Newbie turkey questions

[NHchickenflock]

We just recently picked up 3 bourbon reds, all 8 weeks old.
We have a few questions:
What's the best feed for them?
We were told wild game feed.
Can they free range and if so is there anything we need to do?
Anything other other advice you all could share to help out new turkey owners would be great!!!!
Thanks!

 

[NHchickenflock]

Any advice??
Please!

 

[red horse ranch]

I am no expert on turkeys since I just got my first ones this summer. Around 10 to 12 weeks is when I first started letting mine free range. They don't go far. I have a tom that is 5 months old and a female 3 months old. They haven't gone more than a hundred feet from the henhouse so far.
My turkeys were started with game bird feed but around 6 weeks they were put on Grower or Poultry Developer since they were with my young chickens. They are both now eating the chicken's layer mix since they have joined the rest of my chickens and guineas.

 

[NHchickenflock]

Thanks!
Do you have any kind of fence around them when you let them out?

 

[red horse ranch]

No. I live in the country where my nearest neighbor is 1/4 mile away. Our house sets more than 600 feet from a gravel road. So I don't worry about them free ranging. If you are in a neighborhood with a lot of dogs or are close to a road then you may want a fence to help protect them. Turkeys can fly pretty well tho so a fence could do more harm than good if they get on the wrong side of it. My turkeys haven't gone too far this year but they will probably go farther next summer when they are mature.
You probably have a lot of trees where you live and getting them to come in at night instead of sleeping in trees may be a problem at first. Mine always go back to the henhouse long before dark because that is where they have been trained to sleep. Yours should want to go back to where they have always lived. They may not even want to leave it at first. It's a big scary world out there to them.