Turkeys Coming To Roost

[Rural-urbanite]

I have had turkeys and chickens. They were never housed together, or even mingled together (I’m a stickler for biosecurity and npip recommendations).

One thing that always sucked, was that the turkeys ALMOST NEVER returned to their giant turkey-friendly coop when the sun set—and the random and few days that they did!?—their reasoning could have been anything, but it wasn’t consistent.
They would bed down in tall grass; I would have to find them in the dark, and gather them with a makeshift Shepherd stick made out of a long narrow branch (to corral and guide them).
As you can imagine, this was a daily hassle, annoyance, and sadly, reduced their true free-roam time compared to what it could have been & compared to the chickens, who brought themselves home every night, leaving me with the simple task of locking up. Luckily, the turkeys’ run was very big, almost huge. But still...

And as all of you know without needing to know a thing about me; I will have poultry again.
I’d really like to have a better experience with the good ole turks next time around.

Any Tips? Info? Resources?
Love & Thanks

ASH

 

[casportpony]

Interesting, the few I have always return to roost. Let me see if I can find some people to help.