So i ordered 4 broad breasted bronze turkeys for my boy. It started out with us going to the tractor store to get some dog and bird food around easter, and of course, what do they have, baby chicks and ducks. I've raised chickens before, so when my boy asked if we could get a baby duck, I said heck yeah, thinking it'll be a good addition for our koi pond, which is BIG. But, before my 7 year old gets an pet, I make him go home and read up on how to care for it, and he has to pass a quiz on it before I'll let him have it. We'll in our reading we learned the duck may eat our koi and foul the water killing the koi. So back to the drawing board. Since I have raised chickens in the past, and I have a few dogs now, I thought we'd go a little bigger this time. the next week, baby turkeys in the mail. I decided to house them in a large dog crate with all the fixings. When I got them, I made sure they couldn't get out. Well they couldn't, but they could stick their heads through. Long story short, my lab decided to HELP 2 of them get out. Well we had 2 turkeys left, which luckily I believe are a male and female as one is def bigger and his neck is getting red.
They are a little over 6 weeks old and seem mostly feathered out. We've been keeping them in the sunroom until today. Today my 7 year old and I made them a turkey run and modified the dog crate to be a coup. A little 2 hour project that with my sons HELP, only took 7 hours, 3 major cuts, 2 busted toes and all my might not to start cussing, lol. The "coup" and run total about 36 sq feet, but they'll be free most the day in my 7' high fenced in back yard thats about 1/5th an acre.
So I have 3 questions if ya don't mind:
Are they fine without a heatlamp at this point, gonna be about 60 tonight? If so, how cold is too cold at this age?(6 weeks+)
What should I put in there for them to roost on, a big branch?
Thanx a ton for reading the story and TIA for the help!
from New Mexico!
