So far one of the most insurmountable problems on our farm has been just how to keep our heritage Narragansett turkeys in somewhat of a confined area (away from our house and on our property). These turkeys can, unlike their commercial over bred unnatural cousins fly quite well. I have seen them take off and soar for a good 50 yards at 10 feet high without even being startled. I suspect their max flight is at least twice that. While is is quite impressive to see your flock of turkeys take flight together and soar past you... it is also very concerning.
Why? There are several reasons to contain heritage turkeys:
The turkeys are large birds and the rules of nature say that size matters. The tom turkeys are large enough and aggressive enough to attack our dog, a medium sized springer spaniel. We had this problem once before when we were testing the Narragansett breed and decided to give that turkey away after it attacked our dog and became aggressive around our small children. Turkeys do NOT make good pets with small animals or children! Nevertheless this breed is also the tastiest and hardiest of the heritage breeds we have tried. So, the challenge is to keep the turkeys away from the living areas of the farm.
As you can guess, turkeys being larger mean they eat more and poop more. They also tend to be quite human friendly meaning they hang out in the areas where people go. This is a bad combination for walkways, doorsteps, patios, etc. Turkey poop is very valuable as fertilizer, but not on my patio!
- They dominate over other birds
Their size also causes problems with the chickens. Being twice the size or more than a chicken means the turkeys run the show when they intermix. The chickens and even the ducks are driven away so the turkeys have first chance at any food or hunting. This presents a problem for chickens that marginally get enough natural nutrition in the winter months anyway.
Since they fly so well, I occasionally find turkeys in the neighbors yards. This is quite rare but does happen. If we don't learn to contain the turkeys on our property now they could decide that a neighbors house is more attractive then our and go visiting as a flock. Not a way to win friends!
Even though aggressive, turkeys are birds of prey. If left alone I suspect a decent sized dog could feast on one quite easily if provoked. There is a list of predators that would love to find a turkey away from the safety of our land.
So, our quest continues to find a way to contain these birds. Why don't we just clip their wings? Clipping is painless and prevents them from getting off the ground more than a hop. The reason we hesitate is our goal of not altering our animals unnaturally. One reason to stick to this is the predator problem. If they were ever under attack, flight is their means of escape. In this sense, by altering nature, we again become responsible for providing protection completely. As with other situations, the more we do against nature, the more we have to do to sustain.
So, here is a new idea. I have noticed through studying the birds behavior that they really do not normally fly over a 4 foot woven wire fence. my theory is that unless they are escaping in fear, these birds do not wish to fly over nor hop over smoothing this high. They will, however, freely hop ON a gate or cross beam and then hop down. Its apparently hopping OVER that they don't do. Do to this in their nature, when the birds come into our yard it is by hopping on the gates and hopping down as two steps. I have never seen them hop over a fence in 2 years of raising them. So, the thought hit me... why not block off landing on the gates? So that's what I did yesterday. I mounted some light fencing material on top of each gate or board that is a landing spot. If my theory is correct, this should severely limit the occasions of turkeys in our yard.
Here are some pictures to show what was done. keep in mind this is temporary... if the idea works out we will look for a more permanent method.
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| On the main gate I used orange plastic safety fencing. This has no body of itself, but that might be good because it will be a constant nuisance to the birds if they try to roost instead of chicken wire that pushed down and stays. This is also lighter, and perhaps the color a bit scary to the birds. |
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| For the small gate I used thicker 1 inch wire that doesn't need support. This piece was a leftover from the garden fencing. |
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| I wove a couple of fiberglass posts into the chicken wire that is around the sheep shelter. without this the turkeys would push the chicken wire down and sit on it to roost. |
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| The finished product. Might look weird but maybe it will work! |
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| This is an example of the woven wire field fencing that the turkeys will not jump over, even though a building is on one side and a large mound of dirt on the other. |
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