I'll have to look for that movie Fresh-- I just love the sustainable vewpoint. I'm ready to throw in the towel on purchased feeds-- too expensive for feeding year round. I love your plans for a mobile tractor, great idea. I don't have a tractor and my land is rather rough so I'm still coming up with ideas for something light weight and mobile, THough Sugar Mtn says their birds roam some 750 feet from the housing area, maybe the domestic pigs provide a level of mental security so they roam far and wide.
I'm trying to come up with a working model for my farm . THat is were the turkeys come into it. Trying them to see where they fit into grazing/browsing. I do think chickens are more flexible than turkeys, anyone can pipe up here and offer their experience. I see the chickens as eaters of anything and everything, I see the turkeys at the feeders.
Honestly, I am putting the pigs as far away from the poultry and fowl as possible. If they are hungry they may not have an issue with eating a chicken or duck that wanders into their area.
Most of our chickens are in our main coop, which is attached to the goat housing and field on one side and the horse run-in on the other. The goats, if they can be kept out of the chickens feeders
are great for security. A silly raccoon thought it was tunneling into our chicken coop one night last year only to end up in the goat house: They woke us up with all the racket. We went out just in time to see the raccoon limping away with the goats looking very proud of themselves. They are by no means a guardian type animal. Ours just like to let everything know it is their pasture and area. The horse is the same way and doesn't allow so much as a squirrel into her area. Both seem to know the chickens belong over there and don't bother them unless they try to sneak a beak into the feeder at breakfast!
During the day, the chickens mostly stay within 150' of their coop, although they are allowed free access to about 4 acres. We do have a couple adventerous groups that go approximately 600' feet from the coop to the front fence line every day.
As for the turkeys, yes I do see them at the feeders more often than some of the other critters. However, they do also browse if they have the chance. If I let mine out, they wander the property more fully than any of the other critters. When they were young, I had to constantly keep their wings clipped or they would fly over the fences into the woods though so be prepared for that if you let them out. Now that they are older the hens don't fly nearly as well and the toms not much at all.
Folks like Salatin use rotational grazing. He has his livestock, both cows and pigs on pasture. Then 3 days after he moves them to another field, he rolls his mobile coop into the field so the chickens can break up the manure and feast. I have read that doing things like this breaks the internal parasite cycle for most of the species involved. I would think turkeys could be used in place of chickens: you would just have to herd them. Mine sometimes take two people to herd since they scatter, but I can get them from any point on the property into their pen in less than 5 minutes.
I am pretty sure Kuntrygirl lets her turkeys out to wander (I remember a story about them helping her catch run away guineas last year). Maybe she'll have some words of wisdom for us!
Make sense now?
