Updated, NEW PICS: We are, apparently, building a turkey cathedral

[asher]

Quote:

It looks great!!!

 

[dixygirl]

Quote:
Dear God! I have never seen anything so big. That is bigger than my house

 

[pierce652]

Now that is awsome. I really wish I had the skills to build something a quarter of that size. I struggled revamping my big dog house into a hen house.

 

[ninjapoodles]

OK, progress report: We're pretty much done for now. We don't have an enclosed coop inside the pen yet, but with this brutal heat, we don't consider it too much of a priority right now. It can wait. The pen is secure, and reinforced with electric fence, besides being well-lit and closer to the house than the chicken yard.

Here are a couple of shots taken from inside the pen, looking from one end to the other, as Alex was finishing up securing the main (comprising 2/3 of the total area) "chamber" of the pen.

Where Alex is standing on the ladder, is fenced off from the far end of the pen--we're not finishing that end right away, either. Next spring, that will be our breeding/brooding pen down there. The roofing is only going to be on the back side, as shown, we think. The sheet metal along the bottom will be securely installed just as kind of a visual screen between us and the neighbors, and we're running hardware cloth behind it and along the ground, I think. The neighbor situation on that side is kinda weird. We don't want him even to see our birds much. The chickens are totally blocked from him view, and we're considering putting up a plywood "wall" against the fence on that side instead of just the sheet metal on the bottom. Not sure yet. It would cut down on ventilation, is the only reason we hesitate doing that.

Here is Alex putting up the very last piece of chicken-wire, thereby totally enclosing the entire flight-pen. Yaaay! They roost WAY up high, right under the roof, even at this young age.

This is where husband and I are at loggerheads...he would prefer to keep the turkeys confined, which is why he went to the trouble to make them such a nice flight-pen. I would prefer, after a few weeks to get them into a solid routine, to turn them out to free-range with the chickens during the day. Because of the expense involved in buying, raising, and housing the turkeys, Alex is much more protective of them than he is the chickens, which I understand...but I really want them to be able to enjoy the property.

If I clip wings well, will that keep them on our side of the fence? There are woods on the other side, and theoretically, they *could* hop a fence and meander several hundred feet up our driveway, hop another fence, and be out with access to the street. It's hard to know what's best to do.

 

[Sherielu]

I think they have more right now in housing and care than any average turkey could hope for.

I vote to keep them safe in the above average pen.

 

[I have WHAT in my yard?]

Enjoy the property?!?!?!

They live in the turkey Taj Mahal!!!!

What more does the rest of the planet have to offer them that could compare?!?!

 

[ninjapoodles]

Well, I just figure it won't be too long before they've scratched up all the grass in the pen they're in, and I'd love for them to be able to run and forage like the chickens do.

You're all right, of course--it's a plenty nice enough place to live. Maybe once the extra Toms are gone, we can re-evaluate. Is it true that they fly less as they get heavier?