Posted: 8/2/2013 4:05:02 PM EDT
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We've had turkeys for a few years now and are currently working on the 3rd generation bred and hatched on the farm. Currently have ten poults in the brooder and almost ready to go on pasture.
Thought this pic was amusing enough to post......other than the complaining poult, you can see we have high quality help right in the background. 
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The wife has raised 2 turkeys. They are getting pretty big. They are very friendly, you can Pet them, and they like to hang around you.
We have both hunted and killed a LOT of wild turkeys and we cook and eat them... I wanted to name her two "pet" turkeys Thanksgiving, and Christmas...  
But she will not let us eat them... So we named them Gomer, and Goober... 
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I have three heritage sweetgrass turkeys that I bought as an experiment.
They will follow me around and fly up on my shoulders.... Feathers are getting to be very colorful...beautiful birds... They have not been hard to raise at all...and require almost no shelter...just a shady area and a roost. I was told by the guy I bought mine from that they prefer to be outside even in the worst weather... Heritage birds take a bit longer to raise than conventional broad breast varieties..they also reproduce naturally and like to fly. The meat is said to be of a much higher quality... I think I'm going to buy half a dozen more next year.... http://www.porterturkeys.com/sweetgrass.htm http://squawbuttepoultry.weebly.com/sweetgrass.html |
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They do excellently on pasture! Gotta have them in an enclosure though. These birds fly very well.  Do use turkey tractors? we are trying to keep these two turkeys in the pen for at least week to hopefully convince them to hang around before we try to let them wander but I am worried they may take off and never return.... might pick up a dog run and use that as a pen that we can move around every day |
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Will a turkey stay in a 6' fenced area? My chicken run is 90'x70'. I'd like to do a few for meat birds next year. A six foot high fence won't keep turkeys in unless it has a roof. First they'll roost on the fence then they'll jump down to the other side. The first year we had turkeys we let them free range (that was before we had the turkey killing dog.) It wasn't such a bad arrangement until the birds decided they wanted to hang out on the neighbor's porch and shit on his sidewalk. |
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Do use turkey tractors? we are trying to keep these two turkeys in the pen for at least week to hopefully convince them to hang around before we try to let them wander but I am worried they may take off and never return.... might pick up a dog run and use that as a pen that we can move around every day Yes, we keep them in moveable field shelters a.k.a. "Chicken tractors." We adapted the design linked here to include a door: http://sfc.smallfarmcentral.com/dynamic_content/uploadfiles/1297/mhpen.pdf |
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Yes, we keep them in moveable field shelters a.k.a. "Chicken tractors." We adapted the design linked here to include a door: http://sfc.smallfarmcentral.com/dynamic_content/uploadfiles/1297/mhpen.pdf Quoted:
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Do use turkey tractors? we are trying to keep these two turkeys in the pen for at least week to hopefully convince them to hang around before we try to let them wander but I am worried they may take off and never return.... might pick up a dog run and use that as a pen that we can move around every day Yes, we keep them in moveable field shelters a.k.a. "Chicken tractors." We adapted the design linked here to include a door: http://sfc.smallfarmcentral.com/dynamic_content/uploadfiles/1297/mhpen.pdf Thanks for the help, we will probably try the dog run this year and improve upon it once we get more birds |
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Thanks for the help, we will probably try the dog run this year and improve upon it once we get more birds Quoted:
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Do use turkey tractors? we are trying to keep these two turkeys in the pen for at least week to hopefully convince them to hang around before we try to let them wander but I am worried they may take off and never return.... might pick up a dog run and use that as a pen that we can move around every day Yes, we keep them in moveable field shelters a.k.a. "Chicken tractors." We adapted the design linked here to include a door: http://sfc.smallfarmcentral.com/dynamic_content/uploadfiles/1297/mhpen.pdf Thanks for the help, we will probably try the dog run this year and improve upon it once we get more birds I use a bunch of dog runs stiched together. I have welded wire on the top... I dug a trench 1 ' deep around the entire thing and ran 4' hardware cloth around the permitter. You can buy the fencing hardware at Lowes...you can even make your own chain link sections if you have to (I did). I bought almost all of the pre-made panel sections used on craigslist. The turkeys sleep on a roost that I built for them... I have a section of tin roofing on top to give them a little shelter from rain/snow and to keep there food dry, but that's it. The first 100 square feet is for the chickens...with coop...the next 230 square feet is for the turkeys.... 
Turkeys are twice as big since that picture was taken. Plans for simple turkey roost and hints on raising turkeys... http://www.uaf.edu/files/ces/publications-db/catalog/anr/LPM-00441.pdf |
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Thanks for the info, we bought just a single dog run from Tractor supply and we plan on moving it around the yard like a turkey tractor type thing. Our turkeys are doing a lot better now that they are out of the hardware store and in sunshine eating bugs and grass.
Here are ours "thanking" us for the enclosure by immediately getting out,... 
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They look just like Rio Grande Wlld turkeys... Quoted:
They look just like Rio Grande Wlld turkeys... They are a heritage breed that is a cross with the eastern wild turkey: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narragansett_Turkey The Narragansett Turkey is a breed of Meleagris gallopavo which descends from a cross between the Eastern Wild Turkey (Meleagris gallopavo silvestris) and the domestic turkey brought to Colonial America by English and other European colonists beginning in the 17th century. According to the American Livestock Breeds Conservancy, the Narragansett Turkey is a "historic variety, unique to North America" and is named for Narragansett Bay |
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6' fence won't keep a turkey in as said.
We started with 14 in the first generation. Blackhead got most of them. 2 Survived, we got one more...and they had 2 clutches of 10 and 12...of those, 2 chicks survived...blackhead and natural "causes". Possibly the dumbest animals I've ever had. Saw a pallet crush one of the chicks. Wind blew it over and it didn't fall fast at all...teetered for a second and the turkey stood right underneath it and just stared up at it as it came down...splat! We have 1 of the 1st generation left. Fabio...he's a real piece of work with a temper to match. A royal palm. Beautiful bird, just not smart at all. I want to eat him, but the family insists that he is a pet... |