need pics of turkey roosting poles

[Sandrachx]

we have our turkeys (6) in a pasture with our sheep. at night we herd them into their coop area, which is 6x6 wide and 8ft tall with fencing all around. during the day, they roam the pasture with the sheep. our delimna is that we think we need some kind of roosting area for their day-time naps, etc. recently, we've seen them up on the fence posts, up on the header to the gate (12 feet up), trying to roost on the back of one of the sheep, etc. so, if we put something in the middle of the pasture area - away from the poles to prevent them from "escaping" - what ideas do you have to offer? i was thinking of a tiered pole system, so they could go from height to height - maybe 4' and 8'? pics would be most helpful!

 

[Sandrachx]

Please! surely someone has pics of roosts for turkeys!!!!

 

[Sandrachx]

sometimes this site is frustrating! you can find questions on motorhomes, knitting, vacations, basket weaving - but try getting an answer to a poultry question - ahhh!

 

[()relics]

a turkey is going to roost where it wants to roost...it will find someplace near where it was grazing and within sight/sound of the rest of the flock that may still be on the ground....That said....I WOULD NEVER BUILD A ROOST IN MY PASTURE....Why? Because every hawk,owl,kestrel, whatever predatory bird you might have in your area; will use it to keep its eye on your turkeys...no sense in giving them the extra advantage of being able to roost/rest among your birds...JMO

 

[10ducks]

I was hoping you'd get more replies; I'm looking at building roosts soon too. As you can see my 7-week old poults are quickly outgrowing their 2x2 roosts.

Next week they will move outside to a bigger pen, and I'm still deciding on the roost design. I heard that if you put several roosts at different heights, they will fight over who gets the highest ones. I've read that they should be 2X6 stock with the wide side up. Also saw a suggestion to use rough timber 4 to 6 inches in diameter. I found a few pictures on the net, too (I don't remember where I found them, unfortunately). My plan is to put roosts in their night pen to entice them to sleep where they will be protected from predators, and to put a day roost near our deck, in the hopes that they will use that rather then the deck itself when they are out free-ranging. I'll have to let you know how it goes!

 

[Eggs4Sale]

I have two turkeys free-ranging. I haven't built any roosts for them. If I did, they likely wouldn't roost there. They change locations, but have two favorites: the trampoline (the metal circle that runs around the perimeter) and the chicken tractor built out of PVC pipe.

Too be honest, I never built a coop for them, much less a roost! They seem so happy as they are.

 

[10ducks]

I'm going to let mine free-range during the day, but will herd them into a night pen. We have lots of predators around here. Just lost another duck yesterday, and I'm sure if I didn't coop them at night, I'd have lost many more. Putting roosts in their night pen just makes sense to me: they way prefer roosting up high to roosting on the ground, and it's easier to keep them clean that way.

I'm going to build a couple of strategically-placed day roosts because there are so many places I don't want them to roost, and this gives me a fighting chance of keeping them off the tractor, the play house, the deck, etc. I looked around outside to see if there were good natural roosting places, and there were surprisingly few. We have a ton of trees, but few of them have horizontal branches.

 

[Sandrachx]

we currently do free range them during the day in a small pasture (that we can see from our deck, so they are always in sight. they share the small pasture (75'x120') with our 6 sheep (red house) and are in their fenced/protected coop area every night (fenced area). we have put saw horses up with a ladder across them, but the sheep keep rubbing on it and moving it, so the turkeys aren't able to use it as a roost area. we were hoping to put something shorter than a tree up in the middle of the small pasture area. our turkeys are now 5 months old and weigh about 22# each, so i don't really see the small hawks in our area being a threat, and the perimeter fencing has kept out racoons and fox. we are now thinking of using some small trees from the property to make a "swing set" style roost about 5' tall.

 

[Poupoulles]

Well the roosts I put inside my turkey tractor were just young poplars I cut down and screwed/ziptied into a ladder shape. You want something as thick as a two by four flat side up. I left the bark on and all. its the same in my hen house. Its just young trees. They taper and so the little ones get the skinnier end and the big 'uns get the thicker end.

 

[chickenannie]

I've seen turkey roosts that were a type of A-frame (kind of like a very large saw-horse with added cross bars halfway down.

My dad and I built a roost in the pasture out of a pole/log (5 inches diameter) on 2 bolted crossposts.

However, they still liked to roost on the fence. Then, I started having a fox problem (foxes were jumping the 4.5- foot fence and picking off my turkeys one by one. Just a word of warning -- if you miss one turkey overnight, consider it a fox (that will return). This fox managed to pull them off very high roosts, and also it attacked 4 full-grown turkeys in one night. I wouldnot have believed it if I hadn't seen it. My theory is that the foxes become more aggressive in fall because their other food sources are lessening.

Best of luck.