Predators?

[Cheeky Chick]

I've been keeping chickens for several years, and in my experience, raccoons are the scourge of the earth when it comes to chickens.

My question, do you have the same issue with Turkeys? I have a few poults and will be getting some eggs very soon, and I'm wondering how everyone deals with these large birds, who can fly, that weigh 3x what a large chicken weighs, as far as keeping them safe from predators. Do I have to keep them shut in, since my chickens all march into their coop at night to be locked up safely until morning, or can I let them roam a bit and expect they'll do the same thing or be able to keep away from/defend themselves from the raccoons?

I lost two half grown poults to raccoons last year, they didn't sleep in their house, and slept against the fence where the raccoons pulled them (I can't imagine the horror and agony of these pampered pets) through and killed them. I was heartbroken, but I am prepared to keep them safely locked in their house if that's what I need to do. (It's more of a large shed...lol)

 

[cackleberrycam]

This may help you: http://www.solarniteeyes.com/

 

[SIMZ]

Any other input on this? My BB turkeys are starting to protest at going in their coop at night. I see that they've now busted through their fence and are lounging in our enclosed chicken run. I think it would be so much easier to let them roost in there at night, but not sure if predator's would be a problem.

It is totally enclosed in poultry wire and the top is covered over with field fence. Therefore a racoon could rip through and get them. A weasel could certainly get in. Are those as much of a problem to turkeys as they are with chickens?

 

[ivan3]

Any other input on this? My BB turkeys are starting to protest at going in their coop at night. I see that they've now busted through their fence and are lounging in our enclosed chicken run. I think it would be so much easier to let them roost in there at night, but not sure if predator's would be a problem. It is totally enclosed in poultry wire and the top is covered over with field fence. Therefore a racoon could rip through and get them. A weasel could certainly get in. Are those as much of a problem to turkeys as they are with chickens?

Get two long sticks (bamboo garden stakes are light wt., for instance), at sundown slowly herd those two with sticks in your hands, arms outstretched - basically, `funneling' the turks into their coop. That should cut down on the labor. Our neighbor has a huge Osage Orange tree in their chicken/turkey run. Their Bourbons & Slates roost in it. One coon went up the tree and forced a Bourbon hen off her roost in the upper branches. The other coon was on the ground in the dark. They called me up the following day to borrow one of our traps; poor Bourbon hen in the snow stretched out, dead, all the feathers and meat torn from the length of her neck). Now they keep traps set; tried to warn them over several years - they'd already had a BBB hen ripped to shreds, by a raccoon, while on her nest, no more than thirty feet from their front door, back in `05. BB's need a very well ventilated coop. I'm assuming you have heritage turks `on the way'. They can be trained to return to run and shed at night, if one is consistent about `funneling' them home when they start eyeballing the roof/trees at sundown. Took about a month to train our first Slates/Royals. The first generation `trained' the second and then the third (see below).

 

[SIMZ]

Get two long sticks (bamboo garden stakes are light wt., for instance), at sundown slowly herd those two with sticks in your hands, arms outstretched - basically, `funneling' the turks into their coop. That should cut down on the labor.

Our neighbor has a huge Osage Orange tree in their chicken/turkey run. Their Bourbons & Slates roost in it. One coon went up the tree and forced a Bourbon hen off her roost in the upper branches. The other coon was on the ground in the dark. They called me up the following day to borrow one of our traps; poor Bourbon hen in the snow stretched out, dead, all the feathers and meat torn from the length of her neck). Now they keep traps set; tried to warn them over several years - they'd already had a BBB hen ripped to shreds, by a raccoon, while on her nest, no more than thirty feet from their front door, back in `05.

BB's need a very well ventilated coop.

I'm assuming you have heritage turks `on the way'. They can be trained to return to run and shed at night, if one is consistent about `funneling' them home when they start eyeballing the roof/trees at sundown.

Took about a month to train our first Slates/Royals. The first generation `trained' the second and then the third (see below).

Thank you! That settles that then.....in they go every night. I knew I would never consider letting the chickens out at night, even with that same enclosed run. I just wondered if turkeys were too big to be messed with. I wish we had known that they can be trained like chickens to roost. Last year we tried Midget Whites and my husband had to wrangle them off the top of the coop and run EVERY night. It was part of why we decided to sell them. Thanks again!

 

[mrclif]

Trap the coons and everybody will be happier, took me 4-6 weeks to cure my probelm with coons. Only lost one poult this year and it was to a 6' chicken snake that no longer lives there either.