# Just how high can a turkey jump?



## rabbitpatch (Jan 14, 2008)

We have a trio of royal palm turkeys that we let "free range" in our goat pasture. We want them to STAY in the pasture however and so far it's not working out. We clipped their wings so they can't fly, but they seem to have no trouble at all hopping up to perch on the edge of the fence...or the top of our smaller turkey pen with a 6 foot high roof. Any ideas on how to keep them where we want them without a roof? The goat pasture is PLENTY large enough for them to roam -- in fact, I don't think they have ever been to the upper part of the pasture -- so it's not like the space is too small.


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## KSALguy (Feb 14, 2006)

free ranged poultry with clipped wings is not a wise idea, the only means of escape they DID have is now gone, turkeys wont go far if they know where home is, but now if a preditor finds them out in the pasture they are more likely to get eaten than they were before, 

poultry like this you eather need to keep them compleatly inclosed or just accept that they will roam,


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## rabbitpatch (Jan 14, 2008)

Keeping them enclosed is not the best idea...they keep it muddy and eat nothing but grain. Loose in the pasture, they eat plenty of bugs and grass, and very little grain _*by choice*._ Letting them roam where they will is not an option...they wouldn't last long in the 4 lane highway they are beside. I realize most of you live in very rural areas, but the little hobby farm my mom and I share is sandwiched between said highway and a very residential area. The are no coyotes to speak of and in over 2 years we've never seen a stray dog near there. The only predators we have to worry about are cats and hawks. 

That said, I shouldn't have to explain WHY we choose to operate the way we do. Just like everybody else here, we do what works best for us as far as keeping the animals safe and healthy. I'm terribly sorry if I sound rude....it's just frustrating to ask for ideas, only to be told how stupid I am. Yes, I know you didn't call names, but it certainly seems you made that assumption.


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## KSALguy (Feb 14, 2006)

offering the advice i had was not ment to pour sour grapes into your breakfast cerial, sence you have what you have to work with and you have already clipped their wings your only real option is to make at least a 6ft or probably higher fence to keep them in, healthy turkeys and even alot of chickens are able to jump and climb shorter fences, the cost of putting up a fence tall enough to keep them in is relative to what you want to end up with, 

and if your able to do this great but most people cant, so thats why my experianced advice was put the way it was,


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## Willowynd (Mar 27, 2005)

Turkeys for the most part will roam. Now my RP Tom, he prefers to stay in the pen. The hens will get out and roam in the general area but only travel off to nest, then bring the babies home. When they are not nesting, they do stay close. That said, when I had geese and ducks that traveled to the neighbors pond- they would follow them. But since the geese are now gone and the ducks penned- home they stay. Now, you can put up an electric wire over the top of the fence and gate. If they have nothing they can jump on, with clipped wings they should stay in.


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## Beulah Gardens (Feb 26, 2008)

Are they hopping completely over or up on top and then jumping down to the other side? We have blue slates and they were pearching on the fence and then jumping over so we put up ~ LOL I don't know what to call it. barb wire without the barbs?? anyway it was too wigglely and after a few times trying to settle on top of it they quit jumping. Ours stay in the pasture all the time now. Even when they are nesting and that was the worst time. Other than that I am no help.


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## Wisconsin Ann (Feb 27, 2007)

How high? well, pretty much as high as they need to. Even our Broad breasted guy could jump up to the top of the 8ft high hoop coop  Now..imagine a medicine ball with legs jumping up onto a coop. That was....interesting.

The clipping of wings only keeps them from flying straight for long distances...doesn't keep them from jumping up and flapping and catching air in the wings to help themselves up. 

Try giving them something INSIDE the pasture to roost on. a couple of A frame things made out of..i dunno..pallets, or fence posts. Sometimes that's all they want. Something to sit up on. Turkeys are, by nature, curious critters who love to roam around. 

The other thing you could try is deer fencing. it's lightweight plastic stuff (we can get it at farm stores here, and sometime sWalmart type places) 7ft (or taller). We used it on a couple of sides of fence by attaching cut saplings to the fence posts so that we had light fenceposts going UP 4ft higher than the normal fence. Then I attached the deer fence to those saplings. putting white pieces of plastic (like hunks of plastic bag) tied to the fence let the birds see it. 

Every once in a while, tho, one of the girls would go for a fly and bounce off the thing. They were never injured, just got up and tried to look like it didn't happen.


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## rabbitpatch (Jan 14, 2008)

I had wondered about the electric wire idea...wasn't sure if it would deter them. They do seem to just be hopping up on the fence and then down to the other side. They can go inside the barn and there is a place there they can get up on to roost if they want. They seem to prefer the openness of the fence however. 



