Turkeys and Electric Netting

[Berd Man]

Does anyone range heritage turkeys using electric netting? I am new to keeping turkeys, I hatched 10 Narragansett poults about a week ago now and will have a few weeks before they go out to pasture. My plan is to grow them out and retain a tom and 3, maybe 4 hens…

But my plan may be foiled because due to my living situation and my infrastructure, I do not have an option to confine them in a “run”. I have a coop / shelter for them with a roost for nighttime, but in the day they will range contained by electro netting fence that’s 48” tall. I have ranged geese, ducks, and chickens with this netting. I know heritage turkeys are adept at flying but I believe (perhaps incorrectly) I could train them to netting and to range with other fowl in large movable pastures.

 

[R2elk]

They can jump right over a 4' high fence without flying.

 

[Berd Man]

They can jump right over a 4' high fence without flying.

Yea I figured they probably could. I was wondering if it was something they were capable of respecting if “taught” or introduced at right size/age. I have some geese that can hop / flap right over but I have many that never even try. It’s not terrible if they get over the fence. I have cool neighbors and I’m in a very rural area with relatively low traffic roads around me. I worry more about predation if they stray deep into woods.

 

[R2elk]

Yea I figured they probably could. I was wondering if it was something they were capable of respecting if “taught” or introduced at right size/age. I have some geese that can hop / flap right over but I have many that never even try. It’s not terrible if they get over the fence. I have cool neighbors and I’m in a very rural area with relatively low traffic roads around me. I worry more about predation if they stray deep into woods.

If they go over the fence, they will likely run along the fence wanting back in.

 

[Berd Man]

Or join a few of the geese and loiter around my back porch.

 

[Finnie]

They might just learn to stay inside the netting with the flock for the most part. But they also will occasionally become full of beans, run around flapping their wings and taking off flying, just for fun and exercise.

When I had turkeys inside a 5-strand electric wire fence (probably about 3 feet high), they almost always stayed inside it. Only occasionally when one of them got the zoomies, would that one find itself outside the fence, and then it was stressed out trying to get back with its friends. If it figured out that it could walk back in between the wires, it was fine. If it didn’t, after a while I would have to go out there, open the gate, and start herding it alongside the fence towards the gate. Almost every time it would panic and run in between the wires before reaching the gate. (Ha ha, other times it would run right past the open gate and start pacing the wire on the other side!) I don’t think my wire was very hot.

 

[Berd Man]

They might just learn to stay inside the netting with the flock for the most part. But they also will occasionally become full of beans, run around flapping their wings and taking off flying, just for fun and exercise.

When I had turkeys inside a 5-strand electric wire fence (probably about 3 feet high), they almost always stayed inside it. Only occasionally when one of them got the zoomies, would that one find itself outside the fence, and then it was stressed out trying to get back with its friends. If it figured out that it could walk back in between the wires, it was fine. If it didn’t, after a while I would have to go out there, open the gate, and start herding it alongside the fence towards the gate. Almost every time it would panic and run in between the wires before reaching the gate. (Ha ha, other times it would run right past the open gate and start pacing the wire on the other side!) I don’t think my wire was very hot.

Thank you for your response. I know what you mean by the zoomies. My geese sometimes get like this on breezy days and find themselves aloft going over the fence, then they end up doing the back and forth trying to get back in.

Were your turkeys heritage breeds? It seems with some degree of success turkeys can be ranged in poultry netting. I found a video where Joe Salatin at Polyface Farms is using netting for turkeys in a rotational system, they were broad breasted whites though… I’m inclined to think they are considerably less active than heritage varieties. Perhaps with the other birds in there and plenty to eat and be distracted by they won’t want to fly out so much.

 

[Berd Man]

I do think perhaps these will end up being back porch turkeys as I’ve mentioned before… we have a problem imprinting on birds here lol

 

[R2elk]

I’ve mentioned before… we have a problem imprinting on birds here lol

You may come to regret that once the toms are mature.

 

[Berd Man]

You may come to regret that once the toms are mature.

It’s entirely possible. Even probable. We had this happen with ganders. They’re always the friendliest and eventually those hormones kick in. That’s why we bought a plucker