A century of Turkey talk 2000-2100.

[CindyinSD]

I think that when we get cold, long winters like this here, we tend to have wet springtimes (if you can call what we didn’t get last year “spring”) and typically summers are wet, too. Means a sloppy lower pasture. Maybe I should get ducks after all...

 

[duluthralphie]

I think that when we get cold, long winters like this here, we tend to have wet springtimes (if you can call what we didn’t get last year “spring”) and typically summers are wet, too. Means a sloppy lower pasture. Maybe I should get ducks after all...

Please no!!
Take a swig of hemlock instead, it is faster and less painful,,,

 

[duluthralphie]

The first photo was with the second when I found it.....It is the WW back before she was promoted to WW and was just the WWD...with my favorite hen "Ethel"....

I thought I had more pictures of the turkey coop, but this is the only one I could find and I am not trudging through 7 ft of snow to get a new picture..

For reference the ladder is a 15ft step ladder.

I started with roosts at the 6ft level in the middle then upped them like steps to towards the edges. My idea was they would have to jump from roost to roost and could not fly down and hurt themselves...

This year I have them in a shed where they sit on the 18 ft rafters and fly or jump to the ground....I guess a turkey getting hurt jumping down is a non-issue.....
You can kind of see the idea I had, I kept the south side clear plastic and the rest blue plastic tarp to try and keep it a tad warmer.

You can't see it in the picture but there is wire beneath the plastic to try and retard predators from entering. It works as I have not had a problem in the building. I did have something get into the attached run when I had chickens in it....Humans once and a weasel the second time.....Which was cured by the famous breaking cat.....

The mandoor is on the south side, the run is attached by a short "tunnel" I can block off if I do not want the turkeys in the tunnel. I used this for Guineas too, before I realized they were terrorizing the neighborhood.
Hope this helps Cindy.

 

[ketojenn]

Hello all!

I'd like to join in if that's ok with everyone. I've been going back through the thread and feel like I have found my people. I'm in North Dakota, so spring should get here sometime in July. In the meantime, I'm going to follow along with all of you in warmer parts of the world.

My turkey adventures began last August.

I ordered a cackle surprise box and wound up with 3 turkey poults. My husband was thrilled since he prefers turkey over chicken, but I had never raised turkeys before and didn't have a set up for them. I just lumped them in with the chickens and named them Thanksgiving, Easter, and 4th of July. I then fretted over the size of the chicken door and the task of butchering said birds.

Thanksgiving was delicious and I enjoyed watching Easter and 4th of July, they seemed to have better instincts than the chickens. 4th got renamed to Jackie after my daughter fell in love. I still worried about their size versus the chicken door. It's controlled with a very expensive digital door. Not turkey sized.

After a very long(not over yet), very frigid, snowy winter, I've really come to adore those turkeys. I've decided I prefer them over the chickens who continue to make questionable decisions on a daily basis. After spending all day watching a particularly mentally challenged hen perched immobile on top of the coop roof, I really began to admire the turkeys. I finally freed the hen from the roof, no easy feat with the level of snow out there, only to watch her fly in a panic to yet another unreachable snow bank. Not impressed.

My turkeys, however are the first out to greet me every morning, don't randomly fly at my face in a panic, and are starting to look spectacular. Easter has now been renamed Boyde. Boyde likes to let me know how beautiful he is. I concur.

Boyde has won me over. I have decided to keep them, reduce my chicken flock and add a few more turkey hens. They lay eggs too after all. Plus, I like their vocalizing way more than the chickens.
Now I just have to decide if I should hatch some or order poults. I'll be hatching quail soon, but I do have 4 incubators.
Then there is that door. Boyde really smacks it every time he goes in and out of the coop, but it's still too cold to do much about it.

Another shot of my handsome guy.

I look forward to sharing our spring shenanigans and reading all of yours.
- Jenn

 

[duluthralphie]

Hello all!

