"Turkey Manor"

For the past week, Sadie and I have been working as much as we could on the turkey building and if I do say so myself, with a bit of paint, it has spruced up rather well. In fact, we have fondly named it "Turkey Manor". It took two coats of stain and three coats of red on the doors, and will still need another white coat on the trim, but all in all.. the little old building has come back to life.

Then at the end of the day, Ed has come to finish the rest of this project (after working on the house!!!)






He cut a door way in the side so the turkeys will be able to come and go during the day. We will definitely lock them in at night, due to the predators!!! And he made a sliding door so we can close them in...

Sadie put a nice red paint on the turkey door... to match all the other color schemes.















We had a number of ideas with regards to the pen itself. I have seen all kinds of turkey pens and everyone seems to have their own ideas. We were looking for something strong, quick to put and cheap. Turns out that a dog kennel seem to fit the bill the best. Home Depot had a 10x10 dog pen for under 300.00.. and with the house being one end, and taking a panel from our real dog pen... we ended up having a penned area that is 12x20, (roughly) which should be plenty of space for the outside.

Now, turkeys can fly, to some extent..and they certainly would be able to get over the top of the dog kennel. Some folks suggested that we clip their wings, which isn't a bad idea except we really don't know how to do that, and secondly, they're pretty big now, and we weren't too excited about handling them that much.... so, it was just as easy to put a top on the kennel. Ed made a big wood frame, and we got some "bird wire" and simply stapled it to the top. We still have enough head room that we can walk around the inside of the pen (for cleaning and the like).. and the wire is open enough that we don't have to worry about a snow load next winter. The birds won't be able to fly thru the top.


By the time we got all this done this evening, we had just enough time to move the birds in. They haven't had the chance to try going outside, that will for tomorrow. Moving them was an adventure!!! They're getting quite big... Sadie was in charge of the door of the shed, Ed handled the birds, and I kept track of the door in the barn. Ed was pretty great with the birds, he wrapped them in a towel and one by one carried them out to their new house.

So, this evening we left them to settle in and the last I saw was everyone chowing down on supper and getting use to their new surroundings.

I can't wait to turn them out tomorrow.. I am sure they will appreciate the extra space and the chance to poke around like birds.

And now we will have Turkey Manor already for raising future generations of birds. I can't say that raising our own turkeys has saved us any money, especially this year. But I like the idea of raising some of our own food, and knowing that these animals have been raised well, and treated kindly during their lives. I not so sure we will raise anything "bigger" than turkeys, but I have come to know... never say never....