Blisschick - you're welcome for the pics. All of our turkeys are started inside a portable coop. Once they are big enough, it is attached to the flight pen and the door opened. Once they go out,they have never returned for shelter. We have left the coop there for several weeks, thinking they needed it and they do not go inside. According to our PA laws, we must have them in an enclosure and they mandate roost heights, pen sizes, etc. There is no requirement for a shelter. I guess it makes sense since wild turkeys live in the wild. We have never lost a turkey to weather and they do just fine. We do put up wind blocks to help break the wind and snow.
Elmer is our only free range turkey because he's been here the longest and doesn't roam at all. He roosts on the doors of the flight pens, on our roof or up in the trees near the chicken coops. We do occasionally let a hen out for company, but it is better to put him in with them because the hens like to roam off. Usually once breeding season is over, he prefers to be alone, although he does hang around at their pens. He doesn't really want to be with them. In nature, toms and hens only come together for breeding. They then separate for winter into their own groups.
The roost height should be 4 feet for their own safety. I'm not sure how many turkeys you have and they're weights, but unless you fasten the sawhorses down somehow, they will probably tip it over. We put posts into the ground and then fasten a log across it to create the roosts.
In order for them to hatch successfully, you will need a way to separate the hen with her clutch from the group (especially the tom). The tom will try to continue mating her even on the eggs and cause breakage. That large pen you see in my pic is split into 4 sections, so we can move them into a separate section easily through a doorway. This is convenient for reseeding, separating injured hens and for allowing them to raise a brood. It's nice that they're attached like this, because the others can see the babies while they are growing up, without being able to hurt them.
Jody
I'm bummed out, but I've decided that this will give me all winter to prepare a nice pen for them and maybe I can hatch some out this spring. Probably more fun to raise them from babies, anyways. I've already talked to one BYCer who should have eggs this spring. Now I have something to look forward to, well, that would be in addition to the BYC egg swap.
I have been raising turkeys for 9 yrs now and still have 2 9 yr olds,I have black spanish black winged bronze and one grumpy old rio grande.
