The start of our Turkey "Palace" house *updated pics*

[chicken pickin]

Those are absolutely some of the most beautiful pictures Ive seen! Im jealous. But that is great for you and your nephew. I love that kids learn about the simple things in life. The beauty that surrounds us and all the hard work that pays off with such a reward of accomplishment at the end of the day. I think some people find me a little strange with all our new small wannabe farm ways lol. We live in a small nice town half of it is a little more on the country side and that is where we chose to buy our house. We stayed in town here because we didnt want to move our kids away from family and friens as they were moved all their lives when hubby was in the military for 9 years. We finally made our way back home last year and bought our house and rooted ourselves home. We only have 1.75 acres but we are making it work for us so far. My kids are fully involved in all the animals 2 dogs Alley and Hunter, 2 Lionhead rabbits Jezabel and Lulu, the 12 chickens 2BBWs the 5 Bourbon Reds and tomorrow the 26 meat birds. I like that my kids know where the eggs come from and they are learning about meat also which I was nervous to introduce but they seem to understand it and accept it. They help with all the chores they even do the compost for me and help hangout clothes to dry lol. My youngest(age5) waters the garden daily and and checks the nestboxes for eggs like 10 times a day lol even though we have only gotten 4 eggs so far from our 12 chickens. Her face lights up when she finds one.

Keep enjoying your views because they are fantastic. Ive always wanted to live somewhere that looked like a painting everyday if that makes sense. And you seem to have found one of those places.

 

[chicken pickin]

Today we did more work and its almost done. Ill put the finishing touches on in the next few days and move the babies in.

So we finished the underside of the roof with plywood so no critters can make there way in


We made a door out of scrap 2x3s and plywood left over from a job my dad was doing. Door got hinged we added a handle and 2 laches one at the top of the door one at the bottom


Started adding more plywood on the face of the house to give it a more finished look



Finished the front(though I think Im going to cover the bottom opening under the window with plywood also, its hardware cloth at the moment)



Window opens on a temporary arm











Next step is finishing the hardware cloth on the openings on the side walls along the roof. I started that tonight but it was getting dark out so I couldnt finish. I also need to add the roost and then lay down the shavings. Then in a few days I can bring the poults and their waterer and feeder to their new house. I was thinking of making a rain gutter feeder for them and put it along the underside of the window inside the house. Ill think about that and see how I like the set up once they are moved in.

 

[chicken pickin]

So we finished it up yesterday and moved the 5 poults in to their new home. They seem to really like it alot. They were playing with eachother which was so funny to watch and 2 even displayed for the first time that we have seen right after we moved them in it was so cute. Right now we have a temporary roost made out of scrap 2x4s but we will add a thick tree branch inside and up a little higher once the poults get bigger. we will also change how the feeder and waterer are set up with the rain gutter feeder and a large waterer hung from the ceiling and before spring add a nesting area. I think we are also going to add a rain barrel watering systems also for their outside water in the pen.

 

[MonsterClucker]

Wow! It's finally done!!

Wow that is such a nice a turkey house. I was showing my brother the pictures of your last uploads and he wants to build one like yours lol.
The little ones look like they REALLy like the new place. It looks real cozzy!
Did you line the floor with any type of liner or is it still just the plywood?

 

[chicken pickin]

Its still just the plywood. I dont have linoleum on hand and wasnt willing to spend more money lol. I was going to stain the inside to protect the wood but was forced to move the poults in yesterday. Our meat birds are growing faster than we expected and need to move them from the small brooder to the big brooder which the poults were in. I need to clean out the big brooder and get some more shavings today to get the meaties settled in to the bigger one. Next week they may move outside to the chicken tractor. I may still stain the inside and the outside of the turkey house a little down the road but for now im satisfied with the turn out.

 

[MonsterClucker]

Nice!

What does your bigger brooder look like?

Right now I have all my chicks in the same brooder and the meaties are outgrowing the layers ans I've been thinking about making a bigger brooder for them for the next week until I finish up the meatie hoop coop.

 

[chicken pickin]

My bigger brooder is made out of plywood. 4x4x2 tall with screen over the top. Its not super big but it has done the job for all of my purposes so far. I will look for a pic later if I have one im running out the door right now.

 

[chicken pickin]

4x4 brooder box

inside with 2 dowels for roosting


What do you use for brooding?

 

[chicken pickin]

This is what they are in now. The small brooder is 2x3 entirely too small for 26 meaties and they are running out of space at 8 days old.


day I got them at 3 days old


yesterday at 8 days old

 

[MonsterClucker]

I Really Like That Brooder!!! I know what you mean about running out of space for the meaties. I have 14 in with my 10 BR and 2 BBW poults. They are growing Soo fast I didn't account for 2 week old chicks 2x the size of everyone else. I originally bought a 50 gallon Rubbermaid tote thinking this was gonna be enough room to brood in. When the chicks came I put them in it and immediately saw it wasn't gonna cut it lol. I had a bunch of real big cardboard boxes in the attic of my garage.so I made this. Today they are 14 days old and should be ready to go outside in about a week or less maybe. Yesterday emptied the shavings from all the brooder boxes and lfilled em back up and just decided to add another box because I noticed poop on their feet so they must be crowded. So here's what it looks like now. It's kind of long and hard to picture but it got to be at least 5'-5'1/2" long. They should be ok for another week. I was gonna add perches but they are trying to jump out of the brooder so they'll have to wait for that until they go outside. I need to just build nice one like yours. Guess ill have to work that into the plan once things slow down.