I could use you turkey experts advice on my current turkey accomodations:
I built this tractor with attached mini-van coop to raise 35 Freedom Ranger chicks last summer. My 6 1/2 week old turkeys needed to exit their oversized brooder so that I could move my growing 3 week old Red Rangers into it, and since turkeys are such flighty things, I thought this tractor might be just the thing for them.
However, since it still gets quite cold at night in the Colorado mountains at night, and I had reservations about trying to rig the heat lamp into the back of the mini-van, I decided to set up night time quarters inside the tractor. I took a Great Dane sized wire dog crate and set it up in the back corner of the tractor. I lined the lower 3/4 of the crate walls with corrigated plastic to keep off drafts and hung the heat lamp in the back half of the crate and put a flannel sheet on top to hold the warm air inside. The little turkeys have spent two nights outside locked in the crate (which I figure is much more predator proof than the tractor as a whole) but opened the crate to the rest of the tractor during the day. On the second night, when I turned on the heat lamp, the poults just trotted into the crate with no fuss (kindly saving me the effort of catching them which makes me so nervous the way they fly around).
So, what do you think of the setup? I'm planning on building a platform for the crate so that I can move the whole tractor more easily when I need fresh pasture. I remember reading that turkeys prefer to spend their night up off the ground. Do you suggest I keep the platform low (say 2-3 inches off the ground) so they can hop in easier or that I build the platform maybe 18"-24" off the ground so that they hop/fly up onto it?
The crate is about 3'X5' , opening along the 3' side. The tractor itself is 6'X12'. How long do you think that will adequately house 4 BBW turkeys?
I built this tractor with attached mini-van coop to raise 35 Freedom Ranger chicks last summer. My 6 1/2 week old turkeys needed to exit their oversized brooder so that I could move my growing 3 week old Red Rangers into it, and since turkeys are such flighty things, I thought this tractor might be just the thing for them.
However, since it still gets quite cold at night in the Colorado mountains at night, and I had reservations about trying to rig the heat lamp into the back of the mini-van, I decided to set up night time quarters inside the tractor. I took a Great Dane sized wire dog crate and set it up in the back corner of the tractor. I lined the lower 3/4 of the crate walls with corrigated plastic to keep off drafts and hung the heat lamp in the back half of the crate and put a flannel sheet on top to hold the warm air inside. The little turkeys have spent two nights outside locked in the crate (which I figure is much more predator proof than the tractor as a whole) but opened the crate to the rest of the tractor during the day. On the second night, when I turned on the heat lamp, the poults just trotted into the crate with no fuss (kindly saving me the effort of catching them which makes me so nervous the way they fly around).
So, what do you think of the setup? I'm planning on building a platform for the crate so that I can move the whole tractor more easily when I need fresh pasture. I remember reading that turkeys prefer to spend their night up off the ground. Do you suggest I keep the platform low (say 2-3 inches off the ground) so they can hop in easier or that I build the platform maybe 18"-24" off the ground so that they hop/fly up onto it?
The crate is about 3'X5' , opening along the 3' side. The tractor itself is 6'X12'. How long do you think that will adequately house 4 BBW turkeys?
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