My tramatised turkey

[Fancypantsluvr]

we have a young red bourbon turkey we bought this year and we also believe he is a male. He no longer goes in our chicken coop at night....instead he flies up into the tree and I worry a large owl may kill him. So me and my uncle caught him and put him in a large dog kennel and will leave him in there fo a few days to see if he will go in there at night instead of the chicken coop. My uncle thinks the turkey hit his head and now he is tramatised or something. Has this ever happened to anyone else,and do you think the dog kennel idea will work?

 

[howfunkyisurchicken]

None of my turks sleep in a coop. They prefer to roost in the trees. I tried, in vain, to train them to coop up and they refuse so I just let them sleep where they want.....we have all sorts of night time predators here, including some type of owl I hear hooting from my neighbors yard every night. My turks have been roosting outside for over a year and nothings bothered them *touch wood* Good luck!!!!

 

[emce]

Every night we have the turkey rodeo, trying to get our 4 wild eastern/bronze turkeys into their house. As entertaining as this can be, is this really necessary. We live in a wooded area with racoons around and such but the birds are getting a little big ( born in June, this is mid August). Is this really necessary or just futile on our part? They fly in and out of the run at will and have taught the chickens to do it too! Any advice?

 

[Debbi]

Cover the run??

 

[emce]

Love too but it's totally not practical. They, and the chickens, enjoy a great big run with live trees as fence posts. This property used to be a Christmas tree farm so there's lots of trees around and the flock enjoy the shade.

 

[Kev]

either don't feed at all until evening or give just enough feed in the morning that they will be hungry again in the evening. put feed ONLY inside the coop. all will go in to eat then shut door.

heritage turkeys like high roosts, if the roosts in coop are 2-4 feet off the floor they will get major itch to roost higher. If it is possible to build a night time set up with roosts 6 feet or higher, it can convince the turkeys to continue roosting inside. But, the lure of trees will always be tempting, especially to really light turkeys or domesticated wilds.

as to necessity- some have the luxury of their own area being relatively safe.. it is not possible for others without losses.

 

[Fancypantsluvr]

You could clip one of the wings of every bird but not both wings.

 

[emce]

I will try that! Thanks very much!