How much floor space?

[Rose66]

I hopefully will have 6 turkey eggs hatch by the end of September. I will keep them inside my house for a week or so but I need to build a raised outdoor brooder for them. How much floor space does a 1 week old turkey poult need? Then I'll just mutliply that by how many of my turkey eggs actually hatch.

I haven't decided how long I'm going to keep them in the raised brooder but just for future reference, how much floor space does an 8 week old turkey need in a raised pen? How much floor space does a 12 week old turkey need in a raised pen? Surely, I won't need to keep them in the raised pen for longer than 12 weeks at the most.

Any help with this will be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Rose
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[frank53061]

I built a Raised brooder for my Poults 17 of them and did the same thing kept them in the bath tub lined with news paper and wood chips for 2 weeks then moved them to the brooder out side with heat lamp.
Top of my brooder / coop is 8 ft it set 4 foot of the ground 4x4 high and wide 8 ft long 2 doors and 100 1inch holes for ventilation.
the top 2 ft inside is full of roost 2x2 I split 2x4s long ways.
At five months old and 3 over sexed roosters it overcrowded a little the only time there in there is to sleep but I am attempting to sell a few off and pending a big pot of roosters and dumplings.
under the coop is a 4x4 brooder with a 4x4 over hang it was cheap built.

 

[Rose66]

Thanks for responding. Do your turkeys ever fly over the open topped fence?

These will be my first turkeys ever. They are Narrangasetts and will be pets/breeders, not meat. I've read where it is good to keep poults off the ground until they are 6-8 weeks old. That is what I am wanting to accomplish with an outdoor raised brooder/pen. If someone can give me an estimated sq foot of floor space needed for one 8 week old poult, I would then know how big to build the raised brooder/pen to keep them in until we move them to a tractor on the ground.

Thanks!

 

[frank53061]

Before I clipped there wings and when they were younger yes.
I have had to clip there wings 4 times and now that there over 5 months old they will get on top of the coop and I get a stick and push them off and they fly down inside the pen but there wings have fully grown back and knock on wood have not attempted to fly the coop so to speak.
I have read that others say that when they get a certain weight they don't attempt to fly as much not that they cant but I think keeping there wings clipped earlier help discourages them from trying to much.
If it were me I would give them 2 to 3 sq ft per bird floor space for poults not older 10 weeks But that would partly counting roost space also I had 64 sq ft for 17 Poults 7 Chicks half was roost space and the other floor space these are not exact numbers for sq ft just approx,
I removed the 7 Chicks at 10 weeks and moved them in with the big hens and moved out the 2 roosters into the Turkey pen.
To much bare back chickens needed a rest.

 

[LeslieDJoyce]

It probably depends on what breed they are ... some turkeys are super huge, others not so much. But they do grow fast and smell bad and it isn't very nice having them inside even though they're really cute and fun.

 

[Celie]

I raise Holland White Turkeys. I, too use a extra bathroom to house my brooder boxes, until the hatchlings can be put out into the poultry barn. But with a 30'x50' barn for the poultry, and being free range and cage free, space wise, all I do is put the bitties into a10'x10'x6' chain link fence dog kennel, with a covered top, so the bigger birds can not get to them until they are big enough and all get their pecking order worked out. I do not put any turkey poults out when the weather is wet or cold, so they do not get a chill. I learned the hard way, after loosing several in the early spring, turkey hatchlings are very susceptible to a chill. Ducks can go out almost as soon as they hatch and are very messy in a brooder, chickens in a couple of weeks, but turkeys I keep for 3 to 6 weeks before putting them outside. They are flying out of their boxes by then. I use large cardboard boxes, like a refrigerator or washing machine would come in and for turkeys, a thin cloth or fine net like a screen over the top keeps them from flying out. The box can be lined like you do your tub and thrown out when you are done with it. It can be shredded and composed or put onto the burn pile. Holland Whites are large turkeys that grow fast and take about a square foot of space,at least, by the time I put them outside, but if you are raising midget whites, which are very small, they are the same size as chickens, so the space you would give a chicken should work. By the way, using a spare bathroom allows me to use a small oil filled electric heater to regulate the temperature in the entire room, with it's built in thermostat and a thermometer. It's a lot easier than a brooder with heat lamps.

Celie

 

[Rose66]

Thanks so much for all the replies. I have decided to keep the poults in the raised pen until they are about a month old and I'm going to build a raised brooder/pen that will give each poult about 5sqft. I think that will be plenty of room. Again, thanks for the help.

Rose
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[Celie]

Round brooders are best for small hatchlings, so they do not crowd into the corners and smother the ones in the center. I took pictures of the one my usband made of wood and screen, on wheels, with a hardware cloth floor for the poop to fall through but I am having trouble with my camera letting me upload the pics from my camera to my computer. I will try again tomorrow.

I am going to bed now, tomorrow is a new day and hopfully a clearer mind!!!!

 

[Rose66]

Hey Celie, I would like to see the brooder your husband made so I hope you get your camera troubles fixed. I've decided to keep the poults inside for their first two weeks. They will be kept inside in a big box so I can easily round the corners by putting cardboard in each corner. At what age will they be old enough to handle the corners without squishing each other?

Our outdoor brooder we are making will have 1/2" hardware cloth all around it and it will then be covered with four solid removable sides so if the weather is cool, windy, or wet, the poults will be able to stay warm and dry under their heat lamp. Then as they get older, we can remove one or more sides as the weather dictates. I'm still debating how long to keep them in the raised brooder. I had decided on four weeks but now I'm leaning again towards six weeks because I want them to be fully feathered before they go into their tractor. Well, I'll figure it out when the time gets here. lol

Thanks.