Housing turkeys in my sheep barn?

[bocephus]

My wife and I have been talking about turkeys for some time now. Picking ticks off of my sheep has motivated me to put some birds in the pasture. I was thinking of building the turkey housing in a barn stall, about 10x10 and wrapping it up in chicken wire. Ideally they will return to their "coop" every night and I will lock them up like I do for my chickens which are on a different part of my property.

I'm leaning towards Narragansetts at the moment. I'd like to continue to breed them for meat and have the pest control in the pasture.

 

[chicken pickin]

It sounds like your idea will work perfectly for you!

 

[frank53061]

If you are lucky they will go back to there barn coop.
I free range my turkeys for a few hours each day by letting only 80 to 90% out so they will not go to far from the rest of the flock.
I also keep there feed inside the pen only putting water out side for the ones free ranging after a few hours they will go back to the door of the pen or run and want back in to eat there feed at this point there is only a few hours till dark and that is were they stay till I go out at dark to put them in there coop at least the ones that have not gone inside 90% will do so its that 10% that have to be tucked into bed LOL.
If I did not clip there wings they would prefer to roost in the trees.
cant do that there are two many coons and possum's in my neck of the woods that would like nothing more than a Turkey dinner I lost half my flock of Chickens to a coon because I didn't lock them up in there coop one night.
You might try diatomaceous earth food grade on your sheep I use it on all my animals for flea and tick and might problems and feed a little to them for worm control as well and it works for me.
best thing to do is to do a little research on line and make up your own mind.
Best of luck.

 

[bocephus]

Down below is what I built, in the background you can see the sheep pen with the door leading to the pasture. The turkey pen is completely wrapped in chicken wire. To the right side of the human door I just put up a plywood wall. After I finished it all I wondered if I would have better off to just put a plywood wall up on the left side and just chicken wired the front. This would make them feel more secure and cut down on drafts more in the winter. In the winter with the doors closed it's actually pretty draft free in there though.

For a roost, it looks like people suggest a flatter design roost as compared to the tiered design for chickens?

The 2nd picture is from inside the sheep pen. I cut a square out to make a door to the turkey pen, currently with some temporary chicken wire covering the hole. I went up high like that because I didn't want to cut into the 2x4's. My goal was to make a turkey door that would keep sheep out too. The lower most 2x4's are only 16" apart so I decided to cut in between the upper ones. Gave me a roughly 18x18" door. I figured I could build ramps for it. Do you think that's the best route to go there?

Could I make a tiered roost and have it double as a ladder to reach the door from inside the turkey pen?

If you noticed the 2nd larger cutout to the left. That was done by the barns previous owners and isn't suitable for a door so I chicken wired over it.

 

[frank53061]

Looks like you got one heck of a Turkey Coop there and every thing sounds like you got it figured out with the door and the ramp.
Is there any way for pr editors to get to them of any size.
I think the door I cut for my Turkeys was 18" wide and 2 ft tall that worked for me.
Do you have any roost for them I put 2 in 2 ft and 4 ft off the ground but that in the pen or run I also put roosts in side there coop 2 ft high.
How many turkeys do you plan on raising in the 10 x 10 and are you starting with Poults or full grown.
If it was me I would if I had an area out side the barn adjoining there coop to make a secure run because there may be times that you will want them to gain access to the out side but not fully free range due to there small size or a new predator that may have gotten some of your Turkeys.
This is my setup for my Turkeys.
The Coop is 4x4x8ft and the Run is 25x30ft I have 17 Red Bourbons and 2 over sexed Rooster in there.

 

[bocephus]

For predators to get to them they would have to dig under the 2x4's along the bottom. I ran the 2x4's tight to the floor but there's no fence buried. The only other way would be to rip the chicken wire open or pull on it and pull the staples out.

I currently have no roost. I plan on building one from 2x4's. That's why I'm trying to find out if I should go with a level type one that I see most people with turkeys doing or build a ladder type that leads to that door so it will be dual purpose.

 

[bocephus]

Here's the roost I built near the high door. I just added the middle piece recently. After the turkeys were in the pen for 6 days I opened the door. It probably took at least 24 hours for the females to figure out how to get outside. For some reason the tom wouldn't leave, he would just squawk at the females as if he was wondering what they were doing out there. I know he was able to get to the top bar of the roost because the first night I had to push his butt in to close the door. I decided to add the middle bar anyways to see if it would make it easier for him to get out. Eventually I just opened the human door and the sheep pen door and let him walk in with everyone else.

For some reason they seem to choose not to go in the pen at all now. They occasionally go in the pasture but spend most of the time in the sheep pen. I have a ramp leading from the sheep pen back into the turkey pen. And the tom was certainly capable of jumping high enough up the roost to get out because he roosts on the sheep pen wall. The females just roost all over the place, they do seem to like being on top of the turkey pen.

 

[frank53061]

All I can say Turkeys can be stubborn and a little slow some times it takes a lot of repartition to teach them what you want them to do and yes forcing them to do what you want.
You are the evolved one LOL.
When its time for my Turkeys to go back inside there pen and they want to go back inside some times there are 1 or 2 that will walk around and around the pen till its like a little light goes off in there little heads and it like o here is the door.
All my Turkeys at 4 months know the routine most are stubborn and some just a little slow on the uptake and sometimes I think they want to be tucked into bed when its time to put them into there coop LOL.
From what I can see you have one heck of a coop there and any Turkey would be proud of it

.
The ground here is so hard red clay and rock what I do is lap the wire onto the ground at the base and lay brick on top to detour critters from getting in and it works for me other wise I would need a ditch witch and TNT to make a trench to bury the fencing.
You did good with the roost as the Adults get older they prefer not to fly.
You have a great set up from what I can tell know comes the learning for both you and the Turkeys.

 

[gretdame]

A question, can my turkeys and icelandic sheep share a pen out side. I have whites and bourbans

 

[frank53061]

I don't know have they been introduced to each other LOL.

What may I ask is an Icelandic sheep and don't tell me its a sheep from Iceland unless it is.
Where do you live Iceland? and if you don't why do you have Icelandic sheep.
I.m sorry this just caught my interest.
I don't know any thing much about sheep other than I was on a sheep jugging team in high school in FFA and whats strange this is not a sheep area of the U.S. its cattle.