Illinois...

[cavemanrich]

Had to give LUV On your family pix.. and a on your shed build.

 

[Faraday40]

Happy Father's Day to all the dads out there.


@BReeder!
It looks like you had a very special day.

Your new shed is looking great. Love the windows! I had to chuckle a little about the night-time photo. The list of work you must do is so long that the sun quits before you do.

 

[BReeder!]

Happy Father's Day to all the dads out there.


@BReeder!
It looks like you had a very special day.

Your new shed is looking great. Love the windows! I had to chuckle a little about the night-time photo. The list of work you must do is so long that the sun quits before you do.

True and true. Fathers Day was great and the sun calls it quite before I do.

 

[BReeder!]

Update on the shed. There are doors! The chickens new home is almost ready!!! They'll have the right side.

Of course I still need to set up the run - I am debating now between normal run or a tractor style run. Input/opinions are welcomed about tractor style runs for the birds. There's three turkey poults who I don't think would like a tractor though, so a normal run might be necessary for them. @Molpet and @Faraday40 how on earth do you keep turkeys out of the neighbors?

 

[cavemanrich]

I am debating now between normal run or a tractor style run.

I vote normal style.

 

[Molpet]

Update on the shed. There are doors! The chickens new home is almost ready!!! They'll have the right side.
View attachment 3549027View attachment 3549028

Of course I still need to set up the run - I am debating now between normal run or a tractor style run. Input/opinions are welcomed about tractor style runs for the birds. There's three turkey poults who I don't think would like a tractor though, so a normal run might be necessary for them. @Molpet and @Faraday40 how on earth do you keep turkeys out of the neighbors?

Shed looks great
I have 4ft electric poultry fence, that I bought used 2017. It's only good for 5 to 7 years. Rabbits chewed it in the winter when the snow insulated their feet.
Not that you want it in town but 4ft with a thin flexible top contains the turkey unless they fly down from a tree on the wrong side.
Typical town fence has a top that they can jump on and down to the other side. So a top of some sort is needed.

Owls and coyote are thinning my flock at night because I don't have a top. Hard when there's dz of trees and 150ftx600. Stupid turkeys and trees and hidden nests. Too much of a pain to play wack a mole with adults and 4 coops. I'm running ragged keeping hens with poults going in a coop.
I'm down to 10 turkey hens. I sold 5 after the coyotes took 2 hens off nests in the poultry yard. The owls got 4 since spring.. I have 22 poults between 6 hens.
Something you can Walk in is my preference

 

[Faraday40]

Update on the shed. There are doors! The chickens new home is almost ready!!! They'll have the right side.
View attachment 3549027View attachment 3549028

Of course I still need to set up the run - I am debating now between normal run or a tractor style run. Input/opinions are welcomed about tractor style runs for the birds. There's three turkey poults who I don't think would like a tractor though, so a normal run might be necessary for them. @Molpet and @Faraday40 how on earth do you keep turkeys out of the neighbors?

DH always teases me because my answer to most “OR” questions is BOTH

The reg run is great, and more secure - but the grass disappears and with it all those healthy free snacks. Turkeys eat a lot so allowing them to forage for some of their food makes economical sense. Plus we all know how the eggs taste better in spring summer when greens are abundant.

For me the reg run is wonderful. However when I want the safety of a run with the benefits of foraging, I just use a small tractor for daytime. DD will not allow her bantams outside without it! (I’m sure you could easily make something with scraps) The reg chickens stay in the coop unless I’m home - when I let them free range. The dog and I take over the roosters protection role.

My poults are still with their serama mama in the tractor. They bonded with the bantams so will stay nearby when it’s time to kick them out of tractor. When they start flying into trees, I clip a wing - just limits them a little. They want to stay in yard but accidents happen when they’re in a tree and fly down to wrong side. They get very frightened when on wrong side of fence. I must “rescue” them because they have no clue how to hop back over the fence. (Repeatedly slamming body into fence and panic screaming) After that they never want it to happen again. The neighbors can either call me or just throw them back over.

My 1st year I think I just carried them to the tractor and back each day. I missed out on all the hilarious turkey antics.

My turkeys use the coop at night. They know enough to just follow the chickens to bed. However I had one odd group that would wait for me each night by the human door. I would say “Go to bed” and theyd walk in. They never used the chicken door - even though they exited and entered through it all day. That particular group had a smart female who would only wait so long. If I was “late” she’d put herself in the big catalpa tree. The boys would just wait in the dark or sit on top of the coop. No matter what you do, make sure you have a long “turkey stick” At some point they will fly above you and a good poking stick will be needed to get them to fly down

 

[Faraday40]

 

[BReeder!]

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I'm tempted to do a drive by raid on your cherry bush. LOL! I want one so bad! I should have dug up a sapling from your lawn when I was last out there. I really want montmorency cherries, but any will do.

 

[Faraday40]

We picked 15 lbs 7 oz and didn’t make a dent!

It’s called “carmine jewel “. Self pollinating dwarf bush cherry. …. Well it’s not a dwarf but everything else is as promised. The flavor is both sweet and tart. It’s good enough to eat straight off the bush, but a little sugar makes it a dessert. Works great for pies and indulgent milkshakes.

This year I think we have more cherry sprouts than dandelions out front. Lol. Feel free to dig either up!
- You can even take some bonus raspberries and rose of Sharon from the lawn. They just get mowed if growing in the grass.

Don’t forget the baby silver maples. They’re not in the grass but found growing in every flower bed and pot we have.