Traveling with turkeys

[exop]

I had plans to take a two year old Narragansett male to a poultry show this weekend, but I guess I didn't think it through enough. It looks as if he may not be a willing passenger. Only a 2 hour car trip, but I want both him and the vehicle to arrive in one piece.

For those of you who take your turkeys to shows, what is the best way of containing the turkey? Do you restrain them in some way? Does one need to start planning well ahead of time and "practice" road travel so the turkey is less worried about what is going on? How about getting the turkey into the show, and the cooping process?

Box vs. cage, is a box a bad idea? Considering his unhappiness at being in a vehicle at all, I have been considering a triple walled cardboard box (like riding mowers are shipped in) with padding on the ceiling, to stop him from hurting himself; but also wondered if being shut in a dark space would only make him more panicky. If this is going to end badly I would just as soon leave him at home. Some visitors to my place the other day were talking about how they had seen an assortment of scabby birds at the local sale barn last weekend, including one turkey who had an obviously broken wing with the bone sticking out; and now I can imagine how that might have happened.

Thanks - exop

 

[Fat Man]

 

[exop]

A dog cage?

Something you personally have had success with, or just an idea?

I'm pretty sure there is still a lot of potential for the turkey to hurt himself. For the price (these things aren't cheap, plastic or not) I would want to be pretty sure it would work well before I put down the money. If anyone here shows turkeys, I'd love to hear from you!

Thanks - exop

 

[exop]

Sorry - double post. Blame the browser or the web page.

Best - exop

 

[Haida]

I was hoping someone had posted more info... I was wondering the same thing.

I have traveled with day old poults before, and they were in a dark but airy space--when I got them home and opened the box, they were all passed out and sleeping. I don't know if it will work on my guys now that they're older (about 3 months).

Maybe someone else will post.

 

[memphis]

I used a size 400 airline crate to transport. Put a bunch of wood shavings in the bottom, shoved my turkey in it and off we went. He never made a sound. I used a 4 wheel dolly to roll him to my coop. The crate weighs about 20 pounds. Wasn't going to a show, just moving. You can also drape a towel or sheet over the crate to darken it. My turkey is friendly & easy to handle but had never been in a vehicle before. He handled it well. Used the same crate to move both my hens. They shared the crate but I draped it with a towel. They did well also!

 

[chknoodles]

He has been to 2 shows and now is a bigger bird. The first show, we put him in a very large plastic dog kennel. He traveled well in it with no complaints. However, when we got to the show, they did not have a cage big enough and the judge had limited view of him in that dog crate....still got a blue tho. So for the next show, we got a collapsible Pet Lodge wire dog kennel. It was like $79 at Stockdales. It comes with a plastic liner and we put our boy in there for the last show. He talked most of the trip, which was a 2 hour drive. We had a problem with him sliding around on the liner tho and the pine chips working their way out of the cage and into the back of our suv. He traveled better in the dog kennel.