Hi All -- Second year in a row I am raising up a bunch (25-30) of heritage breed turkeys for holiday eating. Mostly mixed breed heritage (generally looking like standard bronzes but some lighter) and Bourbon reds.
Last year, I didn't clip wings and these strong flyers would roost all over, but especially on top of the roof of my chicken coop building, which would be fine except that we collect rain from the gutters into rain barrels, and the manure would foul (fowl?) everything and we would have to stop using the water and then disassemble and power wash our rain barrels, yuck.
Hoping to avoid that, earlier in the summer I clipped wings and tried to encourage them to roost in their own area, but they were not having it. Now that flight feathers are growing back in, they are able to fly up on a 4-foot-tall fence, from there hop up onto a low rain gutter, and some are back to the roof and starting to poop it up there. Many are still roosting on just the fence, which is fine, but every few days I am finding more of them up on the roof. (The lower eaves of the roof are only about 7 feet off the ground so as long as the fence abuts the chicken coop, they can pull it off just by jumping and flapping, even with clipped wings.)
Yesterday afternoon I saw a couple hanging out in thr branches of a maple tree that is also next to the the 4' high fence, and has some low branches. They left to go roost with their buddies on the fence/on the chicken coop roof, but if they were to sleep in the maple tree I would be much happier because they would not be fouling the rain water and their manure would fall in an area where it could easily self-compost on the ground.
How can I encourage them to start roosting there? If I made them a ladder into the tree would it make it more tempting for them? What if I relocated sleeping turkeys from the fence to the maple -- would that help them accept sleeping there? I have a slingshot I can use to start harassing them off the roof but I prefer a peaceful transfer of sleeping sites, if possible.
Thanks for any advice you can offer!
Last year, I didn't clip wings and these strong flyers would roost all over, but especially on top of the roof of my chicken coop building, which would be fine except that we collect rain from the gutters into rain barrels, and the manure would foul (fowl?) everything and we would have to stop using the water and then disassemble and power wash our rain barrels, yuck.
Hoping to avoid that, earlier in the summer I clipped wings and tried to encourage them to roost in their own area, but they were not having it. Now that flight feathers are growing back in, they are able to fly up on a 4-foot-tall fence, from there hop up onto a low rain gutter, and some are back to the roof and starting to poop it up there. Many are still roosting on just the fence, which is fine, but every few days I am finding more of them up on the roof. (The lower eaves of the roof are only about 7 feet off the ground so as long as the fence abuts the chicken coop, they can pull it off just by jumping and flapping, even with clipped wings.)
Yesterday afternoon I saw a couple hanging out in thr branches of a maple tree that is also next to the the 4' high fence, and has some low branches. They left to go roost with their buddies on the fence/on the chicken coop roof, but if they were to sleep in the maple tree I would be much happier because they would not be fouling the rain water and their manure would fall in an area where it could easily self-compost on the ground.
How can I encourage them to start roosting there? If I made them a ladder into the tree would it make it more tempting for them? What if I relocated sleeping turkeys from the fence to the maple -- would that help them accept sleeping there? I have a slingshot I can use to start harassing them off the roof but I prefer a peaceful transfer of sleeping sites, if possible.
Thanks for any advice you can offer!
