Want a few Turkeys

[Bukrub66]

Hello all, I've been raising chickens and quail for about 6 months. I would really like a couple turkeys. I'm reading that lots of folks keep both their chickens and Turkeys together, but then I read that some can't get the turkeys to go in a coop. My chicken coop is a 4x8 box with an 8x12 run. I live on about an acre and a half of unfenced yard in a country subdivision. I typically keep my chickens in the run until evening and let them out a couple hours before dark until they go to bed on there own.
If I was to get some Turkeys when could they go outside? Could I put them with my chickens, and if not what kind of structure would I need to build. My chickens were left locked up in the coop for a month once I put them out, so they know where home is. How does a turkey know where home is?
In re reading this it sounds almost silly, but I still don't know the answers.

 

[WalnutHill]

Turkeys know where home is, but you may find them independent enough to not care to come in when you want them to.

They have a larger foraging area than chickens do, and much better flight capability. They like trees and rooftops for lookout and sleeping places.

You can certainly keep them with your chickens but unless you keep them in covered pens, they will tend to range. But with a 4 x 8 coop, I doubt the turkeys would go inside at all. If you put a perch with an overhang in the 8 x 12 run, they may use that. Be sure it's 4' or more off the ground, and a couple feet off the wall or fence.

 

[madamiec]

Mine prefer to sit on the deck and look in the house. If you let them out they will probably prefer to sit ON the coop....I could see my girls doing that. We just run them back in our coop at night because we have to lock them up or the coyotes will eat them here.