# What about Free ranging Turkey's?



## BackfourtyMI. (Sep 3, 2007)

We just got young Royal Palms last year. I ended up with a hen & a Tom since we butchered the extra tom's. I would really like to free range them this spring & summer but don't want them taking off & not coming back to their house & pen.

We have 40 acres, no perimeter fencing just the fencing for goat pastures, pens & duck pen's which the ducks free range sometimes without any problems.

Was thinking about clipping a wing on each & putting them in one of the goat pastures during the day & bringing them back in the evening but it's a distance from the turkey pen.

Anyone else free range their turkeys or have any ideas?


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## fffarmergirl (Oct 9, 2008)

LOL we free ranged turkeys one year. Never again! They followed us everywhere, and they looked in our windows and crowded around while I was listening to music. They were affectionate. They pooped all over our porch and driveway, destroyed my rhubarb patch. They were so darn cute and full of character that I cried when we butchered them, and yet we couldn't keep all of them. We wound up keeping 3 because I couldn't stop crying and still have one of them now, 2-3 years later. We just had the big double-breasted commercial varieties (bronze somethingorothers and white somethingorothers). They're not supposed to live very long but this girl is still going strong.


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## jennigrey (Jan 27, 2005)

Do you have wild turkeys in your area? One of the pitfalls of free-ranging turkeys is that passing wild flocks can get your domestic ones "caught up" in the excitement. Your fence should hopefully prevent that. Royal Palms don't have the most inconspicuous coloration... do you have eagles in your area that might prey on your turkeys? They will need shelter to be able to regulate their temperatures.

My turkeys were easily led from one enclosure to another by shaking a metal pail with feed in it. If I were to do that in a pen with the goats... they'd probably find my corpse a week later, trampled beyond recognition.

... just kidding - my goats have enough manners to not touch me even when driven mad by the sound of the grain pail. But the turkeys would probably get trampled in the rush. Getting *just* turkeys and not goats would be tricky.


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## chickenista (Mar 24, 2007)

We did it..... once.
What an exciting summer that was.
Turkeys on the roof, turkeys on the car, turkeys on the neighbor's car, porch and roof.
And they would go across the road and bully the other neighbors away from their grill and take the food off.

A flock of 20+ nearly grown turkeys are VERY intimidating!! We would hear the guy hollering as half of the turkeys had him pinned against the wall and the other turkeys cleaning off the grill. That happened several times.

And you can clip them, but they are still gonna walk off if they want. That's what they did to get the food off the grill...

Yep... we did it once.


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## olivehill (Aug 17, 2009)

Our turkeys free range without issue. They sleep in the trees at night and stay close during the day. They know who brings the easy food. LOL!


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## Steph in MT (Sep 26, 2004)

chickenista said:


> We did it..... once.
> 
> 
> A flock of 20+ nearly grown turkeys are VERY intimidating!! We would hear the guy hollering as half of the turkeys had him pinned against the wall and the other turkeys cleaning off the grill. That happened several times.
> ...


Thanks for one of the best laughs I've had in a long time! :hysterical:


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## BackfourtyMI. (Sep 3, 2007)

I still would want them to go back to their house at night like the ducks do. Are turkey's smart enough for that or do I have to herd them back in every single night?

We are over 600 feet back from the road, our 40 acres is a square 40 & no neighbors close, mostly our woods & farmland.

We do have a few wild turkey's that show up in the spring but they never seem to stay. Last year a couple tome's showed up early, hung around a couple weeks but no hen's so they left. Then some hen's showed up, didn't stay long since there weren't any tom's I guess.

These are pretty friendly birds I have, the Tom actually likes to set on my lap. I thought they might wander around with the ducks & stick close to the barn area that way. Just wondering, I'd be really upset if I lost these pretty birds.


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## BobbyB (Apr 6, 2009)

The turkeys I raised years ago all went to roost in the barn with the chickens. I had to shut them in every night and let them out every morning after the coyote had come by.

Then one night I forgot top close one of 6 swinging window stutters and my tom hit the ground when the sun started coming up and right into the waiti9ng jaws of the coyote. I lost him, but never missed closing a shutter after that.

I plan to let mine range and lock em up at night with the chickens for the same reason.

I never had a problem with turkeys being as stupid as claimed. Well maybe the BBs are, especially the whites. But they get in a routine same as chickens.


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## KSALguy (Feb 14, 2006)

do not clip the wing of any free range bird, what little defence they have from preditors is from the ability to fly away, 

we free ranged our turkeys, we had two big toms at any given time that kept any wild flocks with wild toms away, but would gladly breed any single wild hens that came through, (this happend twice that i know of) the first two hens i had were black spanish and they each made good mothers and one had a nest in the garage that i put a wild turkey egg in from one of the wild hens that came through, the only problem we had with free range turkeys was them roosting ontop of the house durring the winter, it was really hard to get them to go inside at night, and they preferd the trees to roost or ontop of an old dog kennel most of the time, also we did loose a few hens when they went off to set in the woods


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## BackfourtyMI. (Sep 3, 2007)

Would it be better to maybe wait until the hen has a nest in the turkey house & is setting that way she won't want to be away from her eggs too long & my Tom will also then stay closer because of the hen not wandering too far?


