turkeys are driving me crazy!- is it thanksgiving yet?

so my plan ( seems stupid now) was to let my turkeys free range until they were ready for the dinner plate and then keep a pair or two to reproduce for next year. The problem is that they are already destroying everything with their giant turds.

how do all you turkey people do it? they just fly right over my fenced areas so that doesnt seem like it would work.

I don't know if it feasible for you, but what about a herding breed dog? I havethe same situation but my turkeys only come in my yard when I "invite" them in otherwise they just free range over our 11 acres and stay out. If you are going to raise them long term its a possible solution, with the right dog.

If the problem is them flying over fences, clip the feathers on one wing. They wont get airborne anymore. Just one wing per bird, it unbalances them so they cant fly.

How big is your freezer?

What is the size of your flock and how much property do you have to free range them on?

Big birds make big poop and lots of it.

I free ranged the first time and confined the second. There are advantages and disadvantages to both.

Old thread but had to laugh. Been doing broad-breasted turkeys for a couple years now in our pasture. The pasture area is ~1/4 acre of partly grassy mud really, especially after this ridiculously rainy year, but it USUALLY has decent grass compared to most of the brushy and brambly property around here. Expanding it out next year to include another ~1/4 acre after some additional fence goes up

MY GOD turkeys can be pushy. Royal pains in the behind. Last year our fences weren't quite tall enough and the 15 we ran for the season started flying over in the fall. All the cabbages, kholrabi and kale I had up in the hugles and kratergarten-style pond "shelves" got cored out in no time. Hungry horrors. This year, everyone's getting their wings trimmed when I suspect they may start doing the "fly the coop" routine. At least, the fall crops didn't "go to waste" (they were just converted to turkey...conservation of energy and all that) ... still would have preferred to have had a few cabbages, kales and kholrabi overwinter for seed crops.

Feeding them is something like black friday at target or best buy (back in the day when people had money, anyway). This year with the slick mud so extreme out there, it's downright dangerous. 20 to 40 pound bowling balls on legs charging at you full-speed is NOT FUN.

But the value of turkeys...nothing else has compared. Bug control, fertilizer, "mowing" in the pasture, meats and even egg production in the spring. Even high end layer chickens or cornish cross chickens are distant seconds on the total value per dollar spent.

Love-hate relationships on the homestead are just something you have to get used to I suppose  Harvest day never seems to come soon enough with turkeys!

I didn't realize turkeys were on par with goats!

Historical footnote -- somewhere in my archives is a "turkey knife" that my grandfather forged out of an old sawmill blade. It took me a long time to figure out what it was for -- it pierces through the upper pallet into the brain and causes instant death. And then of course the animal would be bled out. A century ago, people expected to see the attached head; I suppose it indicated the health and age of the animal, and therefore the quality of the meat. I will post a picture if I can.