This very sweet and friendly turkey showed up on our farm yesterday. I've never seen a wild turkey here in central Virginia but they do exist here. She (I think?) is alone, very friendly with my kids and follows them around, and really likes our young chickens and wants to hang out with them. She drank readily from a poultry waterer and has been here all night and all day today, and we'd love to keep her around and keep her safe if she isn't wild. We made her a makeshift run and gave her a large dog igloo to sleep in but she's not interested in going in the dog igloo yet. If she ends up staying we will of course build her a turkey appropriate run and with a shed with roosting bars etc. We did buy her a bag of turkey feed from our local feed store. I'm just trying to figure out if we can keep her before we build her a house!
So my questions are: Can anyone tell me if this is in fact a domestic turkey? And if it's male or female? We will definitely get some more turkey friends for her if she stays around and isn't wild. If it helps, she has opened her wings a few times but doesn't seem able to fly, but her wings don't appear to be clipped. Also, can turkeys free roam like chickens? We have an acre of cleared land next to our house that our chickens run around during the day when we're outside, surrounded by woods that the chickens don't venture into. I'm hoping this turkey could help deter predators from coming after our chickens during the day even if we're in the house, and they'd all be in their respective shelters at night.
Thanks in advance and please excuse me if I'm just a crazy lady trying to adopt a wild turkey lol. We'll leave her alone if she's wild!