Turkeys in Mature Corn

[meoddone]

Hello! I've read a lot about letting chickens into a mature corn patch, it seems that there are mixed opinions/experiences of whether the chickens would leave the corn alone or not, I welcome any stories if somebody here has experience. (30'X50' Corn patch, 18 hens, corn 1-2 weeks from harvest.)

The main reason for the post, what about Royal Palm Turkeys in the corn patch? My two toms are in a smallish enclosure and I'd love to get them back into the larger garden, but will they leave the corn cobs and leaves alone? Anybody with any experience here?

Thanks!

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

We have sweet corn that my chickens have access to. They don't bother the corn. My turkeys aren't in that area so I can't say what they would do. Chickens are mostly hunting bugs in the corn rows. If your soil is exposed or loose you may get the chickens dust bathing in the soil potentially dislodging plants, but I haven't seen that either here.

 

[meoddone]

We have sweet corn that my chickens have access to. They don't bother the corn. My turkeys aren't in that area so I can't say what they would do. Chickens are mostly hunting bugs in the corn rows. If your soil is exposed or loose you may get the chickens dust bathing in the soil potentially dislodging plants, but I haven't seen that either here.

Thank you!

 

[OHGrandma]

Hello! I've read a lot about letting chickens into a mature corn patch, it seems that there are mixed opinions/experiences of whether the chickens would leave the corn alone or not, I welcome any stories if somebody here has experience. (30'X50' Corn patch, 18 hens, corn 1-2 weeks from harvest.)

The main reason for the post, what about Royal Palm Turkeys in the corn patch? My two toms are in a smallish enclosure and I'd love to get them back into the larger garden, but will they leave the corn cobs and leaves alone? Anybody with any experience here?

Thanks!

Hi, I'm new here with turkeys, joined a long time ago when I was raising chickens for the grands.
When you say 'mature corn', are you talking about sweet corn almost ready to pull for eating fresh, or field corn mature enough to pick & store as dry grain?

 

[meoddone]

I figure I'd close this out. I did put the turkeys in the corn field and I have had no issues. The corn was about one week from harvest when I put them in. The younger stalks that were smaller than 1" in diameter were vulnerable to their clumsiness but other than that no damage to the ears of corn at all. Thanks!