turkey owners in *cold northern* areas - what housing do you use?

[pdpatch]

We have a chevy van the I cut the front off . and removed the interior furniture. There run is a large metal cage 10 feet by 25 feet.

The van still has it's insulation in it, when the temps went down to -30 or so we added a milk house heater for a few days.

There is 5 Spanish black hens and two tom's in it

Tom

 

[patandchickens]

Quote:
Did your husband let you eat ANY of them, then?

Important housing note: apparently clipping a wing did not deter them from flapping up over the 12' high wall and into the open hayloft, whence they can flap their way out through a ventilation shutter that was left open in late fall and is now frozen in place.

LOL. I always look forward to coming across your posts, Rosalind

I've thought about keeping them in my horse barn (which is only used for horses about 2-3 nights per year and even then has empty stalls) but there is a persistant and intractable rat problem I'd rather not feed.

Thanks again to *everyone* for the very helpful feedback! I feel pretty good about my plans now. Just have to decide exactly what to build... which of course is the *fun* part...

Pat​

 

[NancyinAlaska]

Hi,
I'm in Alaska where it gets down to -40 sometimes for 2 weeks, that's when I start PRAYING FOR CLOUDS!!!!!

I've got 2 coops, the turkeys, 4 of them are in the 16x8 with about 40 hens and 4 roo's. My coop is well insulated with fiberglass r19 and visqueen, I'm going to put linoleum on the wall this summer. I have lights on a timer, 2 100 watt halogen, on at 6am, off at 9pm. No heat light till it's below -20. I have 3 blue slates and 1 wild. The wild hen likes to roost outside no matter how cold it is, they all go in at night however. The turkeys seem to be out even more than the chickens.








My run outside for them is pretty big, I've never measured it, the turkeys seem to be outside for most of the day no matter how cold it is. I think they're pretty cool, my tom's just started strutting his stuff and I talk to him and get him all red in the face:yiipchick

 

[fowler_chick]

i grew up in Quebec so i know how those -25 nights are!!, now living in kansas the only shelter my turkey has is a 55 gal drum to hide in from the winter wind, if it get's to cold he then get's put in the chicken coop with the girls.