Turkey and chicken question

[southernmom]

We've never raised turkeys but I am seriously thinking about buying a few little ones to raise up and butcher (next year). We have a nice hoop coop for our chickens-they are out in the barnyard by day and in the coop by night, but it's a nice size place. If I decide on a few turkeys do I need to keep them separate or can I house them together? I've heard it's best to keep them separate. I wanted to get an opinion from y'all.
I've also thought about buying a bunch, raising them up a little and turning them loose in the wooded back pasture and just having them wild around here-maybe throw out a little feed every now and again. Any opinion about that? We'd have a few to eat for the holidays but overall wouldn't mind having them about on the property.
Thanks in advance.

[angeryamerican]

We raised ours in with the chickens and didn't have any issues. They were very docile, the kids could pick them up, we actually have a picture of one of the hens sitting in a roasting pan on the dining room table. The only problem I had with them is they like to get up off the ground, like goats and climbed all over my truck, scratching the hood and roof. Keep that in mind for letting them go. Otherwise, they behaved exactly like the chickens.

[Tex]

SM, I have a thread titled, "Around The Ranch". You can see pics of our birds over there. You can run turkeys with your chickens, but they will get to be a pain in the butt. When our hens started getting broody and hatching out chicks, the turkeys killed a couple before we could get to them and bring them in to raise. The turkeys will also start eating the eggs too. Our have and I haven't got the pen finished yet. I hope to complete that tomorrow. We got ours when they were real small and raised them until they were big enough to make it outside. Just like our chickens, they too got to go out and freerange during the daytime. Now the turkeys are getting to big to go through the little chicken do into the coop. We have to take them out of the pen and through the main door to lock them up at night. Hopefully I will have their pen finished tomorrow so they can be seperated and be a little less trouble. Our plan is to have a new house setup for the birds next year so that the chickens will have a run off of one side and te bigger birds can go out the other.

If you have any other questions let me know. If I don't know it, I will ask the Hostile Native or the Chicken Wrangling Niece.

Starting tomorrow, our turkeys will be on heavy feed for the duration of their lives.

Tex

[southernmom]

Excellent-just what I needed to know. Thanks so much!

[Tex]

N ot a problem. Whenever you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask. Somebody around here will most likely have an answer, or know where to an answer. We are all here to learn and help each other become more self-sufficient. I am very happy to see other people getting back to a more agricultural based lifestyle that our grandparents knew so well.


Tex