Wild turkeys are thick on the Western Slope, from the pinon and juniper breaks to the ditch banks below the hayfields. Getting them to spend time on your place comes down to four things: food, water, cover, and a place to roost. Here is how to set your land up for them.

Know What Turkeys Want

Turkeys spend their days on the ground and their nights in trees. A flock needs open ground to scratch and feed, brush or timber to duck into when something spooks them, and tall trees to roost in after dark. On the Western Slope that usually means pinon and juniper country, oak brush, cottonwood bottoms along the ditches and creeks, and the edges of hayfields and pastures.

Give them those four things close together, and turkeys will find your place on their own. Miss one of them, and they will keep walking to the neighbor.

Food: What Pulls Them In

Wild turkeys eat what the country gives them: pinon nuts, acorns from Gambel oak, grass seeds, berries, and insects in the warm months. In fall and winter they key on waste grain and seeds, which is where you come in.

A simple feeding setup beats a fancy one. Scratch grain or cracked corn scattered on open ground near cover gets found fast. Black oil sunflower seeds are another strong draw, and they feed the songbirds too. Put feed out in the same spot, at the same time of day, and keep it coming through winter. Turkeys are creatures of habit, and a reliable food source is what turns visitors into regulars.

We stock black oil sunflower seeds and wild bird seed mixes that work in a platform feeder or scattered on the ground, plus grain options in our poultry and wild bird feed selection. Buy clean, dry grain, and never put out moldy feed. Moldy corn can carry toxins that kill birds.

Water: The Piece Most Folks Forget

Turkeys need water every day, and in winter open water is scarce. A stock tank with a heater, a dripping faucet into a shallow pan, or even a black rubber pan you break ice out of each morning will hold birds on your place when everything else is frozen up. Put water near the feed and near cover, not out in the middle of nowhere.

Cover and Roost Trees: Where They Sleep

Turkeys roost off the ground, usually in the tallest trees around: cottonwoods along the ditch, ponderosa pines on the hill, big junipers in the breaks. If you have roost trees, leave them standing. One chainsaw afternoon can undo years of turkey use.

For daytime cover, brushy ditch banks, oak brush thickets, and field edges give turkeys somewhere to loaf and hide. You do not need to plant anything. Just resist the urge to clean up every brushy corner. The scruffy edges are the whole point.

Winter Flocks

In winter, hens and young birds bunch into flocks, sometimes dozens strong, while toms run in their own smaller groups. This is the best time to watch them, and the best time to feed them, because natural food is thinnest. Start feeding in late fall so the flock has your place mapped before the hard weather hits, and keep it steady until spring green-up. Stopping midwinter leaves birds hanging.

A Few Honest Warnings

• Do not hand-feed or tame them. Turkeys that lose their fear of people become a nuisance fast, and a tame tom in spring is nobody’s friend.
• Know the hunting rules. If you hunt turkeys, check Colorado Parks and Wildlife baiting rules before you feed anywhere near where you hunt. Feeding for viewing and baiting for hunting are different things under the law.
• Think about bears. Take ground feeders in at night in bear country. A feeder that draws bears draws trouble, and it is hard on the turkeys too.
• Keep dogs and cats managed around feeding areas. A loose dog will scatter a flock for good.
• Keep feeders clean. Rake up old hulls and droppings now and then. Crowded, dirty feeding spots spread disease among birds.