Nesting boxes?

[Otis-Gussy]

Both of my hens are still a bit too young to start laying.
One of them is going on 5 months so I figured it's time to add nesting boxes to their coop.
Not sure if turkeys even have a tendency to use them.. but what I ended up doing is buying two decent sized cat litter pans and filling them with shavings. They have a dog house that none of them ever go in.. but I figured once they start laying the hens might go in there to do it so I put the boxes inside.
Will this set up work for them? Should I not put the two nesting boxes side by side?
Also.. once they start laying, is adding oyster shell grit enough of a supplement or should I change their food as well. They currently eat game bird type food called x-cell. They've been doing really well on their current food so didn't want to switch if not necessary.

 

[R2elk]

Both of my hens are still a bit too young to start laying.
One of them is going on 5 months so I figured it's time to add nesting boxes to their coop.
Not sure if turkeys even have a tendency to use them.. but what I ended up doing is buying two decent sized cat litter pans and filling them with shavings. They have a dog house that none of them ever go in.. but I figured once they start laying the hens might go in there to do it so I put the boxes inside.
Will this set up work for them? Should I not put the two nesting boxes side by side?
Also.. once they start laying, is adding oyster shell grit enough of a supplement or should I change their food as well. They currently eat game bird type food called x-cell. They've been doing really well on their current food so didn't want to switch if not necessary.

If you are going to use the laying boxes (not implying that the turkeys will use them), I would put them on opposite sides of the room. I find that just leaning a pallet or piece of plywood against a wall works pretty good for turkeys to use as a nest site.

I feed my hens the same 16% layer pellets that I feed my chickens. I also offer free choice oyster shell. Oyster shell is not grit and will not work as grit.

You should not need to be concerned about them laying until next spring. It isn't really their age just that turkeys are seasonal layers normally starting to lay when the daylight hours get long enough to trigger the laying response in the spring and stopping in the fall.

Good luck.

 

[Otis-Gussy]

Here's some photos of my coop set up.

 

[Otis-Gussy]

If you are going to use the laying boxes (not implying that the turkeys will use them), I would put them on opposite sides of the room. I find that just leaning a pallet or piece of plywood against a wall works pretty good for turkeys to use as a nest site.

I feed my hens the same 16% layer pellets that I feed my chickens. I also offer free choice oyster shell. Oyster shell is not grit and will not work as grit.

You should not need to be concerned about them laying until next spring. It isn't really their age just that turkeys are seasonal layers normally starting to lay when the daylight hours get long enough to trigger the laying response in the spring and stopping in the fall.

Good luck.

Thank you! Great advice.
I seriously had zero clue when exactly they start laying.

 

[justin shrew]

I've never had a turkey hen ready about five months, but that may also depend on which breed they are we breed Narragansett turkey bourbon turkey,the largest breeds, which most of the two mostly begin on their first year