Show me your Turkey Coops please!!!!!!

[Smitty's Farm]

If anyone has any pics to post of their turkey coops, I'd love to see them.

These babies are out growing each brooder quickly.

We have 4 baby blue slate poults & one black spanish. We will let them free range during the day when they are a little older, but I know we will need to build a coop for night time.

Right now they get supervised play time for a little while outside in a make shift play pen made out of chicken wire put in a circle. We will probably make a transitional day tractor, so they can get outside unsupervised for longer period of times.

Thanks,
Kim

 

[sandspoultry]

We have tried to get our turkeys to go inside but they want no part of that. The toms will sleep on the ground and the hens roost on a pine tree about 3 feet off the ground.
In our Beltsville pen we tried a range roost and they do like that. (don't have any pics but I will try to decribe it) It's 12 feet square, 4x4's for the corner posts and about 3 feet off the ground we took 2x6's and made roosts. it's looks like floor joists in house building but with no floor over them. We put the boards 18 inches apart. The roof is flat and slopping toward the back, about 3 feet high in the front, down to 2 feet in the back. On the back we put 4 nest boxes for them to lay in and sit. I was going to hinge the back of the nest boxes but I didn't and should have. To get to the inner two boxes you have to climb in.

Steve in NC

 

[DawnSuiter]

I'll be excited to see the resposnes to this thread

I haven't started my Turkey Habitat yet, but here's my "plan". We've been collecting supplies for it and will within a month start construction.

1 Central Turkey "courtyard" if you will, with a range shelter in it, this is where roosts, a few nest boxes & the feed/water will be. The shelter is a planned pole barn with 2 sides closed in (the windy sides) and a shed roof. Its located in a sunny open grassy area at the back of our yard along the woods. It will be enclosed in a courtyard setup made of chicken wire or aviary netting without a top net. The pole barn will be about 7' tall sloping to 6.5' or so. In the winter, on the last long open side we'll pile up bales of hay. At the edges of the courtyard and in the barn we'll have some ornamental grasses that we transplant from other places in our yard which will help them create some natural nests on the ground as well.

The central "courtyard" will lead off into two seperate yards. Two yards so that we may alternate annually or bi annually. The yards will be bordered with aviary netting. The location for their yards are medium density woods with some clearings that we can plant forage. We are buying 12-15' tall netting in 50' rolls or more and we will loosly attach to a perimiter of trees.

I don't really know even an approximate square footage, but basically the plan is to give the turkeys about half an acre. On which I hope to keep a couple dozen turkeys comfortably. I will obviously just have to see how that goes and keep my flock down to a manageable size for the area I have.

If they fly out, I'll just have to put them back, because adding a top net to their yards isn't possible. I don't want to clip wings because I hope that is what saves them from the hopefully occassional wildlife attack. I'm not building fort knox here but this is as natural a turkey habitat as I can imagine without letting them freerange wherever they want. Wild Turkeys live around here in the same conditions.

 

[sandspoultry]

Quote:
We have all of our turkey pens set back in the woods and it works really well, they have plenty of shade in the summer when they need it and in the fall after the leaves drop they get plenty of sunshine. Also, before we fenced it in we cut down some good sized pine trees and just left the logs in the pen and they seem to enjoy running around and chasing each other over the logs.

Steve in NC

 

[DawnSuiter]

Quote:
That's good news, because I was hoping to drop a few of the smaller trees in efforts to give the bigger trees more room to grow, and was hoping I could just drop and leave them creating natural roosts & hiding places etc. Glad to know that should be a fine plan!

Thanks!

 

[Smitty's Farm]

Awwww man....nobody has any pics to post??????

Sandspoultry thanks for the description!

Bodyflight it sounds like you are ready and organized for your new turkeys.

Here's our situation.......We are nestled in on about 6 acres of wooded land. I guess our house sits on about 3 acres, but it has mature trees all around, but more wooded on the side and back of our property.

When the poults get big we plan to free range them. I have to still check about Blackhead in our area, so I may have to separate some of the property from where my chickens free range in the afternoon. Our older laying flock has a coop w/ connected run, but I like to let them out before bedtime to munch on green stuff, scratch & eat bugs. We have a rooster, Napoleon that free ranges, but he doesn't stray far from the ladies. That coop will be maxed out when I eventually add the new teen age chickens.

So these turkeys need a coop for night time protection from predators & elements. I have heard that most turkeys prefer to sleep outside, but how cold is to cold in the winter.

I'm just trying to get organized, b/c these babies are growing so fast.

Thanks,
Kim

 

[DawnSuiter]

The notes I have say that turkeys are hardy throughout all of north america except alaska. I am taking that literally to mean that if I provide shelter from the snow, rain and wind that they will use it when they need to and not when they don't, and they should be fine figuring it out on their own.

are you going to try and put them in a locked coop at night? is that what you mean by coop for predators?

 

[Smitty's Farm]

Quote:
Yes, I would like to coop them, locked up tight at night to protect them from all the predators. Our one guard dog is getting older and prefers the comforts of inside at night most of the time, so I don't have him on protroll 24/7 like he used to.

The turkeys for now are still in a brooder box that is getting to small. I need to assemble them a transitional day tractor ASAP. I think it's warm enough for them to start going outside all day pretty soon.

I know I have read that they only need shelter from the elements, but the last turkey we had seemed to get chilled when it got cold, but he wasn't in the best of health anyway. He grew up w/ my older flock and thought he was a big baby Huey chicken. LOL!!!!! When he got bigger the chickens started pulling out his tail feathers, so we let him free range, but would coop him w/ the flock at night for safety.

I don't want to take the chance of blackhead plus I'm out of room in the coop w/ chickens anyway. I still need a coop for the teenage Ameraucanas I hatched out this spring. They get to go in our transitional day tractor everyday, so these poor little poults don't get to use it.

 

[Animallover606]

i think it would be similaiar to a chicken coop but bigger?

 

[LoveMyBirds]

Smitty's Farm :

If anyone has any pics to post of their turkey coops, I'd love to see them.

Thanks,
Kim

Here's an Edited Picture that I just Made from an old Photo. This is what I'm doing right now to my Shed that you're looking at.

I partitioned part of the inside to 18ft wide by 7ft wide.. It has 3 seperate partions, one for each type of fowl. Turkey = 8x7.. both area for chicks 5x7

Outside I made the runs 18ft wide by 8ft wide by 4ft high with 3 partitons for the 3 types of birds I have.

I will have wire on top also.. back side is done in real life, but couple more days before I have it finished.

This is my front yard.. Huge and lots of range for my birds. These 2 passing by a few years ago.. Lots of wild life around my area..

Hope this Pic helps you..