The start of our Turkey "Palace" house *updated pics*

So we have 3 days until our 5 bourbon red poults arrive. I have searched BYC, googled tons of online sites read everything I could find(my husband thinks im becoming obbsessed) I call it a new hobby, a new passion, I realized I love poultry. Ive been looking up everything from brooding, feeding, raising, housing, fencing, freeranging, breeding, hatching etc etc etc... Ive found lots of info but will definitely be searching for more. You can never ever learn enough. So because I have not seen thousands of coop ideas lets say like you may for chickens I decided just to wing it like I do most things. Th first house I built recently is for our 2 9 week old BBWs  I had no idea how to house them so I did it similar to the way I would chickens. Some of you may have seen this before in a previous post but here is our pallet baby turkey house built in 2 days with scrap wood total cost $4.79(im so proud of that lol)

Today myself, my Husband, and my Father all worked on what I am calling the Turkey Palace. Like I said I am winging it, they may not even need housing since they are so cold hardy but I have a SMALL fear of predators so I want to lock them away to keep them safe. This is the progress we have made today

Floor, walls, and legs were all made out of free pallets and scrap wood

walls and floor were then covered with plywood

Next we started to frame out the front wall  for the door and the big window my Father salvaged from a house he was remodeling.

It was just about after this picture that I then stepped on a nail( I was stupidly whering flip flops no one to blame but myself)I didnt really cry but kinda wanted to.

It was attched to a small piece of pallet that got broken off and it was standing upright rusty also of course why not. So needless to say I have a trip to the Dr. in the AM for a Tetnus shot. I suppose we should add that to the cost of building the Turkey Palace Cost to be determined...

Ok on with the build

The window was put in place for now just tacked in. It will soon be put up on hinges at the top of the window and the window will be able to open from the bottom and have a support arm on both sides to hold it open to allow fresh air and a breeze. We will attached hardare cloth to the inside of the windoew to keep animals out.

So this week our job will be to hinge the window, roof the house, and build and hinge the door.

Soon after we will add the finish touches inside the house wire on window, vents, roosts, nest box, feeder and water.  Oh and then the run. Hmm wow  I still have lots of work to do. Lol its ok though I like how its turning out

I will add pics as we finish up the job and of the poults when they arrive and also when they move to the big house.

Cost so far on plywood and 2x4s $150.00

and tomorrows trip to the Dr. to be determined

Quote:

Originally Posted by MonsterClucker 

Very nice! I have 2 BBW coming Friday! I'm gonna borrow this idea for sure if that's ok with you? I have about 30 pallets just laying around.

Of course, using pallets is a fantastic way to build I think anyhow. They are free and relatively easy to find. I build a lot with pallets. We built the compost bin a firewoodhouse the small turkey house and the large turkey house. I plan on using them to build more stuff also. Share pics as you go Id love to see them.

Here are our 5 Burbon Red poults. They are 2 1/2 weeks old. We picked them up yesterday and they are the cutest things. They may be sick as they have a little blood in their poop so I have them on corrid just in case.

We plan to work on it more today and tomorrow after hubby gets home from work. Its supposed to rain on sat and sun. So fingers crossed we can finish by tomorrow night if not then hopefully early next week. And thanks they seem much better today. They are very active flying out of the brooder, perching on the roosts, and eating and drinking on there own. Im hoping it was all just stress from the transport to a new home. I havent seem blood today. But I will continue the meds just to be safe.

To put the floor pallets together we laid them side by side and slid a piece of wood about 2x2 wide and almost 5ft in length inbetween each pallet and nailed really well. Then we took a 2x6 and cut it int 6inch sections and nailed it were 2 pallets would connect to secure it better and we did that all acroos the front  also a row in the middle and then along the back. We then cut peicecs pressure treated 4x4 cut to 6 inch lenghts and nailed it to the 2x6s as the legs.

To attach the walls to the floor we laid each pallet down the long way ontop of the floor and stacked another pallet on top so 2 pallets wade one wall. We happened to have extra pieces of wood from the pallets roughly 4in x less than 1 inch and put it on an open ares on the pallet front and back to make sure the pallets were attched and we also did it a little lower so the floor and the bottom pallet could be nailed together using the same type of wood nailed onto the wall pallet then the floor pallet.

 the pallet walls seamd a little wobbly at first but once we had all 3 walls connected and started the plywood then the frame in the front it all tied in now nothing can move it.

you might be able to see what I mean in these other pics I just found. Sorry if it sounds confusing  Im not good at explaining how it was done. My husband was just nailing up a storm as I handed him boards.

So here are some updated pics for todays work on the turkey house,

3 window hinges and we added hardware cloth inside the window are and above also for ventilation

2 window handles so we can open the window

My daughter holding window open for the pic

Roof got framed out with 2x4s

another shot of underside of roof to show 2x4s

plywood was being added on top of 2x4s and nailed down

Pywood complete and edges were sawed off to finish up the roof.

We plan to do more later this afternoon if it doesnt rain.

total cost so far

original plywood and 2x4=$150

ice and water sheild for roof=$100

Hardware cloth=$50

3 hinges and 2 handles=$15.00

additional 2x4=$27.00

oh and the dr visit=$94 and a bill on the way