NH Homesteader- turkeys!

[Mike CHS]

I'm just building another small coop that I can use in a mobile situation. The turkeys may not even use it but like some other things I'll learn their behavior as they let me know what they do.

We haven't seen any issues with blackhead but we haven't researched it either.

 

[NH homesteader]

I'll look at the size of mine when I go outside again in a bit.

I have a turkey breaking out!

 

[Hens and Roos]

 

[Baymule]

Blackhead, is that the fowl pox that chickens get? They have black spots for a week, then it goes away. I am told that mosquitoes carry it.

 

[NH homesteader]

Mike our door is approximately 18" square. If yours are a broad breasted breed (I think you said they were not) they would need more space than that.

 

[NH homesteader]

@Baymule fowl pox is different. Blackhead does not give them a black head, lol. It is a parasite and is spread via droppings. It destroys their intestines and liver, from what I've read... In my search for heritage turkey breeders I saw that Sandhill Preservation was devastated by this disease this year and lost a lot of turkeys. They are now attempting to breed for resistance.

 

[Baymule]

It makes sense to breed for resistance to blackhead, especially since so many people have both turkeys and chickens. They'd get a lot of business if they bred up turkeys that didn't get blackhead.

 

[Bruce]

Haha! Tell me about this brooder cave you use. We have a big metal brooder, like the ones the feed stores use when they get shipments of chicks. It works well and no heat lamp, but we have some issues with the wire floor.

My chicks come next week so I'll have even more chirping!

http://www.backyardchickens.com/t/956958/mama-heating-pad-in-the-brooder-picture-heavy-update

• Wire frame of some sort, bent such that it is ~4" high at the front, 2" at the back. Width depends on what size pad you have but if the frame is rectangular, it should be wider along the front and back so there is plenty of ingress/egress opening. Adjust the frame height by bending the frame as they grow.
• Heating pad (*) strapped up underneath so it is on the inside of the cave
• Encase it all in an old pillowcase and tape to hold it up against the pad AND so there are NO openings a chick can manage to get into. I need to go get more Gorilla tape, not that I have time.

Close to natural. With no heat lamp the chicks sleep at night and are awake during the day. They come and go into the "cave" as they like when they want to warm up, same thing they do with a Mama hen.

The key is that they can get their backs up against the pad, this is NOT a "high ambient temp" area. Yes it will be warmer than outside the cave but don't bother checking the air temp inside. It won't be the "required" 95° the first week, dropping down weekly as is professed for heat lamp brooding. If the chicks are staying in the cave full time, turn the pad up, if they don't stay in, turn it down. If they are coming and going, just right. What setting to use at first will depend on the ambient temp of the space the brooder is in and how many settings your pad has.


What is the heat source for the chicks with your metal brooder? The chicks I've seen at the store all have heat lamps. Any reason you can't cover the wire floor with paper for the first day or two then shavings? I know "everyone" says chicks will eat the shavings instead of their food and die. I have not found they are that stupid but YMMV. My last set was raised by a broody on shavings. At a few days old they were going in and out of the brooder area with their "Mom" to the barn alley which is full of shavings pulled out of the coop. By 2 weeks they were getting up on the hens' feeder filled with layer pellets and ignoring their chick starter. The rest of the bag got dumped into the bin with the hens' food.

* that does NOT have an auto shutoff feature or has one that can be turned off.

 

[NH homesteader]

My chickens have never been stupid enough to die from eating shavings either! I like that brooder idea, I'll show my husband that. We had the industrial ones because we used to raise 50 cornish x at a time. We are no longer doing that, nor will we be doing it again. I have never had a broody chicken. Plenty of broody turkeys, and my ducks used to sit all the time, but never a chicken. We are getting Dorkings and Orpingtons though, both of which love to go broody so I hope we'll have better luck in the next few years!

 

[NH homesteader]

Ok, I had to ask my husband to confirm before I answered, but the brooder does not have heat lamps. There are light bulbs, but there are heating elements and the point of the bulb is apparently to draw them to the area where the heat is. Although I'm fairly certain they're smart enough to go be warm, but that's ok.