some intermediate questions

[Poupoulles]

My 18 survivors have reached 8 weeks and are in a tractor outdoors. I will be letting them into a pasture here soon that I will be fencing with electric poultry netting. Chickens are easy to train to this netting because they dont fly so much. But the turkeys can fly like crazy. My proposed solution is to trim wing feathers on one side of each bird until they learn to respect the fence/are too big to fly. Is this a good idea?
Any other suggestions for turkey herding would be appreciated as well.

Food: THey are still on the 28% starter, but I have started cutting it with 20% chick mix. I couldnt seem to get them to eat pellets, just mash. Should I persist and see if I can switch them to pellets? It is so much less messy and wasateful it seems to me...
Any food advice would be appreciated.

Finally: can someone repost the link to a breed website with the pictures? I have some BB Bronze that are lighter than the others, but I dont think they are Nari's since its still brown, just light brown. Any thoughts?

 

[Harp Turkey Ranch]

Chickens are easy to train to this netting because they dont fly so much. But the turkeys can fly like crazy. My proposed solution is to trim wing feathers on one side of each bird until they learn to respect the fence/are too big to fly. Is this a good idea?

You are right chickens are easier to train to the netting. The turkeys will not try and fly over they will go through the holes is what they will do. They will shock them selves at least 15-20 times a day for a week or so and once they figure it out that they can go through the netting they will stop at nothing to push through, but they finally do give up. The best thing i have found is to put the food and water in the middle away from the fence and their house too so they get use to staying away from it and as long as they have plenty of food and water they should do fairly good, but not like a chicken. You just keep putting them back in every time they get out, its a pain but after they are use to it it is golden.

Any other suggestions for turkey herding would be appreciated as well.

It takes one of them to start and then the rest will start to follow. It takes the new guys with out an older one their to show them about a week of everyday herding them into their house at night and then they figure out what you want them to do, it just takes time to get them use to what you want them to do. After 2 weeks all ours go in to their house by them selves at night and are roosted up when i get there and just shut the door and turn the fence back on. Makes it real nice after you get them trained. Then when they get older if you have the house their they will go in at night, but you don't do it for about 2 nights and then you must start all over again. Turkeys like to roost in the same spot every time if they can. So train them young and you will have a lot easier time when they are older. I herd mine about 2-3 times a day so they all know what to do when they see the turkey stick come out. LOL

Food: They are still on the 28% starter, but I have started cutting it with 20% chick mix. I couldn't seem to get them to eat pellets, just mash. Should I persist and see if I can switch them to pellets? It is so much less messy and wasteful it seems to me...
Any food advice would be appreciated.

We switch ours to pellets when they are 3 months or so. At first they will not like them and act like they can't eat them, but after a day or so they will and then they will be just fine. We sometimes will mix the crumbles with pellets and slowly take away the crumbles just leaving them with pellets. Yes pellets are much cleaner as they don't make that huge mess and not eat it, pellets they fall on the ground they are still whole and they eat all of them.​

 

[Poupoulles]

Thanks!!!

 

[chickenannie]

I assume you have a heritage breed, if you said they can fly like crazy? Because if they are BBWs you won't have much of an issue with flying.

But, based on my experience with Bourbon Reds last year that I kept on pasture -- it was great except that I had to clip their wings every 3 to 4 weeks and it was a pain in the you know what to do it that often to 35 adult turkeys! I usually rounded up a friend or two, but it still took time to catch them and I often ended up scratched and with holes in my shirt typically.

Also, they could still jump 2-3 feet, some even higher than that even with a clipped wing, if they really wanted to. They only jumped at night when they wanted to roost -- during the day they were happy to roam inside the pasture. They were in a fenced pasture with a post and board 4.5 foot high top board.

Also, they will be eating lots of grass and bugs if they are outdoors, so I didn't feel like I had to give mine the high protein anymore -- although I'm not the expert on this.

I just bought the classic book on turkey management (prior to WWII) and they show a guy herding a huge flock of turkeys with "turkey sticks" so it's *always* been done like that I presume. I've found turkeys to be extremely trainable. I don't even use turkey sticks anymore -- I have mine so well trained I just walk behind them and they go where I want (though I must do the walking bit or they roost outdoors in the tree).

By the way, my pastured BRs did great all summer long until fall (Aug/Sept) when I started losing them slowly -- turned out a fox was killing them gradually. So, please make sure your area is predator proof. I had to build a coop (inside the pasture) and herd them inside every night through a "funneled chute" and it was, again, a total pain in the butt especially because it got cold and rainy and snowy in Sept/Oct/Nov. Boy, I couldn't wait till Thanksgiving to sell them!

 

[Harp Turkey Ranch]

They were in a fenced pasture with a post and board 4.5 foot high top board.

That is why you had such troubles keeping them in your pasture. They would jump/fly up to the top board and then go over. Best fence to keep them in a pasture is a t post and field fencing with all corner braces running at a 45 deg angle and the mid cross brace to be at a 45 deg angle as well and point off all wooden post to keep them from roosting on them as well. At gates I have found that you can attach a 2-3' piece of wire mesh to the top and this will keep them from landing on it as well. You can do this as well on existing fence corners that are running flat.

Ours don't fly over the fence unless something(dog) is chasing them or they find something to land on that is higher then the fence and then they go over, but from ground just fly completely over with out landing on something just very rarely ever happens.​

 

[Poupoulles]

A funnel shaped chute... Now that is an interesting idea. I have a great tractor thing that they live in and will return to at night (in theory) and a funnel shaped chute, maybe just something easy, some plastic snow netting and a few sticks... hmmmm...
Yesterday I let them all out to see what would happen and they went nuts, running, flying, talking like crazy. But after about a minute they all settled down and were very very herdable. They are mostly BB (an error from the hatchery) and so are very laid back and friendly. I was very pleased with the results of their little outing. They all came back with a little judicious herding. But cone shaped entrance would have worked like a charm.
Thanks for the good ideas!
Where do I get a turkey stick?

 

[Harp Turkey Ranch]

Where do I get a turkey stick?

Off a tree.

The one I use is about 1.5" or so at the butt end and about 3' long, nothing fancy just a stick to wave to the side of them when you want them to go the other direction or u gotta mean tom.​

 

[Poupoulles]

I thought it was one of them thar fancy sticks with the hook on the end! In that case I already have two turkey sticks and three chicken sticks in regular use!!

 

[Buster52]

Tonight it was dark so I grabbed the handiest thing I could find. Ended up herding turkeys with a mop.

 

[Poupoulles]

When do I switch them to bigger (chicken) grit, and if they are roaming around the pastures, do they need to be given grit? Shoudl I just offer it free choice seperate from the food or should I mix it in the grub?