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## artificer (Feb 26, 2007)

Since our area of Wisconsin has many predators, we had to make sure they were in every night, or some/all of them would be eaten. If the turkeys are away from the coop at twilight, they'll roost wherever they can. Even in our 50'x60' turkey pen, they would hop up onto the corner h-braces, and roost there. Dumb birds... 

Whenever we let the birds out, we would have to round up the flock, and **** it back into the hoop coop. Not always easy with one person. A couple of long branches or thin boards as arm extensions to help guide them worked. That is until one decides it really doesn't want to go in. Or they decide they want to roost on top of the coop. Or one of the others doesn't like the last one, and drives it out/away from the door. You get the idea, I hope. Its doable, but its nowhere's as easy as "check that all the chickens are in the coop, and shut the doors". Just go slowly, with no sudden moves, and they should wander ahead of you.

If you want to hatch out poults, I would get an incubator. Our luck with letting two hens hatch eggs was abysmal. No live poults, until we gathered the eggs, and put them in the incubator. Then we had something like 3 dozen that hatched from the two hens that summer.

Michael


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## BackfourtyMI. (Sep 3, 2007)

I really appreciate all the input & ideas folks, that is exactly what I needed.
I'm not sure if or how much we'll try free ranging our turkeys now, we really like them & I want them to go back in there hoop enclosure & their house to get locked up at night since we too have coyotes, bobcats, etc. 

We may try it later but we'll see. They have gotten out a few times when we were doing chores & didn't latch the gate & they weren't too hard to get back in, that's when we had 4 so we'll see.


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## fffarmergirl (Oct 9, 2008)

Yeah - herding turkeys is hard work! Very funny now, looking back on it - but not funny then, when I had other things I needed to be doing.


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## eclipchic (Oct 24, 2010)

we free ranged ours last year, well we did have perimeter fencing. They knocked on the windows, pooped on the deck, stole cherry tomatoes, picked on the chickens....hooligans! They even attacked my old dog. We'll do it again this year though, they were a hoot to have around.


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## KSALguy (Feb 14, 2006)

if you can keep them locked up untill she lays her egg every day then let them out, and then feed them inside the coop in the late afternoon early evening then they should be easy to get back in side with out worry of her hideing a nest out someplace, also the nesting spots available to her should be coverd in some way so she can get in but not enough to let the tom in also, some toms when kept alone with one or two hens cooped up like that will try and mount the hen when she is on the nest and this will end up breaking the eggs and possibly hurting the hen, so her nest should be safe from his advances,


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## BackfourtyMI. (Sep 3, 2007)

Thanks KSALguy, I didn't know that about her nesting spot. Right now I just have a nest box in their house.
We may try to free range them but we'll have to see. If we do it will be after she starts setting on a nest in their penned area & will feed in the afternoon like you suggested.


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## BackfourtyMI. (Sep 3, 2007)

eclipchic said:


> we free ranged ours last year, well we did have perimeter fencing. They knocked on the windows, pooped on the deck, stole cherry tomatoes, picked on the chickens....hooligans! They even attacked my old dog. We'll do it again this year though, they were a hoot to have around.


Did you lock them up at night or did they just roost where ever they wanted at night.


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## Jennifer L. (May 10, 2002)

Mine free range all year. The only real problem is they like to get in the road and stop traffic. You also have to be careful on where you park tractors, etc, because the toms like to perch, and crap on, the stuff that's 4-6' off the ground (the hens go higher and prefer the trees rather than low lying machinery).

I only confine breeding groups in the spring, and figure on losing a lot of the other hens to predators when they nest in unprotected areas. That's the main problem with free ranging turkeys, hens nesting in unsafe areas and getting picked off by coyotes or foxes. Not much you can do about that if you let them free range during nesting season.

Jennifer


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## Sherry in Iowa (Jan 10, 2010)

We've had a few turkeys "free range". It was an experience..


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## whiskeylivewire (May 27, 2009)

We only have one turkey, a Black Spanish tom, so maybe that is the reason it's been so easy. He roosts on top of the goats pens, we have no predators that come up to the house-haven't lost a chicken or the turkey yet-and he's gentle as can be. He just struts around and wants attention. He didn't eat the garden produce(unlike the chickens) and he only got the bugs out of it. We are getting him a harem as soon as Estes hatches them out and maybe things will change then but as of now he is better than the chickens!


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## Macpaul (Apr 14, 2008)

We lock ours up everynight. They free range in the yard with the chickens. Sometimes getting into the back pasture which means you have to go get them. The hen is lighter so they can fly up onto something but the tom becomes to heavy. My tom will go back in but noone else will. So he keeps coming out. I walk behind them and they go right back in. It can be a pain but it's safer to put them up. Good luck if you get your hen to nest in the coop, mine likes to find a spot in tall weeds. Then it's a game to find her. As she only came back to the coop twice.(every girl need her dirt bath) Glad you got a girl for Lincoln. That means out of 9 only 3 were girls.


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