Ideas and pictures for turkey brooders and grow out pens.

[longranger]

I will be building a couple of new larger brooders and grow out pens shortly. Any ideas, particularly with pictures would be helpful. My concern is making them large enough yet still not a nightmare to clean. Also prefer not to go over 4x4' footprint for portability and ease of construction. As the poults grow I will probably have to have fewer in each pen/brooder. Thanks for any ideas.

 

[turkey guru]

just make sure you can fit a wheelbarrow threw the door, and not scrap your hands! just a thought boy my hands hurt! tom!!

 

[sandspoultry]

Quote:
Tom,

Can you post some pics of your set up? from raising so many you have it all set up.

Sharon

 

[longranger]

Hi Sharon,

Are you and Steve still incubating and brooding some poults or have you switched over to letting the hens do all the work? Obviously I am still incubating and brooding. The problems last year were that the poults looked tiny one week in a sizable brooder and looked really crowded a week later. They also seemed to fill the brooder with poo overnight even with generous bedding.So I need to build yet bigger growout brooders and do it with a design that is relatively easy to clean. I had no disease issues last year but that was probably dumb luck considering how crowded and consequently poopy the poults got on a couple of occasions. Any Pics you have of setups for the later phases of turkey brooding would be much appreciated.

Mike

 

[sandspoultry]

In the early part of the season we incubate because we are shipping alot of eggs so we keep them picked up so the hens don't go broody but later on when it's to hot to ship eggs we will let them sit. All of our breeder turkeys come from hen set eggs. we think it makes for stronger overall turkeys. Our brooder boxes start at about 2 foot by 4 foot with about 2 foot sides for first hatched, the next box is 2' x about 6'. We use pine shavings in them. When they outgrow them they move to the brooder barn and the boxes are 5 foot square. In those we use sand for litter, the best thing about that is you can scoop it like cat litter and any spilled water sinks right in. Once they move outside that pen is covered.

3 of the brooders in the barn have doors for access but with them being covered you still have to bend down and crawl in to clean them. The last one Steve made the entire front comes off. He just took boards and made a channel so the plywood would slide down in. that one is super easy to clean.

Sharon