New to this

Hello! My two sons have chose to raise Turkeys for their 4-H project this year and we are very new to it all. The only "knowledge" that we have is the little bit of research that I have read up on on what we're getting into and their project books.

The turkey chicks are about 2 weeks old now, and seem to be growing and are happy.


My question is, what do you house your turkeys in when they're bigger? How much space do they need? We have 3 I have a general idea on what I need to do, but was just wondering what everyone else's set up looked like?

Ive read some things that says they need 4 sqft per bird im still trying to hatch mine i had 11 out of 12 eggs showing life a week later i candled again looks like im down to 2 or 3 alive.

justgene said:

Hello! My two sons have chose to raise Turkeys for their 4-H project this year and we are very new to it all. The only "knowledge" that we have is the little bit of research that I have read up on on what we're getting into and their project books.

The turkey chicks are about 2 weeks old now, and seem to be growing and are happy.


My question is, what do you house your turkeys in when they're bigger? How much space do they need? We have 3 I have a general idea on what I need to do, but was just wondering what everyone else's set up looked like?

Click to expand...

I put my two turkeys (a tom and a hen) in an old little tykes playhouse that I converted for them. One roosting bar for them to share, that I rested on the window frames that were opposite each other, put a tarp over the whole thing , covering the back and side windows but leaving the front window exposed and facing away from where we typically get wind. I put an old feed bag on the front as a flap that I could drop down at night to give them privacy and keep out the rain, it tucked into the front door nicely. Then, just a latch attached to keep the door shut, because the tom did not like to sleep in the playhouse voluntarily. If he had his druthers, he would have druther sleep on the roof.

I made a floor for the "coop" out of an old pallet and put some bamboo mats covered with shredded paper from my work's paper shredder.
I also had to make a fence to keep them in from time to time. I liked to just let them wander, but, turkeys get really upset when something changes, like your children have friends over, or in my case when my grandkids came to visit. The turkeys bark like a seal at any perceived danger or change, and won't stop until you put them in their safe place. So, I used hardware wire and staked out a large enough area for them to walk around, but, small enough that they felt secure, it ended up being 20 ft long and 12 feet wide, including the playhouse inside.

You will need 4 sq ft per bird for sure. They will pick at each other if they feel cramped. We probably could have put a third turkey in that playhouse, but, that would have been pushing it really. If we had three we would have had to look more at a shed, or at least a larger playhouse.