I'd like to join in if that's ok with everyone. I've been going back through the thread and feel like I have found my people. I'm in North Dakota, so spring should get here sometime in July. In the meantime, I'm going to follow along with all of you in warmer parts of the world.

My turkey adventures began last August.
View attachment 1692741
I ordered a cackle surprise box and wound up with 3 turkey poults. My husband was thrilled since he prefers turkey over chicken, but I had never raised turkeys before and didn't have a set up for them. I just lumped them in with the chickens and named them Thanksgiving, Easter, and 4th of July. I then fretted over the size of the chicken door and the task of butchering said birds.

Thanksgiving was delicious and I enjoyed watching Easter and 4th of July, they seemed to have better instincts than the chickens. 4th got renamed to Jackie after my daughter fell in love. I still worried about their size versus the chicken door. It's controlled with a very expensive digital door. Not turkey sized.

After a very long(not over yet), very frigid, snowy winter, I've really come to adore those turkeys. I've decided I prefer them over the chickens who continue to make questionable decisions on a daily basis. After spending all day watching a particularly mentally challenged hen perched immobile on top of the coop roof, I really began to admire the turkeys. I finally freed the hen from the roof, no easy feat with the level of snow out there, only to watch her fly in a panic to yet another unreachable snow bank. Not impressed.

My turkeys, however are the first out to greet me every morning, don't randomly fly at my face in a panic, and are starting to look spectacular. Easter has now been renamed Boyde. Boyde likes to let me know how beautiful he is. I concur.

View attachment 1692703
Boyde has won me over. I have decided to keep them, reduce my chicken flock and add a few more turkey hens. They lay eggs too after all. Plus, I like their vocalizing way more than the chickens.
Now I just have to decide if I should hatch some or order poults. I'll be hatching quail soon, but I do have 4 incubators.
Then there is that door. Boyde really smacks it every time he goes in and out of the coop, but it's still too cold to do much about it.

Another shot of my handsome guy.
View attachment 1692734

I look forward to sharing our spring shenanigans and reading all of yours.
- Jenn

Welcome to the thread!

I am a little miffed you are expecting summer as early as July though. I doubt we will see it until August 15th or so...That is just not fair.

Turkeys are way better than chickens, hands down.

I am going to be ridding myself of some turkeys. I would kind of like a trio or maybe 2 pairs again. They are friendlier then.

I am also going to downsize on chicken but not sure how to do that. I would like to have 3 hens and 2 roosters of each breed....but that is still 35 birds....Which is above the Allotment I am allowed by the WW......what to do...what to do...

 

[ketojenn]

I am a little miffed you are expecting summer as early as July though. I doubt we will see it until August 15th or so...That is just not fair.

Well I did say spring. Now as for summer, I'm expecting that to happen on or about August 15th, same as you, however maybe we'll get lucky this year. I'll keep you posted.

 

[CindyinSD]

The first photo was with the second when I found it.....It is the WW back before she was promoted to WW and was just the WWD...with my favorite hen "Ethel"....

View attachment 1692731


I thought I had more pictures of the turkey coop, but this is the only one I could find and I am not trudging through 7 ft of snow to get a new picture..
View attachment 1692732

For reference the ladder is a 15ft step ladder.

I started with roosts at the 6ft level in the middle then upped them like steps to towards the edges. My idea was they would have to jump from roost to roost and could not fly down and hurt themselves...

This year I have them in a shed where they sit on the 18 ft rafters and fly or jump to the ground....I guess a turkey getting hurt jumping down is a non-issue.....
You can kind of see the idea I had, I kept the south side clear plastic and the rest blue plastic tarp to try and keep it a tad warmer.

You can't see it in the picture but there is wire beneath the plastic to try and retard predators from entering. It works as I have not had a problem in the building. I did have something get into the attached run when I had chickens in it....Humans once and a weasel the second time.....Which was cured by the famous breaking cat.....

The mandoor is on the south side, the run is attached by a short "tunnel" I can block off if I do not want the turkeys in the tunnel. I used this for Guineas too, before I realized they were terrorizing the neighborhood.
Hope this helps Cindy.

