A century of Turkey talk 2000-2100.

[chickadoodles]

WalnutHill- Nice set up!

Chickadoodles- Your waterer sounds interesting... be sure to put up pictures to keep us updated!!

Luckily, I have a neighbor kid who watches things for us when we leave. He usually does a pretty good job. We will see how it goes with things this summer...
The garden will be in full swing and the chickens will not be happy about being cooped up in the middle of summer. Or the *hopeful* turkeys.

This is link is similar to what I was describing except that I would use hoses to fill 5 gallon buckets with floats for shut offs installed in the buckets near the top so they will fill. And hoses would likely not freeze and break as easily as pvc. https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/d6/ba/51/d6ba51401cc58484c0072153106ea114.jpg

Here is a bucket with a float that I am doing: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/290763719668344724/

I got the floats off ebay cheap and I got most of my buckets from TSC with lids.

Here is the link to the floats I got: http://www.ebay.com/itm/221720803543?_trksid=p2059210.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK:MEBIDX:IT

 

[feedman77]

One of my chocolate hens finally stayed on the nest all night. So I have my first broody.

One of my bourbon red hens came out of box but while she was in the box. She was constantly picking at and moving straw around. At one point she had about completely covered herself. All you could see was her head searching around for more. So maybe I have another one thinking about it.

 

[chickadoodles]

Congratulations feedman!

hoping for

 

[WalnutHill]

Our waterers are white poly barrels from a car wash, thoroughly cleaned with half the top end cut out for cleaning, setup and filling.

About 12" from the ground (to improve flow rate and drain down, you can raise the tank on blocks or a pallet and put the drain farther down the tank), a drain cock is screwed and caulked through the side of the tank with butyl roofing caulk.

Attached to the drain cock is a normal garden hose, in our climate we wrap it with a heat tape and foam pipe insulation, wrap with duct tape, then stuff that through PVC pipe.

The garden hose hooks to a regular stock tank float valve that screws onto the side of a tank. I found a couple of rectangular feed buckets at TSC that hold about a gallon and are the right height for the valve. I made a frame for each of the feed buckets to prevent tipping, threaded the floats to the hose, clamped the floats to the feeders, and filled the tank with water.

In winter, we plug in the heat tapes and drop a stock tank heater in the plastic barrels.

We refill with a garden hose when needed, about once a week for 150 birds.

 

[duluthralphie]

Grats on the broody..

I am trying to keep my turkeys from going broody, I want eggs!!! Eggs!! and more eggs.

I think I have a Dixie rainbow going broody. When I went to get eggs from under her, she growled at me, and attacked me. I even tried the two handed method, one hand going in high, one going in low, she was able to get both hands at once. When I finally decided to try a new method, I lifted her out of the nest she jumped on top the nest sang the egg song and gave me a nasty gesture with her hand. She has never acted like that before. She was not in the nest last night though.

MM for the 15 minutes that Clyde sat on the turkey eggs, did 5 look like the right number? A Dixie rainbow is bigger than Clyde, right? How many do you think I could put under the rainbow?



Did I mention I have been experimenting with my hatcher, I have found an open pill bottle filled with water gives the hatcher an ambient humidity of 50%. I am going to try that next time. I can always take it in and out as needed.

 

[chickadoodles]

Our waterers are white poly barrels from a car wash, thoroughly cleaned with half the top end cut out for cleaning, setup and filling.

About 12" from the ground (to improve flow rate and drain down, you can raise the tank on blocks or a pallet and put the drain farther down the tank), a drain cock is screwed and caulked through the side of the tank with butyl roofing caulk.

Attached to the drain cock is a normal garden hose, in our climate we wrap it with a heat tape and foam pipe insulation, wrap with duct tape, then stuff that through PVC pipe.

The garden hose hooks to a regular stock tank float valve that screws onto the side of a tank. I found a couple of rectangular feed buckets at TSC that hold about a gallon and are the right height for the valve. I made a frame for each of the feed buckets to prevent tipping, threaded the floats to the hose, clamped the floats to the feeders, and filled the tank with water.

