first time owner needs help

[ptrckwlsh1688]

Hello i recently bought 2 bourbon red turkey poults as pets. They are currently 4 weeks old and. I wish to begin building their outside shelter. I plan on building a 6'x6'x6' coop. Inside will be roost bars made from 2x4s. I plan to have these 2 feet off the ground. Is this to high? How much head space will they need. I am also windering how much range space they will need if there are only two? Also i live in new england so the winters are rough. Is it okay if their coop/roof is walled on three side so that it can be heated? I really just need some help being a first time owner. Thank you!

 

[sarahc511]

you need to see how big they get, i would say they dont need there house to be heated just put some straw in they have feathers to keep them warm =], much cheaper too. i would say you need about 6 or 8 foot per turkey, only rough so you live on a farm or do you have land that you could let them walk about free range?

 

[ptrckwlsh1688]

I do not have a farm i plan on creating a fenced in pen in my yard i just dont know how big

 

[ptrckwlsh1688]

A frnced in area two would need

 

[frank53061]

What I built was from pallets and 4 x 8 plywood and 2 x 4 s .
its 2 level top level 4 ft wide 4 ft high 8 foot long top of flat roof 8 feet from ground covered with a tarp. The roost are 20 inches from floor half of the coop has roost.
split in length 2 x 4 s making 2 x 2s for the roost the front door and side screen door and a secondary wood door for cold weather 50 to 60 one inch holes for ventilation 7 Chics and 17 Poults are 4 months old and there is enough room at there age now for all but 5 to roost I will be moving the young hens to the Chicken coop and reducing my Turkey flock more than half.
The bottom level is made up of pallets setting on the ground 4 x 4 box and a 2 x 2 door.
This is wrapped in chicken wire lined with hay to be possibly used as a brooder if I get a Turkey Hen that may want to brood and I can block her off inside or give her protection and feel hidden the top level extends out 4 feet to create a cover for feeding keeps the food dry.
The run is 25 feet by 30 feet or there about.
Its trial and error I hope my instruction's make sense..
The Poults and Chics are about 2 months old in the video
Very low cost set up here is a video.

 

[booker81]

My turkey's are weird and much prefer to roost outside in their run on the roost bar (or on top of the 8ft fence). They only go inside to eat, since I keep their food in the coop. My coop is a 10x20 shed, my chickens have a 10x10 section, and the turkey area is only 3x8 - I planned on making it larger but since they never stay in there, there's no point to it. Their run is about 10x 20' with 8 ft fencing (4ft wire fencing in stacked rows with a board across the top). The roost bar in the run is about 4' high and 5' long. There also is a sheet of plywood propped at an angle to give additional shade, since they won't go in the coop. I'm not planning on overwintering mine, but if I do, they hopefully get smart enough to go in the coop to stay warm. Of course, we had a massive storm come through at 4am a couple weeks ago, and I went out to check them once it passed - they were all sound asleep on the outside roost, soaking wet.

I did keep them indoors for 8 weeks, but since then they've not seemed to mind being wet, and even seem to like being sprayed with the hose on hot days. I think they're goofy

 

[chicken pickin]

I have 5 Bourbon Red poults that are about 4 1/2 weeks old. We just built them a house. It is roughly 5x9'5" height is 5 in the back about 6'6" in the front made out of pallets 4x8 sheets of plywood and 2x4s. They have a temperary roost we put in there that is made out of scrap 2x4s it is about 2' off the ground though we plan to put a tree branch in there a little later when they get bigger and will put it about 3' or 3'6" off the ground. Im having a hard time finding how much space turkeys need so I hope my housing is sufficient. I plan to pen mine. I have a 5' high chainlink fence I think 100 feet of it, im going to makie it long and skinny then use pvc piping to make arches over the fence and drape aviary netting over that so hopefully itll be somewhere between 8-10' in height.





Moved them all in yesterday and they seem to like it they were playing different and 2 even displayed for the first time yesterday

 

[ptrckwlsh1688]

How much did that cost you?

 

[frank53061]

Thats one nice Turkey House looks like a good combination of pallets and store bought wood.

 

[chicken pickin]

Total was around $350-400. We built the floor, back wall and 2 side walls with free pallets. and the front wall and roof with store bought 2x4s and plywood. The window was free also and we had to buy the hardware cloth hinges handles and locks. I had started a thread in the turkey section about our build if you kind of want to see the idea. Ill post a link incase anyone wants to take a peek.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/686677/the-start-of-our-turkey-palace-house-updated-pics