Thanks so much, Ralphie. An in-construction-nearly-done photo is actually better, imo. Do you remember the footprint dimensions? 10 x 16ish? I suppose that would be my dimensions in any case with 15 coming. (They’ll need that should they get snowed in sometime, I guess.) Not that I plan to keep them all... they are for food and breeding, mostly food. Are those 4x4 posts?

Seven feet! Holy, um, polar vortex, Batman! We don’t do seven feet here. We’re way too brittle for that. We had 3-5ft (4 here) one October storm in fairly-recent-memory, which we considered epic. It kept piling up all winter, too but aside from a few drifts I’m sure it never made 7ft. Maybe global warming will come back if I can persuade my cows to eat beans and sauerkraut?

 

[OneMountainAcres]

Hello all!

I'd like to join in if that's ok with everyone. I've been going back through the thread and feel like I have found my people. I'm in North Dakota, so spring should get here sometime in July. In the meantime, I'm going to follow along with all of you in warmer parts of the world.

My turkey adventures began last August.
View attachment 1692741
I ordered a cackle surprise box and wound up with 3 turkey poults. My husband was thrilled since he prefers turkey over chicken, but I had never raised turkeys before and didn't have a set up for them. I just lumped them in with the chickens and named them Thanksgiving, Easter, and 4th of July. I then fretted over the size of the chicken door and the task of butchering said birds.

Thanksgiving was delicious and I enjoyed watching Easter and 4th of July, they seemed to have better instincts than the chickens. 4th got renamed to Jackie after my daughter fell in love. I still worried about their size versus the chicken door. It's controlled with a very expensive digital door. Not turkey sized.

After a very long(not over yet), very frigid, snowy winter, I've really come to adore those turkeys. I've decided I prefer them over the chickens who continue to make questionable decisions on a daily basis. After spending all day watching a particularly mentally challenged hen perched immobile on top of the coop roof, I really began to admire the turkeys. I finally freed the hen from the roof, no easy feat with the level of snow out there, only to watch her fly in a panic to yet another unreachable snow bank. Not impressed.

My turkeys, however are the first out to greet me every morning, don't randomly fly at my face in a panic, and are starting to look spectacular. Easter has now been renamed Boyde. Boyde likes to let me know how beautiful he is. I concur.

View attachment 1692703
Boyde has won me over. I have decided to keep them, reduce my chicken flock and add a few more turkey hens. They lay eggs too after all. Plus, I like their vocalizing way more than the chickens.
Now I just have to decide if I should hatch some or order poults. I'll be hatching quail soon, but I do have 4 incubators.
Then there is that door. Boyde really smacks it every time he goes in and out of the coop, but it's still too cold to do much about it.

Another shot of my handsome guy.
View attachment 1692734

I look forward to sharing our spring shenanigans and reading all of yours.
- Jenn

Welcome to the thread! It's always wonderful to see another person seduced by the antics turkeys! I loved my chickens before I got in to turkeys but I didn't know what love was until the turkeys were here

 

[duluthralphie]

Thanks so much, Ralphie. An in-construction-nearly-done photo is actually better, imo. Do you remember the footprint dimensions? 10 x 16ish? I suppose that would be my dimensions in any case with 15 coming. (They’ll need that should they get snowed in sometime, I guess.) Not that I plan to keep them all... they are for food and breeding, mostly food. Are those 4x4 posts?

Seven feet! Holy, um, polar vortex, Batman! We don’t do seven feet here. We’re way too brittle for that. We had 3-5ft (4 here) one October storm in fairly-recent-memory, which we considered epic. It kept piling up all winter, too but aside from a few drifts I’m sure it never made 7ft. Maybe global warming will come back if I can persuade my cows to eat beans and sauerkraut?

I might have exaggerated the 7 ft a tad...

They are 4x4 ground contact treated post..I think it was 10x16 as I had to stay under 180sq ft to keep the Building Nazi's away..

 

[CindyinSD]

I intensely dislike the building nazis...