Question about free range turkeys

[Superman1360]

Hi Everyone,

We have our turkeys in a pen in our barn right now until I finish building them a more permanet home. They are only about 6 weeks old. I was wondering if I let the turkeys out during the day, will they come in at night like my chickens do? This is my first time with turkeys and we only have 5, so I don't want to lose any, but I also feel bad that they get only a half a day of sunshine since they are in the barn. Also, we kept them separate from the chickens as I was told the chickens can make the turkeys sick, so do they need to be separated out in our field?


Thanks!

Mike

 

[chseeads]

Turkeys will come back to the coop to roost too. Sometimes they may attempt to stay out....you might have to run them back in if they try roosting in trees so they don't get in a habit of it, but mine in the past generally did pretty good about coming back in.

I kept mine with my chickens before and never had any problems.

 

[Harp Turkey Ranch]

Quote:
They are still a bit young to go out. I would leave them in the barn for atleast2-4 more weeks. Young turks can get wet and chilled and die very easy at that age, plus they are very vulnerable to disease and predator at that young age.

They will come back but you might have to make them go back in the stall at night. The best way is to feed them only when you want them to come back and put the feed in the stall when you are ready and make sure they see you and the feed and they all should come a running and when all are in then just shut the door and you are done. If it was always that easy !!

 

[boxermom]

I let my poults run with the chickens when they were about 6 weeks old. I know they were a little young, but the poult that had been seperated w/ 2 chicks was doing great and the other poults had outgrown their brooder. They have done very well. They roam, but come running when I go outside. (There's a bell on the door for the dogs) They wander and eat and always come back to the barn at dusk. In fact, they are probably the first ones in. We are very careful not to let them out when we think its is going to rain. They "helped" me however w/ the sprinkler the other day. They got pretty wet, but it was 80 and sunny. They didn't get chilled, but they sure had fun.

Nobody likes having to go in before evening, but oh well.... My poults are now 11 wks old. Also, they have never tried to roost in the trees.

 

[chickenannie]

My turkeys never go back in the pen -- they prefer roosting outside.

One thing you might try is putting them in a small yard pen for a few hours each day to get sunshine. Only problem is, it's not that easy to transfer them back and forth from pen to pen. I did this for several weeks and it never got any easier.

Can you move their indoor pen to where they can get more light and air?