I over did it! Need help feeling in over my head.

Ok, so Im completely new to poultry and as always I let my excitement get the best of me and I over did things to the max. I ordered 15 turkey poults and 20 chicks from efowl.com due to arrive on June 4th-5th. I have no real experience doing this just thought I would figure it out as I go with help form this forum and other online resources. Im finding myself very concerned about space requirements for all the birds I bought. - 10 Bourbon Reds, 5 Royal Palms, 10 Silver Laced Wyandottes, 10 Rhode Island Reds. I live on an 8 acre mostly wooded piece of property in south central WI.. I have all the room in the world for them but currently no shelter set up outdoors. Id like to breed all these guys and keep a flock of all the breeds here on my property.

How much space will I need to brood 15 turkeys? I have no outdoor building of any kind so this will have to be done in a small unfinished room in my basement. If I have to I can build stackable brooders but how many square feet will I need before they are ready to go outside full time considering its almost June? I've read chickens are 2 square feet per chick so I already have my work cut out for me.

What will I need to house most of them outdoors? I only plan on slaughtering a few of them before spring of '14. Does anyone in my climate have any pictures of their turkey pen and or fenced in run I can borrow ideas from??? Can I keep the turkeys and chickens together? I realize I should have started smaller but Im determined to make this work. Any help is welcome.

Thanks,

Josh

Welcome to the world of "I have too many". I have been living in that world for 10 years and I never learn. As a matter of fact, I currently live in that world right now.

All I can say is WOW!!!

Well, the first thing that I would do, is log off of BYC and go build shelter. But before you log off, you will need the info that you are asking about.

Where do you live? What type of climate do you have?

You will also need to contact your local Ag office to get more information about Blackhead and if it is prevalent in your area. If it is, you will not want to raise your chicks and poults together. They will have to be brooded in separate brooders and in separate quarters once they get bigger to go outside.
http://www.millerhatcheries.com/information/diseases/blackhead_disease.htm
http://www.thepoultrysite.com/artic...d-organic-poultry-blackhead-in-turkeys-part-2
http://archive.defra.gov.uk/foodfarm/farmanimal/diseases/atoz/blackhead/


Housing Turkeys
http://www.albc-usa.org/documents/turkeymanual/ALBCturkey-6.pdf

Chicken Coop Requirements
http://smallfarm.about.com/od/chickens/a/Chicken-Coop-Requirements.htm

My brooders could be anything from a large card board box, a plastic shipping container tote or large shipping crate. They stay in their until they are big enough to go outside. If it is too cold outside, I have heat lamps plugged in so they don't freeze to death.

My latest FREE shipping crate/brooder.





Turkey Feed - 30% Protein. This is what I feed my poults. Chicks won't need that much. You can get away with a 20% protein if both of them will be brooded together. 30 % protein will definitely fatten them up for 2014.



If your turkeys will be with chicks, the chicks will teach them how to eat and drink. If they will be alone, you will need to teach them how to eat. Here are pics of my set up when I the poults are alone.








When I allow the mom to raise them, I don't have anything to worry about. Just make sure that no other animal can get to the babies and kill them. I would never allow a Tom to be with poults. He will try to kill them.







Pic of Outside Pen made from recycled materials.





Poults outside in stalls with Sand.



3 1/2 month old poults outside.








I have chicken coops/houses/stalls and they have the option to roost with the others but prefer to roost on top of the chicken house and coops or up high like the next set of pics.


















Turkeys CAN fly and can get THIS high up.





Predators
Does your area have predators? If so, they will definitely need housing to protect them. If not, one day you will look up and you will not have any chickens or turkeys.

And if you don't have any turkeys, you won't have any of these.



And then you would miss out on this cute little face.


Final Results of a few of my turkeys








Other links you may want to read.
http://www.albc-usa.org/downloads.html

Once you adsorb all of that, then you may want to hear about diseases, worming, bumblefoot, etc. If you have a lot of mosquitoes, you will need to be concerned with avian pox and it turning into wet pox.

I hope that this has helped you.

Please post if you have any more questions.

Thank you kuntrygirl for the info and links. I am hatching turkeys this weekend and this will help me formulate how I house them along with my chickens. I had already decided to separate them and it is good to see how you have done it. I am still in the design phase of my coops and houses and everyone is waiting in the brooders patiently and not so patiently sometimes.

Wow, kuntrygirl, your post makes me want to raise turkeys now, too. Turkeys don't count toward chicken math, do they?

And don't worry, RoosterJosh, we all kind of end up over our heads at some point......and most of us newbies DO start out that way. Good luck and keep us posted. We want pics!

1cheepchick said:

Thank you kuntrygirl for the info and links. I am hatching turkeys this weekend and this will help me formulate how I house them along with my chickens. I had already decided to separate them and it is good to see how you have done it. I am still in the design phase of my coops and houses and everyone is waiting in the brooders patiently and not so patiently sometimes.

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You are very welcome. I didn't realize how carried away I got with the information.

