two turkey quick qestions

[chicmom]

Quote:
I use those black rubbery buckets, and I keep one in the house, and one outside in the coop, and then I just switch them out every day in the winter time. I hung a heat lamp (secured very well) over the water so it would freeze as quickly, but it still froze. I want to get heated water dishes too. It would make life easier, that's for sure! LOL The black buckets were nice because I would just step on the side of them and the ice would just pop out.

We had so much snow the past two winters, that it was literally up to my mid thigh! We had to put a plow attachment onto our lawn tractor to shovel a path to the chicken coops, and shovel an area for the birds to walk outside in. I always feel like the chickens are sitting ducks for predators during the winter, because they really stand out in the snow, like targets! And there's no tree coverage like there is in the other months for them to hide from hawks.

 

[Evelle]

did you have problems with roof caving in around your area?? i beleave last year was okay.. but the year before was crazy.. i had to climb up on the roof to shovel our roof.. told my husband he needed to raise the pitch and give us a metal roof like the chickens becase the snow just slids right off it.. lol
yes i beleve that the heated dishes will save alot of time and energy. we acually melted our last water dish tring to get it so it wouldnt freeze on us.. not the smartest idea

lol they are really funny in the snow arent they.. oh my last time i acually had to grab my chickens and carry them back to the coop at night cuz thier feet got so cold that all they wanted to do is sit. this will be my first year with turkeys and ducks and goats with winter.

 

[Lagerdogger]

Quote:
Hens are also much smaller than toms. If you only have hens, you might not realize how much larger the toms would be at the same age. If you got them in mid May, they should be almost as tall as they are going to get. It will still take a couple of months for then to fill out, though.