My turkeys are begging for an early Thanksgiving

[snewman]

They wander out to the wrong side of the barn, roost on top of my husband's vehicles, pooping everywhere and scratching the paint. They have come up on the porch, sat on the railings, etc. Yesterday they found their way into the barn where we have all sorts of things stored and pooped all over a bunch of freshly painted plywood panels. It makes me so mad. They have four acres to wander on the other side of the barn, with all sorts of things to investigate. They won't last much longer. I have to rush home from work to beat my husband home in case the turkeys are out sitting on one of his cars, so I can chase them off before he sees. Way too stressful!

 

[Hillsvale]

turkeys are nosy.... they like to be where you are/go... best keep up the mad dash home!

 

[Steve_of_sandspoultry]

Turkeys can get into everything given a chance, they are way to curious for their own good sometimes.


Steve

 

[mamawolf544]

I'm sorry.

My DH just bought me a new truck and my 25 or so Turkeys and about 30 of the guineas think it's the neatest thing since sliced bread,

He gets so mad, I tell him you know my birds free range what did you think they were going to do? I love it in the mornings when I hear 100 guineas and the turkey's stampeding across my roof. Makes me smile every morning.

 

[CDennis]

My young turkeys also enjoy my husbands clean truck, and yesterday he found them roosting in the rafters of his new garage (thank goodness I was not the one that left the garage door open!) They also enjoy the BBQ grill, so much that two of them figured out how to drop the lid down upon themselves and get locked inside. Imagine my surprise when I saw tail feathers out the side of the BBQ grill! I think they were asking to be grilled for thanksgiving!

 

[Olive Hill]

two of them figured out how to drop the lid down upon themselves and get locked inside. Imagine my surprise when I saw tail feathers out the side of the BBQ grill! I think they were asking to be grilled for thanksgiving!

 

[snewman]

The thing is, I really LIKE the turkeys. I like them better than the chickens, ducks and geese combined. I like having them free-range, and if they just would stay on the right side of the fence I would consider keeping some breeding birds year-round. Until I do something different with fencing, however, I fear that they will only be seasonal. It takes them most of the summer to figure out how to come around through the horse pasture and out by the cars, so it's a few weeks in the fall that get nerve-wracking for me.

I have a going-away party for a co-worker today after work, and I'm torn between just crossing my fingers that today is not a day the turkeys will be sitting on the cars for my husband to see (he will get home first today) and making an extra trip home before the party (30 min drive each way) to feed everyone and make sure they're where they're supposed to be. Once they have supper they don't come back out. I do hate to make the drive twice in one day, but it might be worth it to avoid my husband's wrath...

 

[CDennis]

I am not sure what kind of fence would keep them in, at least while they are young. I have two older Toms (2 and 3) and they stay inside the pasture fence, so I assume if you had enough patience eventually they may stay confined. I am still trying to figure out how many I am going to keep. I was lucky I have 6 hens out of 7 I raised but after the shop incident my husband wants every last one of them gone. Also does anyone else have a problem w/ random roosters being dropped off in their pasture? It wouldn't be so bad if they were full size but they are always banty and I am not sure there is any meat on a banty rooster. But that's another topic all together.

 

[LivinNewDreamInND]

My hen likes to roost on the top rafter of the barn and my poult and tom are jealous so they roost on top our skid steer to be as close to her as possible. I hope they wise up pretty soon though it was 17 degrees last night and roosting on a metal roof doesn't seem like the best choice.

 

[CDennis]

My Tom roosted on the metal roof of the chicken coop all last winter so don't hold your breath for them to wise up. For about the first month every night I would climb up there almost killing myself, get him down and put him on his nice protected perch, after a month, I was done. I feel bad when its snowing on him, but he doesn't seem to mind, although I imagine he has fallen off a few times because rainy metal roofing is slick.