I Need Help! Which Turkey Housing Option Would You Pick?

[harriedhomemaker]

I did something uncharacteristic for me and bought four heritage turkey poults without really planning ahead! They were cute and on sale, so I made an impulse buy. Right now they are happy in their brooder, but I know it won't be long before they need to move outside.

Here's the set up I have now:






It's an 8x8' coop and currently holds my 17 chickens. The pop door is an automatic and I know it is too small for grown turkeys.

Here's the plan of my run/chicken moat:





The run is 848 sq. feet. The fence is made of welded wire and is 6 feet tall. I have no doubt they will try to fly over it just from watching their performance in the brooder.

My two housing options are as follows:

1) Keep the poults indoors in their brooder until they outgrow it. Transition them to living in the coop/run with my chickens. Hope they all get along. (I have a rooster. Don't know if that matters.) Once the turkeys get too big to go in and out of the coop, I'll have to make some sort of shelter for them in a corner of the run.

2) Set up an electronet pen in our yard somewhere. Construct a range shelter something like this:




We have plenty of room for a large electronet pen, but I have small children that will definitely try to shock themselves on a fence like that. I'm also not sure that turkeys will be a long term addition to our flock. They may all end up in the freezer by winter.


WWYD?


PS - I am aware of the potential for blackhead. I also know there are lots of people with small flocks who combine both chickens and turkeys with no issues.

 

[harriedhomemaker]

Anyone?

Bump

 

[frank53061]

That mobile coop is one fancy palace

.

You are right about the Turkeys flying and soon at 6 weeks my Red Bourbon were flying 4 to 6 feet that's when I clipped there wings.
My surrounding fence is only 8 feet high with no cover on top and surrounded on 3 sides by woods the forth side is my yard.
I am by far no expert but if you use ether one of the set ups you will need to clip there wings if you don't want them to fly out of there fence.
I hear that once there full grown they don't do a a lot of flying but I am new to Turkeys.
I have read that turkeys need twice the room of a chicken over crowding will produce more fighting and pecking as you probably know having chickens.
You have my choice of the second set up once they are old enough to be out of the brooder and fully feathered and the weather is nice.
If you decide to keep some for breeding or what ever the reason you may need more of a shelter for them I don't know what part of the country you live in.
My set up is a Turkeys condo top floor 4x8 4 ft high the ground floor is 4x4 4 feet high made from cargo pallets total height 8 ft.
The ground level is open slat cargo pallets with chicken wire and a 2x2 door this I hope will be for nesting when there old enough.
It has been a learning experience for me with turkeys.

Best of Luck
Here is a picture.

 

[harriedhomemaker]

Thanks for sharing your opinion and set up.

That looks like quite the turkey paradise.

We live on the plains, so we get very hot in the summer and quite cold in the winter. I found a photo of a turkey ranch in a similar climate in winter and they use car ports that are only partially closed off on the sides and a wind break. I thought about enclosing three sides of the range shelter with more metal roofing and insulating with hay bales.

That mobile coop is one fancy palace

.

You are right about the Turkeys flying and soon at 6 weeks my Red Bourbon were flying 4 to 6 feet that's when I clipped there wings.
My surrounding fence is only 8 feet high with no cover on top and surrounded on 3 sides by woods the forth side is my yard.
I am by far no expert but if you use ether one of the set ups you will need to clip there wings if you don't want them to fly out of there fence.
I hear that once there full grown they don't do a a lot of flying but I am new to Turkeys.
I have read that turkeys need twice the room of a chicken over crowding will produce more fighting and pecking as you probably know having chickens.
You have my choice of the second set up once they are old enough to be out of the brooder and fully feathered and the weather is nice.
If you decide to keep some for breeding or what ever the reason you may need more of a shelter for them I don't know what part of the country you live in.
My set up is a Turkeys condo top floor 4x8 4 ft high the ground floor is 4x4 4 feet high made from cargo pallets total height 8 ft.
The ground level is open slat cargo pallets with chicken wire and a 2x2 door this I hope will be for nesting when there old enough.
It has been a learning experience for me with turkeys.

Best of Luck
Here is a picture.

 

[frank53061]

Sounds like you may have your own answer to your own problem that's great.
keep us up to date with the Turkeys and how things work out we all learn from others experience's.