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| The finished turkey roost with side roost added |
Follow along our adventure as we make the transition from corporate city life to the world of natural farming. Each day brings a new experience and brings us to a deeper understanding about the life and spirit that made America great. At our farm we do our best to give the animals we raise a natural, free, happy, stressfree lifestyle. Our mission is to learn and share how to manage a farming operation that is both profitable and humane.
Wednesday, November 17, 2010
Turkey Roost "tree" gets added side roost
After realizing that the new artificial tree we built for the turkey roost is too high for the toms to fly up to it, I decided to add a side "branch" to make it more appealing. We built two arms, extending out about 3 feet from two of the posts, about half way up. Lag screw and nails fastened it. Then we nailed 16 foot 2x4's across the arms for roosts, leaving about a foot of space between each one. When finished, it looked like a big jungle gym.
As we watched, the turkey slowly collected around and the hens were again first to find their way up. The toms milled around underneath until about sundown, when they finally gave in and hopped up. They did not show the same desire to return to the sheep shelter! Apparently we are going in the right direction!
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UPDATE: it worked! today was the first day that the turkeys stayed inside hte turkey pasture all day and put themselves to bed on the new roost without any encouragement from me. This is truly exciting, as it says we are on the right track to be able to handle the expanded flock next year.
ReplyDeleteSo in the end what worked so far is a combination of providing the right environment inside the pasture and adding enough containment to prevent easy exit. the orange safety fence at 3 feet is so far enough to stop them from jumping or flying over the fence, even with it only covering the west side of hte pasture between their spot and the other structures. apparently the turkeys are not smart enough to know how to go around the safety fence to reach the orchard or sheep shelter. if they cant go directly to it, they give up.
the other aspect is providing a roost of the proper height out in the open. they do not like to go inside the pen to roost, and they wont go up on something too high for comfort.
the next few days will show how consistent this is, but i think we are on the right track!
UPDATE: I am happy to report that now, 2 months after building hte original roost, the turkeys have accepted it as "home". It is rare that we see them roosting anywhere else. Even when they spend the day hanging around the gate at the end of hte pasture, by nightfall they are back on the roost.
ReplyDeleteMy next goal is to figure out how to make this portable! For now each post is sitting in a 3 foot deep hole to stablilize it. Building a base to enable pulling it around will require quite a bit of bracing.