How far do your turkeys range? I have 300 x1300 ft lot mostly open pasture, but there is woods on one side where my chickens will range. My neighbor who lives in front of the woods has grapes...I read someones post about how their turkeys stripped their grape vines. how much buffer do I need?
Right now I have 9 Beltsville Small Whites: 3 Toms and 6 hens (have 14 of their eggs in the incubator). Our lot is just under 7 acres (something like 500 feet on two of the sides...don't know about the rest since the property is wedge shaped). Anyway, we only have neighbors on one side, a horse farm on the second, and woods on the other two. We had to put up a 7' tall metal fence (we are way outside of town) to keep them from going into our neighbors yard since he is a jerk and trained his dogs to attack the birds. We also had to put up tall fencing on the other end of our property since they were going into the woods, which the bobcats liked, but we didn't.
Also, turkeys love to perch anywhere high, so if your vehicles or tractors are not someplace the birds cannot get on them, you need to either keep their wings regularly clipped or be prepared for a scratched up paint job.
Even with clipped wings, mine can jump pretty high, around 3-4 feet. Despite cozy nesting areas, they jump on top of some windows we have stored in the barn and lay up there (they use the tractor tires to help them get to the top of the 5' tall windows). I have convinced my husband to build a nesting box up there for them, which we are doing this weekend....if it ever stops raining here.
Funny thing is that despite causing the most trouble out of any of the poultry or fowl on the property, these guys are my husband and son's favorites. They are completely funny to watch and love to play and investigate anything and everything.
