Tell me about freeranging Turkeys and Peafowl.

Joe.G

Songster
8 Years
Nov 16, 2011
1,410
52
196
Eastern NY
Ok so now that I have my Turkey's and Peafowl can you guys give me tip's and tell me about what you know on Free ranging them, They are all about 7 Months old, i have to Royal Palms, 1 Tom,1 Hen I also have a India Blue Peacock A Black Shoulder Peacock and a Spalding Female Peahen. Thanks
 
THey fly!! They will follow you around, or mine do that I raised. THey like pellets, and CORN, mine skip the oats, and they like grasses. Keep roosts low so they don't damage their feet .
 
They will do very well free ranging and foraging for themselves. I always offered supplemental feed when I free ranged. My problem with free ranging was they did not want to use the pasture much. They kept hanging out around the house. Roosting on my decks, in the trees in my back yard, and with that you get a lot of poop everywhere.

My sidewalks and porches were always a mess. My turkeys even ventured into the road, we have a lady that walks our road from time to time and I would see her with her plastic bags (she picked up trash when she walked) swatting at my turkeys because when they would see her they wanted to follow her. Well, I suppose she did not realize that her bags sounded like a feed bag and when she would swat at the turkeys that just made them think she was getting feed for them. Pretty funny to watch really,
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but I had to pen mine up. I have 24 acres so I had the space in pasture but they just preferred being around people.

They will fly so fencing is not going to keep them out of the yard. If you don't mind the poop, don't live near a road etc. you may find free ranging to be ideal. You may also find that they don't hang out in your yard, I sooo wish mine did not.
 
Joe,

About October '12, we installed a mesh electric fence from Kencove Fencing. So far, it seems to be working very well regarding predators, but the other advantage is that it keeps the birds off my front step and other walk areas. It gives me much better control regarding keeping the roosters separate from the hens. It is easy to move around because it is very light. You can make the area for your birds as large as you want and change it as often as you want because it is so easy to handle. I also clipped the wing feathers only of the hens that wanted to fly out and the roosters that wanted to fly in. That also gave me much better control.
 
Free ranging turkeys............ :thumbsup

Free ranging Peas........
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My turkeys are great when free ranging. They do not go anywhere. They stay close to home and don't fly off. The toms like to strut the entire time in hopes that the ladies look ta them. I think I'm down to 19 turkeys and at times have been up to 40 turkeys and have not had any problems free ranging them. Out of ALL of the animals that I have, my turkeys are THE best when it comes to free ranging. I could leave for a week and if I open the big gate to the chicken yard, the turkeys are not going anywhere.

Now on the other hand, the peas..........OMG!!!!!!! I have a pea that I hand raised from Day 1. He rode in my truck with me when I went in to town. He was always around people and is VERY tame. You can go up to him and pet him and pick him up and carry him around. He is about 8 months old. In all fairness, he is really good about free ranging. It's just that when he wants to test out his wings, he can fly a pretty far distance. And he can do this within seconds. You won't see it coming. I can turn my back for 2 minutes and when I look back, he is GONE!!!!!

He will usually end up a football field (distance) away. As soon as I know that he is missing, I have to immediately go looking for him or else, he will be in the next town. Here are some pics of his "Furloughs" away from home.

In this pic, he is almost a football field away. I'm so glad that I have XRAY vision and I can see far distances. If not, I would NOT have spotted him. CAN YOU SPOT HIM???
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Close pic of his escape
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Another furlough day at yet another's neighbor's yard. I literally had to go on her property to find him.
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Another furlough day of hiding in the feed storage building. After looking for him for about 30 minutes. I find him in there. :barnie
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He won't put himself back in to roost, so I have to get him before night fall. If not, then this is where I will find him......... :barnie

I had to get a ladder to get him down both times. :barnie
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I wouldn't worry about your turkeys but if your peas are new to you and your yard and they are not tame, I would keep a close eye on them. You are dealing with a WILD bird and they will behave as such if left in an open yard to roam. If you don't want to lose your peas, I wouldn't free range. However, some people free range with no problems but a lot of the peas that they free range or handled at birth or the pea owners spend a lot of time with their birds. My pea just hasn't mastered that skill and he probably won't and he was hand raised and lived inside for about 3 months until he started flying like an airplane on the runway inside. :/

If you cruise through the pea thread you will see A LOT of threads where people are asking for help because their pea got loose and won't go home.

Good Luck free ranging those peas. :oops:
 
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I know I prob should not free range them but I enjoy watching the birds free in teh yard and when I go someplace and they have Pea's free it is a cool sight.
 

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