turkeys, too noisy? ...new to this site

[ravenFTL]

hi there im new to this site and had a question about turkeys. i live near downtown orlando florida in a duplex. i occupy half and my mother occupies the other half. collectively we have about 2500 sq ft of backyard... plenty of room for chickens and veggies and trees. i have been gardening and practicing food forestry for over a year now and have had chickens and a pygmy goat for a while too. altogether its working out quite nicely. i live in an unincorporated part of the city so the laws here are a little more lax. besides i live right off a main road so even if there is a little noise it doesnt compare to the noisy-ness of the passing traffic. so i have been interested in extending the use of my yard beyond milk, eggs, veggies and fruit and am now looking into meat. aside from tilapia, it would seem as though some turkeys would be perfect. ive done some research on this site already and people seem to be back and forth about how noisy they are. some people have mentioned that the more you have the more gobbling competition there will be. which makes sense, but just say i get 4 or 5, a mix of toms and hens. the nearest neighbor would be 100 ft away. even with that distance and so few birds would that be practical? i could use some advise from those who know. im chompin at the bit here, and id like to make it work however creatively.

 

[Frosty]

I have a pen with 3 toms and 4 hens in it. When breeding season hits, those 3 toms can make quite a bit of noise. They remind me of a flock of sandhill cranes. After a while they get things settled and are much quieter. You could either limit how many toms you have or make an agreement with the neighbors that if they are too noisey you'll eat them

.

Keep in mind that if you don't want them to visit all of the neighbors and play in the road, they'll need a covered run. Clipping wings probably won't work.

 

[ravenFTL]

certainly. i havent even considered talking to the neighbors. maybe i could bribe them with a tom for thanksgiving....

i do have a covered run but id prefer if they ranged the yard during the day. i have a 5 foot fence, shouldnt that be tall enough? when is breeding season and how long does that typically last?

 

[Frosty]

I have had young Broad Breasted turkeys with clipped wings perch on a 6 foot fence... You can always try. My experience has been that if their area is large enough, they'll be less likely to try to get out. But if the fence looks attractive as a perch, or if they perch in trees close to the fence, they could easily jump down on the wrong side. Mine are noisy for about a month, then they have the pecking order settled. Mine are going into breeding season now, folks in the south are already hatching eggs.

To be fair, I should give you a word of warning. Turkeys have a LOT more personality than chickens and are highly addictive!

 

[CochinBrahmaLover]

I have had young Broad Breasted turkeys with clipped wings perch on a 6 foot fence... You can always try. My experience has been that if their area is large enough, they'll be less likely to try to get out. But if the fence looks attractive as a perch, or if they perch in trees close to the fence, they could easily jump down on the wrong side. Mine are noisy for about a month, then they have the pecking order settled. Mine are going into breeding season now, folks in the south are already hatching eggs.

To be fair, I should give you a word of warning. Turkeys have a LOT more personality than chickens and are highly addictive!

i hated turkeys before, THEN, we got some with personalities(before we didnt really have ones with personalties

) where they would follow me around as pets, my mom wouldnt dare harm a feather on them now when just a year ago I was willing to kill one, I loved them, they followed me around and would run after me and be like "So I came over here, i get a treat?"

We had 2 hens (well we think, they would show if you got in their face or a chicken, never put a chicken in front of a turkeys face, they WILL get pecked) and they werent too loud. They mostly just sat in the sun and would gobble if you disturbed their royal highness's LOL

yes warning, you may start off thinking they will be food, then when your mom or neighbors say "So when we getting that turkey?" you looked shocked and have to go protect your babies