Turkeys beat up on my chickens

[Turkeytruff]

Thank you! XL haha I can imagine! I'll check them out

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

Beware, turkeys will also kill chickens under the right circumstances, so best to always house them separately, a turkey doesn't like backing down from a fight or if something becomes it's target they can keep at it for hours.

 

[Adelie]

Hi I was just reading your thread and wondered if you have your birds free ranging? I wanted to get turkeys to help scare the hawks off around here. I have free ranging chickens until of late, the hawks are awful so now the chickens have to be penned up. Maybe it isn't a good idea to get turkeys to let free range with the chickens. How did old homesteaders do it anyway? Thanks!

 

[Turkeytruff]

My chickens/ turkeys / geese and alpacas are all free ranging. Raising the poults and chicks together does help as i do it all the time and they do usully get on tother well. I do have 3 turkey hens that go into the barn by choice at night and they don't generally let the hens roost next to them the other turkeys prefer to be outside come wind, rain, sleet, or snow. I wouldn't want to keep them all confined together all the time, the turkey hens can get snotty occasionally.
I do think having the larger animals around has deterred the predators for a long time. I usually see eagles fly over take a look at all the big animals and keep on going - BUT I am sad to say that 4 days ago an eagle killed one of my mistral gris pullets. First time in 5 years of keeping poultry and we have tons of eagles around. She was about 10 lbs and he left her there because he was unable to fly away with her. It was just before dusk and she was alone at the far end of the field foraging.
We are now putting in loads of fence posts and going to put wires up to deter them.

 

[poorfarm]

Among my pastured poultry I also have little bantams, and the Cooper's Hawks (who are bird-hunting specialists compared to the local Red-Tail Hawks which prefer small mammals like voles) come around all the time. It helps having large birds like my turkeys and pair of geese, also the Maremma dog; these are all somewhat of a visual deterrent to the hawks. But, I think there are 2 reasons none of the hawks has been successful so far--first, there are several coop and run doors that are open for the birds to go in and out during the day, so they always have multiple places to run and they go inside at the first sight of a shadow. I also have a wheelbarrow, a cart, small tractor, etc. parked in their yard with spare boards leaning on them with spaces in between to give them more places to run.

But the main thing is that I put eye screws up on the tree trunks and ran cords, then attached sections of cheap plastic fruit tree netting randomly all around. It doesn't come close to coverage of the area, but it interferes with the hawks getting a straight run at a chicken, they have to jink and dodge around the cords and netting so the chickens have some warning and time to dodge. I've seen frustrated hawks sitting on the ground in the middle of the pasture several times. I just ordered 2 rolls of 7 foot by 100 foot fruit tree netting from Agricultural Solutions to put up more aerial protection this spring. I am blessed with an abundance of trees all around my poultry pasture, otherwise I'd have to put up poles. I don't think the neighbors think it's very attractive though. . . .

 

[Turkeytruff]

yes not very attractive but who cares if it saves your chickens. that blasted eagle has been back, usually around 4 pm which is feeding time here at the moment. We also have Cooper hawks and huge Barn owls that come and sit in a tree just the other side of the fence. the turkeys all pip at it and then the chickens start coming out of the henhouse to have a look!

We now have about 25 new posts in the field with random wires and tags attached to them in various places. I like your idea of just breaking it all up so they cant get a clear flight.

 

[poorfarm]

Retired, no job, not a lot of money, so I like cheap. . . If you can get it up high enough that YOU don't run into it, some of the easiest and cheapest stuff to string that will play Hob with the aerial bandits is nylon monofilament fishing line. You can crisscross a lot of that stuff all over the place and if something tries to fly in, it gets bumped off course and crashes. Of course depending on the thickness, your line might get broken too, but if it doesn't cost much to replace who cares. Our bargain outlets around here always have it cheep cheep cheep. The only reason I'm using heavier cord is to hold up the sections of fruit tree netting. You do have to keep track of monofilament and make sure broken bits don't end up where your birds or any wildlife can eat it by mistake, same thing with it getting into water.

Interesting that when your turkeys pip the chickens come outside. As soon as my chickens (or ducks) hear the turkeys pipping, they are outtathere! Well, like I said, lots and lots of optimistic hawks here, many attempts at bantamcide. Back when I had the "big" farm, I twice had to catch Cooper's inside my barn where they thought they would set up winter quarters and have chicken dinner every other day. I've had lots of all kinds of bird all my long life, but the raptors have been the dumbest I've been around. Both sliding barn doors open and two of us trying to shoo a hawk back outside, and no go. In both cases I finally had my neighbor shut the doors and chase the hawk up into the loft where I was waiting, and threw my coat over the bird then caught it around the legs with my hands so it couldn't nail me. These were that year's young adolescents; in each case I put the bird in a cat carrier and took it on a loooooong drive. But you have to go over 50 miles, and 100 would be extreme, or they'll come right back. This only works with the young ones, if you are in an adult's territory, you could ship them to from Michigan to Texas and chances are they'd migrate back next spring. Eagles. . . I don't know as I would mess with something that big.