Turkey House Part 3

The most time consuming thing was making sure the deck blocks were level. Lots of swearing but once it was level-ish I calmed down. I changed the length  from 14 to 12 feet. Originally it was going to be a Woods style coop, but I wanted to save the roof off the shed so had to change style.

The roof on the old shed was low, the doorway had 5'2" of head room. So my new frame is 11" taller. The sections along the top will be covered in hardware cloth and have shutters for winter. This kind of ventilation together with the open front will be great for turkeys.

Turkey House Part 2a

Forgot to post the photos for Part 2.

Once I took the screws out the shed just flopped around. The metal isn't much thicker than a Pepsi can!

I kept the roof section in one piece so I can just sit it on top of my wooden frame and screw it in place.

Turkey House Part 2

I dismantled the shed and found out that the base had rotted away in some areas. Definitely not worth saving. 

So the plan is to build a new 14' long base , build a strong frame for the metal shed to be remounted too. I'll also be lifting the roof by an extra 12 inches for more head room and better ventilation. The open front addition will be approximately 4'6" long, but mounted to the side of the shed. The present front of the shed will become the side. 

It's going to be very different :)

EDIT:  Changed the length to 12'.

Turkey House Project

My new project is..... drum roll........ turning this shed into a turkey house for my 6 Ridley Bronze. Hopefully I can get started on it this weekend. 

Canadian Grade A Egg Weights

Jumbo at least 70 grams
Extra Large at least 63 grams
Large at least 56 grams
Medium at least 49 grams
Small at least 42 grams
Pee Wee Less than 42 grams

Our 4 Red Sex Links lay 4 Extra large to Jumbo size eggs every day. Occasionally way beyond Jumbo, and they taste so good.

Turkey Tractor

My prototype turkey tractor is 10'x12' and 6' high.  It's covered in 1"x1" hardware cloth and it has a skirt of approximately 12" to stop predators from digging under. I used 2x2's to keep the weight down, but still heavy enough that it won't flip in strong winds.

I have 16 Large White turkeys that are 1 month old. The tractor is 120 sq.ft. so there is 7.5 sq.ft. per bird which I think will be fine. Meat chickens only get 1.5 - 2 sq.ft. per bird. Although the turkeys move a lot more than the meat chickens do. The turkeys seem to eat a lot of greens too. Which is good because our field has lots of clover. Apparently it makes them taste better :)

They will be 18 weeks old Thanksgiving week (Canadian, Oct 13). I aim to process them at 16 weeks so they don't get too big. At 16 weeks the hens will be around 20 lbs and toms 30 lbs. Dressed weight will be 75% of live weight, hens around 15 lbs and toms 22.5 lbs. Not many people want large birds anymore. Last Thanksgiving I bought an 18 lb turkey from a guy that processed 50 birds. I contacted him to see if he had any left for Christmas and all he had was birds over 25 lb.