When turkeys free range....

[BarredBuff]

When turkeys free range do they come home at night or do you heard them in?

 

[boxermom]

Mine go into the barn all by themselves. My 9 wk old poults do too. I always do a head count, but no one has stayed out all night.

 

[Lagerdogger]

I put mine out at about 5 weeks. My range is fenced for predators. For the first two weeks they slept in a pile on the ground. Now they go to the roost without any training. Four were on top of the feed station and might be getting wet in a thunderstorm tonight, but they gotta learn somehow.

 

[thaiturkey]

We train ours by herding them to the coop at nightfall. Now they either go of their own volition or with gentle persuasion. They learn after a few days. Our boundary is reasonably secure but I don't want to take chances over night.

 

[fowlmamma]

mine go right in every night . except one day it was pouring down rain and he sat on the front porch so i had to carry a 45 pound turkey to the coop.

 

[dixiedoodle10]

We have a standard bronze hen and we have to put her up everynight. She is stubborn.

 

[Sir Birdaholic]

Mine go inside in the winter, & stormy nights, but roost on the round-pen the rest of the time.

 

[brandywine]

For quite some time mine resisted going in to their coop, and required me to bump them off the porch railing and knock them out of a tree with a stick, followed by some "gentle persuasion" from the stock dogs. Now they coop up by themselves, knowing what's coming if they don't. The two young dogs ignore them all day, then start giving them the stink eye as dusk approaches. The dogs' attitude is "try us." Most of the time, the turkeys choose not to.