In winter, we plug in the heat tapes and drop a stock tank heater in the plastic barrels.

We refill with a garden hose when needed, about once a week for 150 birds.

Your water set up sounds great! I was basically trying to find the easiest set up for my DH he hates when I ask him to build or make anything any more. The chickens have done him in. lol
Our weather does not usually get to cold here once in a while but my pens and runs are all open air. There is one set up that has a light bulb in the bucket to keep the water from freezing. But I don't think we need that here. I want the hose hooked up to my barrel with a lid on it to keep it full and clean. If the water is kept in a barrel with a lid people say it does not grow algae or get dirt in it. Then I would just have to clean their water buckets occasionally.

 

[WalnutHill]

Your water set up sounds great! I was basically trying to find the easiest set up for my DH he hates when I ask him to build or make anything any more. The chickens have done him in. lol
Our weather does not usually get to cold here once in a while but my pens and runs are all open air. There is one set up that has a light bulb in the bucket to keep the water from freezing. But I don't think we need that here. I want the hose hooked up to my barrel with a lid on it to keep it full and clean. If the water is kept in a barrel with a lid people say it does not grow algae or get dirt in it. Then I would just have to clean their water buckets occasionally.

Ours are indoors, in the feed rooms of the coops. Other than an occasional mouse that goes for too big a drink, they stay algae and garbage free as we built insulated boxes around them. There is room to run the hose in.

You could just use the bung in the top of the barrel for filling, it will just take a while to get it cleaned out through just that little hole. Then it would still be sealed, just be sure to leave a vent hole or water won't flow out the sill cock.

And this is something you can do yourself, you don't need him to do it!

Materials list:
55 gallon white plastic barrel (food service or car wash), thoroughly cleaned, then cleaned again. ($0-$20)
Sill cock (hose faucet), brass ($5)
Heavy duty silicone or butyl caulk to seal sill cock (if it must be completely water tight, like indoors) ($5)
Garden hose to reach waterer ($variable) does not have to be a heavy duty hose
Plastic or metal stock tank float valve ($10-$15)
Plastic salt block holder or other rectangular container at least 6" deep and 10" long and 8" wide
Scraps of lumber to make a frame for the water bowl to keep it from flipping (it's better not to attach it to the fence so you can dump it clean)
Screws for the framework
Wood spade bit one size smaller than the sill cock. You want to thread the brass fitting into the hole so it needs to be tight. You may need to file it with a round file a little to get it to start. After drilling the hole, rinse the barrel once more to get the plastic shavings out.

If you want to attach several waterers to one barrel, use a hose manifold 1 into 2 or 1 into 4 to provide multiple feeds. You can install multiple sill cocks in the barrel, but that increases the possibility of leaks.

 

[chickadoodles]

Quote: We would likely get some more that have the locking lid like we use for our feed. But it depends on what we can find around here. I just basically want a frame of some kind to hold the barrels so that the water will drain down into the buckets for the birds. I am still kind of look at different set ups. Chicken Canoe showed me his set up where he had his barrels up above the coop doors and then hose lines going into the waters for the birds. That is what I was kind of basing my ideas on. I don't want to have to scrub out the barrels if I don't have to. lol I am disabled and looking for the most care free way to maintain the birds. I still have so much to do but I keep having to cut back on my numbers as there is always so much to do.

I love my turkey and want to keep them so it is worth what ever effort I have to put into them.

 

[duluthralphie]

I was just looking for watering devices, have any of you tried the chicken drinking cups?

I would like to have something that can hold several days of water at a time, instead of daily carrying water.

I was thinking of cups on a barrel , with a heater in it for winter. Do you think it would work?

 

[chickadoodles]

I was just looking for watering devices, have any of you tried the chicken drinking cups?

I would like to have something that can hold several days of water at a time, instead of daily carrying water.

I was thinking of cups on a barrel , with a heater in it for winter. Do you think it would work?

I really don't know for your State you might need something more than a light bulb. Do you go on the Minnesota thread? There maybe some old timers on there that could tell you better. But Walnut Hill just described a wonderful set up for very cold weather like you have there.