Turkey House

The turkeys are growing really fast.  I love my remodeled hoop house.  It is longer and lighter making it easier for me to move by myself.

I had originaly constructed the frame out of wooded 2 x 4's but it was really heavy.  My husband reconstructed it with a nice new aluminum frame.  This baby will last forever. I situate it so that the turkeys get the early morning sun and then the tarp gives them shade in the afternoon.

You can make one of these really easy.  This one is made from two combination cattle panels and one hog panel in the center. The panels are attatched to a frame and then covered with chicken wire to keep the youngsters in.  Any larger and it would take more than one person to move it. The above photo is when I first put all 15 turkeys in it in June.

This is the access door made from some scrap aluminum we had at the shop.  The hose goes to the automatic water which is a huge time and back saver.

I now have 5 adult turkeys in it.  I move it to new grass every couple of days.  No need for cleaning or shavings here.  The turkey like to eat the grass and bugs too. Usually I raise 50 meat birds in the spring using the hoop house and then transfer the turkeys to it after the chickens are processed.  This year I skipped the meat birds because my freezer is still full of them from last year.  

Morning Surprise

So this summer has been really busy and I haven't found time to blog.  This am I decided to make time. Here is a good one....This am I went to do chores.  I fed the bucks & the pony & the new goats.  Then I milked my two alpines and fed that pen. I went to feed the dry does their hay, went in the stall, opened up the hay bag to put the hay in , glanced to my right and saw a "goat" lying next to the creep feeder pen and thought "why aren't you bombarding me for the hay this am?" and THEN I looked closer and the "goat" was not a "goat"!   IT WAS A FREAKIN COYOTE!!!!!!!!  I was close enough to pat it! I dropped the hay and ran franticly screaming.  My husband had already left for work so I had to call my FIL and hystericly told him to come quick with his gun.  Then I went through the kids pen jumped the fence & locked him in the stall so he couldn't get away.  I looked over every does neck and hind end and not one of them has a bite mark on them.  So did one of my does beat the bejesus out of him?  Is that why he was cowering in there?  I don't know but I'm still pretty shook up!  Too bad I didn't take pictures but I was a little out of my mind! Anywho, my FIL came & shot him and disposed of him, bye bye coyote.....You messed with the wrong farmer chic!