Turkeys will roost near food and water sources. The birds will roost alone and in unfamiliar trees. Other than nesting hens, which roost on the ground, Rio Grande wild turkeys roost in trees or on man-made structures. Shelter: Turkeys roost overnight in large, mature trees, and planting deciduous trees in a thick patch or leaving a woodland border intact adjacent to the yard will help provide that shelter. Other small properties with wild turkeys, however, might only hold one attractive element. Further, these turkeys fly pretty well. Wild Turkeys live year-round in open forests with interspersed clearings in 49 states (excluding Alaska), parts of Mexico, and parts of southern Alberta, Ontario, Manitoba, and Saskatchewan, Canada. You might go days at a time without hearing a bird which can drain your patience for staying in the woods. Learning how to locate turkeys and locating gobblers can be maddening. Wild turkeys sleep in the branches of trees at night. Tall scrub brush, mature shrubbery, and a large brush pile or wood pile can also help provide shelter that will attract wild turkeys. Our job is not so much to control the turkeys but to provide them with shelter they can choose to use and to design pens to … To conserve energy, wild turkeys primarily walk. Turkeys roost communally, meaning that every night, a group of turkeys gather together to rest in a particular area. Turkeys in northeastern North America use mature oak-hickory forests and humid forests of red oak, beech, cherry, and white ash. Turkeys will fly into a sidehill tree from above, or from a neighboring slope. The dog igloo to me would work well for a nesting area for the hen but on the ground not elevated, turkey hens tend to be ground layers from my personally experience anyhow. Search for feathers, turkey dung, scratchings etc……you’ll know the roost trees when you find them. Many turkey keepers find their turkeys refusing even a roof and roosting on top of fences or in trees during the worst of New England winters. Shelter: Turkeys roost overnight in large, mature trees, and planting deciduous trees in a thick patch or leaving a woodland border intact adjacent to the yard will help provide that shelter. They should have a coop with roosts inside it for sleeping, as well as the outside roost for during the day. Maybe a 40-acre chunk has some big pines where turkeys roost but do little else. The obvious places to look for roost include rivers, creeks, and around lakes and pond. Perhaps a farmer’s 30-acre field often pulls hungry birds from neighboring timber. Turkeys will roost out of the wind if possible. They roost over water, either the creek and nearby hardwoods, or near the swamp it drains to — they favor a nearby white pine stand there, flanking the swamp. Book online! They also prefer big trees with an abundance of … The roost will more than likely be within 100 – 150 yards or so. I shot two turkeys near a roost a couple of weeks ago. In some areas turkeys will use artificial roost structures. The perfect turkey roosts will have maximum exposure to the sun. Wild turkeys do not roost in just any tree. Wild Turkey usually nest in a shallow depression on the ground lined with leaves and gasses that is well concealed in thick shrugs or woodlands, and within ~ 1/4 mi of available water.