Our Monday project

[Stubbornhillfarm]

These animals don't really help with the garden, but I wanted to share and don't like the new format (well old now) on BYC. So I'll just share with you all.

Before: Turkey shanty

After: Turky sanctuary

They will be much happier now with roosting poles. All we have left to do is put a cover over part of the roof to give them some shade. All of the materials came from the pig pen that we dismantled on Sunday.

 

[lesa]

That looks great! Do they fly? I am wondering why you covered them? They look very content with their new digs! Happy Thanksgiving?

 

[schmije]

Nice job with the fence panels! Your turkeys look thankful for their new birdcage How did you close off the curved ends?

We've discussed doing turkeys for several years, but we weren't crazy about having to cover them. This is definitely a setup that we could work with!

 

[baymule]

Great job! That looks real nice and sturdy too!

 

[Stubbornhillfarm]

Thanks all! I am very happy with it and the turkeys seem to be also. Even though the square footage is not any larger than before, there is a larger open space and then of course the roosting poles. So it seems much larger.

They do fly lesa. We had bird netting over the top of the old shanty fencing. It was flat at the 4ft mark but there was an open space so that we could walk in to bring food and water. It was a horrible set up. And wouldn't you know; every day one of the Jumbo Whites would fly out and then at dusk, fly up onto the pallet door and roost there for the night. They are too much of an investment to let something happen to one. The wild turkeys around here are pretty impressive. They will fly up into the trees 25-30 feet to roost for the night. They are pretty funny to see. And yes...Happy Thanksgiving indeed!

schmije, the curved ends are covered in bird netting. Like what you would use on berry bushes. You can't really see it in the pictures, but it is effective. This set up is only working now because the turkeys are so big they won't fit through the squares in the pig panels. Next year, when we get the chicks ready to go outside, we will put hardware wire around the bottom so the chicks can't escape. We are up on a hill and it is always windy. With this set up, there is nothing to catch the wind. We will have to watch closely when we get the cover on part of it to see what happens.

Thanks baymule! It is pretty sturdy. It is all tied together with wire and of course the posts that you can see.