Keeping Turkeys and Guienas home.

[Jackson5610]

I have 3 Bronze Turkeys and 7 Guienas who are 9 months old. I live on a 21 acre farm where they have tons of room to free range. My next door neighbor, who has lived in this area longer than I, has turkeys and guienas as well. Within the last couple of weeks all my turkeys and guienas have been going next door and staying most of the days and all night. Is there a way to keep them at my house without building a pen? Can their wings be clipped? My guienas follow my turkeys around so I am thinking if I can keep my turkeys home they will stay as well. They have always been free range since leaving the brooder box, when they were little they would go in my chicken coop but once they got older they wouldn't go in. Any advice is greatly appreciated.

 

[R2elk]

I have 3 Bronze Turkeys and 7 Guineas who are 9 months old. I live on a 21 acre farm where they have tons of room to free range. My next door neighbor, who has lived in this area longer than I, has turkeys and guineas as well. Within the last couple of weeks all my turkeys and guineas have been going next door and staying most of the days and all night. Is there a way to keep them at my house without building a pen? Can their wings be clipped? My guineas follow my turkeys around so I am thinking if I can keep my turkeys home they will stay as well. They have always been free range since leaving the brooder box, when they were little they would go in my chicken coop but once they got older they wouldn't go in. Any advice is greatly appreciated.

Do you have a fence between you and the neighbor? If not, the first step is to build a fence that is preferably at least 6' tall without any type of top rail. A top rail serves as a landing spot or perch and increases the odds that the turkeys or guineas will get down on the wrong side of the fence. The fence that I use is made of 2"x4" welded wire. The birds could easily fly over it but don't since there is no top rail to encourage them to get up and sit on it.

You can clip their wings but only clip one wing on each bird. With both wings clipped they can still fly even though it is not as well as if the wings weren't clipped. With turkeys my experience is that by the time the wing feathers grow back, they have forgotten that they can fly.

The second step is to train them to stay home by chasing them home as soon as they go to the neighbors. You cannot allow them to spend any time at the neighbors.

Turkeys and guineas can learn from repeated lessons. You have allowed yours to learn that they think it is nicer at the neighbor's and now you have to teach them new habits. Only let them free range when you can be there to immediately correct them when they go to the neighbors. When you cannot be there to correct them, you cannot allow them to be outside of a pen that can contain them.

Good luck.

 

[Jackson5610]

Do you have a fence between you and the neighbor?  If not, the first step is to build a fence that is preferably at least 6' tall without any type of top rail.  A top rail serves as a landing spot or perch and increases the odds that the turkeys or guineas will get down on the wrong side of the fence.  The fence that I use is made of 2"x4" welded wire.  The birds could easily fly over it but don't since there is no top rail to encourage them to get up and sit on it.

You can clip their wings but only clip one wing on each bird.  With both wings clipped they can still fly even though it is not as well as if the wings weren't clipped.  With turkeys my experience is that by the time the wing feathers grow back, they have forgotten that they can fly.

The second step is to train them to stay home by chasing them home as soon as they go to the neighbors.  You cannot allow them to spend any time at the neighbors. 

Turkeys and guineas can learn from repeated lessons.  You have allowed yours to learn that they think it is nicer at the neighbor's and now you have to teach them new habits.  Only let them free range when you can be there to immediately correct them when they go to the neighbors.  When you cannot be there to correct them, you cannot allow them to be outside of a pen that can contain them.

Good luck.

Thank you very much for your reply. No I don't have a fence up and to do that would be very costly. I will most definitely chase them back home. I planned to build them their own "house" but they roosted on my chicken coop every night til recently. My neighbors didn't mind them since they are much friendlier than theirs but they are eating their food so now I have to work on getting back here and to stay.

 

[R2elk]

Thank you very much for your reply. No I don't have a fence up and to do that would be very costly. I will most definitely chase them back home. I planned to build them their own "house" but they roosted on my chicken coop every night til recently. My neighbors didn't mind them since they are much friendlier than theirs but they are eating their food so now I have to work on getting back here and to stay.

Since there is no fence between the two properties , clipping wings will not help in any way. Just putting up 100 ft. of fence between you and the neighbor can greatly deter the turkeys and guineas from going over there. Their tendency is to just go back and forth along the fence where they used to cross over to the neighbors. They don't normally follow the fence to its end so they can go around it.

Without having a secure place for the turkeys and guineas at night, it is just a matter of time before you start losing them to predators.

I have personally lost more poultry to other people's dogs than to any other predator. With my guineas, I lost my entire first flock to great horned owls before I realized that the owls were what was getting them.

Good luck.