Narragansett Turkeys

[affacat]

A general shelter and roosts can work for heritage turkeys. My turkeys just naturally took to the roosts. Of course I had appropriate sized roosts in their grow out pen which they started using by the time they were 3 to 4 weeks old.

If your fence has a top bar or rail turkeys will view it as a desirable perch. Once up on the perch they will invariably get down on the wrong side of the fence and forget how to get back in.

I use 2"x4"x6' welded wire for my perimeter fence. On a rare occasion a turkey will go sailing over the south fence into my lower field and then need escorted back in. They do not attempt to jump the fence even though they can easily jump 6' high. There is no top bar or rail on my perimeter fence.

Interesting. Most of our perimeter fencing is chainlink, so that could be an issue.

My wife had a potentially great idea. Our planned coop was essentially an 8x12 shed.

We could, essentially, make 2 rooms. The back half a traditional coop - 4 walls, turkey entrance, nesting area. But then for the from half (so,8x6 or so) we could, instead of solid walls, use a lot of hardware cloth to make it more of a covered patio.

We could have roosts in both sections, so if the turkey wanted to sleep 'outside' they could, protected, and could see easily in 3 of the 4 cardinal directions (rest of coop would block one).

Basically a 8x6 covered coop plus an 8x6 covered patio. (Assuming we split exactly in half)

Does this sound like a viable idea?

 

[R2elk]

Interesting. Most of our perimeter fencing is chainlink, so that could be an issue.

My wife had a potentially great idea. Our planned coop was essentially an 8x12 shed.

We could, essentially, make 2 rooms. The back half a traditional coop - 4 walls, turkey entrance, nesting area. But then for the from half (so,8x6 or so) we could, instead of solid walls, use a lot of hardware cloth to make it more of a covered patio.

We could have roosts in both sections, so if the turkey wanted to sleep 'outside' they could, protected, and could see easily in 3 of the 4 cardinal directions (rest of coop would block one).

Basically a 8x6 covered coop plus an 8x6 covered patio. (Assuming we split exactly in half)

Does this sound like a viable idea?

If you are going to have a coop for turkeys it needs to be big. It needs to have a minimum of at least 10 sq. ft. of clear floor space per adult turkey.

 

[affacat]

If you are going to have a coop for turkeys it needs to be big. It needs to have a minimum of at least 10 sq. ft. of clear floor space per adult turkey.

8x12 is 96, we have 8 turkeys so should have the space. Just trying to figure out if we should make some of it more 'outdoor'. They would also have a large run and freerange ability