Beulah Gardens said:


> Are they hopping completely over or up on top and then jumping down to the other side? We have blue slates and they were pearching on the fence and then jumping over so we put up ~ LOL I don't know what to call it. barb wire without the barbs?? anyway it was too wigglely and after a few times trying to settle on top of it they quit jumping. Ours stay in the pasture all the time now. Even when they are nesting and that was the worst time. Other than that I am no help.


Actually, I'm pretty sure it's just called "barbless" wire. That's an interesting idea though....I think I'm definitely going to discuss both that and the electric wire idea with my mom to see what she thinks.


PS KSALguy, I truely am sorry if I seemed rude. I do appreciate your effort.


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## Danaus29 (Sep 12, 2005)

Mine have no problem jumping 8 feet to the top of the shed then another 10 feet to the middle of a huge tree. The only other option I can think of would be to tie them out like some people do with roosters. But your weight at the other end would have to be very heavy. I could just imagine one of those winged medicine balls dragging a cinderblock.

Why do roads fascinate those stupid turkeys???? When I let mine out if the pen they head right for it.


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## KSALguy (Feb 14, 2006)

electric wire only detures something that is grounded at the time it touches the wire, if a bird touches it on the way up down or just for the heck of it while NOT touching the ground at the SAME TIME it wont do a bit to stop the bird unless the bird gets its heavy self tangled in the light weight electric wire falls to the ground and then electrocutes its self quite nicely, that would be bad, i would stay away from electric fencing


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## rabbitpatch (Jan 14, 2008)

If the wire is only an inch or so from the top of the metal fencing we already use, when the birds land on it, the electric wire would touch the currently existing fencing - which IS grounded, since it is sitting ON the ground. At this point it's just a theory to consider...if we decide to go with it, I'll let ya'll know how it works.


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## Brisket (Sep 29, 2007)

keep your fencing loose on the top foot or two. Yes our Broad Breasted can pull five feet no problem. With the top of the fence huge loose they don't have a place to roost they just give up after awhile.


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## Dexter (Sep 27, 2008)

One of my 12 heritage turkeys would fly up to the top of the power pole (30-40'?) and roost there for the night. From the ground right up.
Maybe consider locking them at night and letting them out mid day so that their wanderings don't take them so far before dark.


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## roolover (Jul 16, 2007)

Turkeys are very curious and social creatures. Ours like to be around us or other animals all the time, except for those random wanderings when they head across the pasture to visit the neighbors. We had a problem with them standing in the road stopping traffic and visiting the one close neighbor (who hates all farm animals - go figure!).

We have had good luck with plastic orange snow fencing... they can't sit on top of it, and as long as it is secured occasionally at ground level, it keeps the BBW and BBB turkeys where we want them. The Narragansets, though, forget it. They can easily clear a 6-ft fence, fly up to the peak of the barn, and pretty much roost where they want (except the back porch).


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## Curtis B (Aug 15, 2008)

I clipped wings last year and it did not help with the jumping of fences. I have found that if there is a top rail that is when they go over as Beulah Gardens said (round here we call that wire smooth wire). I put in 4 ft field fence round my entire property with no top rail and have not had one go over for more than 18 months. I have a pen to keep them in when they are laying and it was five foot tall with a rail and they went over it all the time. I ended up putting up one inch pvc pipe vertically and zip tied it to the posts, I then ran cheep plastic fencing round it above the old fence. They never got out of it unless I opened the gate for them. Personaly I think they cannot see the top of the fence w/o the rail, so they don't even think of going over or roosting on it.


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## Karenrbw (Aug 17, 2004)

You might want to cut only one wing next time. That would make them a little unbalanced and may keep them closer to the ground.


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## rabbitpatch (Jan 14, 2008)

Karenrbw said:


> You might want to cut only one wing next time. That would make them a little unbalanced and may keep them closer to the ground.


We did only cut one wing...it didn't slow them down. Part of our fencing is some heavy duty metal panels...heavier than goat panels even. I'm not sure what it was originally used for...it is about an inch wide flat metal that forms a frame with very heavy gauge welded wire inside that frame. The holes are just 1x2 inch. They like to roost on these at night...no matter which side they are on when it gets dark. The rest of our fencing (basically just the part that separates the goats from the chickens) is the "farm fencing." It's flimsy enough that they can't land on it, but since we never actually SEE them hop over, we aren't sure if they are jumping up on the heavy panels and then hopping down on the other side.....or of they are trying to land on the farm fencing and then falling to the other side when they can't stand on it.


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## Cyngbaeld (May 20, 2004)

Try giving them an alternative roost that is well inside the fence and a bit higher off the ground than the fence. Put it as far from the fence as you can and then feed them next to it just before dark. You might need to go **** them away from the perimeter fence a few times till they get in the habit of roosting where you need them. Turkeys aren't real bright, but can be trained a little.


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