I will be posting another thread with some of the same information but will be titled differently so that others can find it.

jewels621 said:

Wow, kuntrygirl, your post makes me want to raise turkeys now, too. Turkeys don't count toward chicken math, do they?

And don't worry, RoosterJosh, we all kind of end up over our heads at some point......and most of us newbies DO start out that way. Good luck and keep us posted. We want pics!

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No turkeys don't count as chicken math, they count as turkey math.

Perfect! I believe I said I wouldn't get anymore CHICKENS! Hmmmmm......

Wow thanks everyone. Kuntrygirl I've read in other posts that you are the one to ask for help when it comes to turkeys. I see what everyone means now. I hope I can come to you with future questions as they come up. To answer your question I live in South central Wisconsin which makes for pretty cold and snowy winters. I see you live in LA so do I need to do anything differently than the pics you posted of your shelter. How many birds do you house in all of your buildings? The other question I need answered right away is how many square feet per turkey in the brooder? Chickens too if different. Seeing as I have no shelter built yet I'd like to leave them in there as long as possible to give me time to build them a few houses and pens. So how many sq. feet per bird, and what the max time they can stay in a brooder indoors in my basement?

Thank you too Jewels621 for the reassurance, glad Im not the only one with eyes to big for my free time. lol

RoosterJosh said:

Wow thanks everyone. Kuntrygirl I've read in other posts that you are the one to ask for help when it comes to turkeys. I see what everyone means now. I hope I can come to you with future questions as they come up. To answer your question I live in South central Wisconsin which makes for pretty cold and snowy winters. I see you live in LA so do I need to do anything differently than the pics you posted of your shelter. How many birds do you house in all of your buildings? The other question I need answered right away is how many square feet per turkey in the brooder? Chickens too if different. Seeing as I have no shelter built yet I'd like to leave them in there as long as possible to give me time to build them a few houses and pens. So how many sq. feet per bird, and what the max time they can stay in a brooder indoors in my basement?

Thank you too Jewels621 for the reassurance, glad Im not the only one with eyes to big for my free time. lol

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Sure, you can always ask questions and I will try my best to help you. How cold are your winters there? Our winters here are probably your summers. I have open air coops because of the heat and I want ventilation. However, I do know that some people who have cold winters also have open air coops. But you may not want to build open air coops. That would be your personal choice.

As far as housing my birds. I currently have space for about 200 more chickens. I have ample space so they have their picks as far as where they want to roost for the night. The stalls (long building) that you see can hold A BUNCH of chickens. There are 4 stalls and 3 roosts per stall for a total of 12 roosts. Each roosts can fit about 10 chickens per roosts, so you're looking at 120 chickens in that long building. The open air raised coop can hold about 35 chickens. The red chicken coop holds about 60 chickens. I have several other coops and dog kennel coops that are not pictured and all of those coops can hold about another 200 chickens. So, I have plenty of room. I build yearly. I currently am down to 115 chickens but I have an additional 50 baby chicks that are in one of those stalls that you see. They will be in there until they get bigger. I will then release them into the chicken yard. SEE PIC BELOW.




As far as sq ft per turkey per brooder. When they are just hatched to small size (up to 4 weeks), they are ok and I really wouldn't worry about space. As long as they are not in anything the size of a shoe box, they are ok. But when they get to be more than 4 weeks, then that is when you should make sure that they are ok as far as space.

What kind of brooder will they be in in your basement? What's the size?

If you follow the info below (info from http://www.albc-usa.org/documents/turkeymanual/ALBCturkey-2.pdf), you will be ok.

The size of the brooder will depend on the number of poults to be raised at a given time. A simple wooden box may be sufficient. Small wading pools with a 12 to 14 inch sides are very functional. A simple circular cardboard barrier around the perimeter of the pool can be used which can be discarded and replaced between batches. The wading pool also has the advantage of being easily enlarged to accommodate the growing birds by enlarging the diameter of the cardboard perimeter as poults grow. If the brooder is square, round out the corners by adding a semi-circular pieces of material (cardboard, wood, or sheet metal) secured in each corner. This reduces the likelihood of poults piling into corners and suffocating the birds at the bottom.

Most piling or picking problems in the flock are caused by over crowding. To avoid pecking issues allow ¾ to 1 square foot of floor space per poult up to 6 weeks of age. From 6 to 12 weeks of age increase this space to 2 square feet per poult. From 12 to 16 weeks, the minimal allowance is 3 square feet, though birds are typically introduced to pasture by 10 to 12 weeks of age.

Roosts
Standard turkeys will start to use roosts at 2 weeks of age. Provide roosts in the brooder. Poles or branches about 2 inches in diameter and 6 inches off of the ground are ideal. Allow about 6 inches of roost per bird.

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I hope that this info helps.

jewels621 said:

Perfect! I believe I said I wouldn't get anymore CHICKENS! Hmmmmm......

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Perfect!! Because you didn't say anything about not getting any more turkeys.