Sun porch?

[allergymama]

In prep for getting turkeys, I started here and with Storey (of course!) The recommendation in the book is that you build them a "sun porch" so they don't go out on soil until 8 weeks. On here I find no mention of that and am wondering if it is really necessary (seems like a lot of expense/work for something they will only need for a couple weeks). We plan on heritage and free ranging during the day after brooding.

Part of my question is that if we let a hen raise them they would be on soil immediately, what is the difference as long as they are safe from predation? Thanks in advance!

 

[ivan3]

Keeping poults off of ground is the least risky option (microscopic "predation", primarily).

http://albc-usa.etapwss.com/images/uploads/docs/ALBCturkey-6.pdf (page 53-54).

We've always separated out hens & their broods behind a 48" folding infant fence. The poults can get over this at about a week of age and the hens hop over and call the rest (we just make a path for them to go back in when done exploring).

If we had any hx of vermin/disease, we'd have the pouts off the ground for the full 12 weeks.

 

[allergymama]

Holy Cow! They can get over 48" at one week?!?!

So, basically, the first set might be a trial run to know whether we have disease in the soil? We are on old farmland and it has been at least 15 years (probably way more than that) since there was any chance that there were farm animals near where we will have them penned. That being said, we do have a wild turkey population that visits occasionally. Do we need to worry about them picking up stuff from the wild turkeys?

Also, my ducks poop everywhere(!), can turkeys pick anything up from them? Ducks are healthy, no issues and we feed DE and probiotics to cut down on disease.

 

[ivan3]

We only augment diet (30% game bird stater) with insects (any moth will do). Main thing to look out for are sudden drops in temp. & precipitation (cold&chilled=dead). Any additional attention to detail, during the first 12 weeks, goes a long way to assuring that the resulting adults will be more able to fend off insult/disease.

Wild birds/domestics can be vectors of disease (close observation/preemptive worming can be useful).
So long as duck's "wet zone" doesn't constitute the majority of the turkey run (drier is better) there shouldn't be too much of a problem.
We've had 1.5wk. old poults "climb""fly" up and over 6 ft. fencing (if poults are with hen, then 18"-24" is usually enough - they tend to stay with their hen)