It's been about a month since we moved the turkeys from stage 2 to stage 3, and a good time to reflect on what I've learned. Initially, I didn't have a well thought out plan for moving the electronet fencing. I bought two fences, thinking in my head that I would be able to move the turkeys from a paddock created by one fence to a paddock created by the next. Unfortunately, this only works once, because the "gate" to the paddock is created by the end posts of the fence. I can line the gates of both paddocks up adjacent to eachother and move the turkeys through the gate, but then the gate for the second paddock is facing the wrong direction to move the turkeys the next time. Duh! And Doh!
My intermediate solution was to lay the posts and thus the fence on the ground to create an opening for the turkeys to walk over into the new paddock. This worked okay, but it was a pain to move the shelters over the grounded fence and I worried that I would eventually damage my expensive fence. It was also not so easy to get the turkeys to move through the "gate" on their own volition. I ended up needing to incrementally move the back "wall" of the first paddock closer to the "gate," slowly shrinking the paddock until the turkeys felt compelled to move into the second paddock. It was in the awkwardness of this maneuver that it hit on me how to do this much more efficiently.
For the last three weeks I've been using the following method: I start with a super paddock of two fences creating a large circular enclosure. The four turkey shelters are in the middle with feeders hanging protected under the tarped portion. Water is provided by my automatic watering system.
My intermediate solution was to lay the posts and thus the fence on the ground to create an opening for the turkeys to walk over into the new paddock. This worked okay, but it was a pain to move the shelters over the grounded fence and I worried that I would eventually damage my expensive fence. It was also not so easy to get the turkeys to move through the "gate" on their own volition. I ended up needing to incrementally move the back "wall" of the first paddock closer to the "gate," slowly shrinking the paddock until the turkeys felt compelled to move into the second paddock. It was in the awkwardness of this maneuver that it hit on me how to do this much more efficiently.
For the last three weeks I've been using the following method: I start with a super paddock of two fences creating a large circular enclosure. The four turkey shelters are in the middle with feeders hanging protected under the tarped portion. Water is provided by my automatic watering system.
Every day I start out my moving the four shelters about 10 feet toward fresh grass. Then I fill the feeders and move the waterers 10 feet as well. With the room I've created at the old grass side of the paddock, I can move the fence one post at a time by moving each post 10 feet closer to the fresh grass. By the time I've moved all the posts, the entire paddock has moved 10 feet forward, creating a large strip of fresh grass.
Fresh grass strip
Oh, and I disconnect the electric wire from the fence during the move and reattach after the move. With my existing network of fence wire, this is easy peasy. All in all, this system works great. It's fast, easy, can be performed by one person, and keeps the turkeys happy!
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