at the time, he immediately paired up with all of the rejects, formed his own "clan" and would incite wars with the other clan, about a week later I had to move two of my hens to another facility for breeding, I took a third hen that I thought was antagonizing the Tom. the clan immediately dissolved into the original flock especially because of the numbers drop. when I introduced these three hens at the other facility, they were intentionally placed on the roost (in a lit barn) between some of the known docile hens. the dominate hens hated it and wanted to get a piece of the new hens but would not lose their roost position to do so, the next day there were some quick (and brutal) fights to find the pecking order and things have been fine since. The three toms had an understanding until I removed one of my original toms (dominate) for staged breeding - then the second tom became dominate and accepted the third tom as his pier.

 

[LeadHead]

This is actually my first turkey and he's staying with our chickens at this time. The roo and the hens were a bit vocal in their disapproval, but they'll get over it. I am supposed to pick up a few poults on Friday which are about 6 weeks old, so we'll see how things go from there. Unless you guys recommend otherwise, I'll put them in a large cage in the chicken coop so they can associate with the others yet not be attacked by them. See any problems so far with my plan?

 

[Steve_of_sandspoultry]

deleted

 

[ColbyNTX]

Quote:
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Also, I don't know where you live but with only 1 Tom and no hens, if you have wilds near you he will go looking for that hen yelping in the woods this time of year.

 

[Shad]

When ever we bring a new bird into our flocks we quarantine them for a month. Even though they look perfectly healthy you have no way of knowing if they are carriers or have been exposed to something your flock hasn't.

Steve

Absolutely!

- I know where all of my stuff comes from - these are the things that I figure out BEFORE I bring it to my property. I have a quarantine site about 10 miles from my location - not a wild turkey to be seen, too many bears mountain lions wolves and coyotes... I tried to quarantine a sheep there once, free range,... that is a different story...

-Shad​