It did n’t take long for our untried turkey to outgrow the portable playpen we use each year to raise substance chickens . Since mid - June , we ’ve been moving the pen around their pasture once a day , and it ’s go heavy for keeping them safe from predators while they forage for grass , weeds and bugs ( plus fecundate the pasture ) .
By the way , the turkeys ’ tending became so much well-situated and more pleasant once we moved them from their brooder box in our mudroom to their outdoor quarters — no more mussy sliver to consider with , large brooder lid to wrestle , and daily greens to snip .
Even better , no more whiffs of eau de poult poop while doing the laundry . Another perk : The turkeys seem much healthier and happier once they ’re out in the overbold air and append their diet with natural foods . For last yr ’s flock , we build a large , open - bottomed wooden pasture shelter for the birds to roost out of harm ’ way at Nox .
My married man had designed this shelter with skids so it would be portable , too , the idea being that we could haul it to new , clean reason with the motortruck each year , break up the quondam , accumulated stalk bedding / compost around in the process .
But when we actually prove to put this idea into practice this weekend , the move did n’t quite go as planned . On the bright side , we did get wind a few things , like :
1 . Never seek to haul a handsome , hard turkey shelter with a slight rope attached to your motortruck . It WILL die . Use a super - hardy chain rather — and stand far away in instance that breaks , too ( ours held , give thanks goodness ) .
2 . A big , heavy Meleagris gallopavo tax shelter will square up into the ground over the course of a rainy winter , making it stand by when you seek to move it . A thickheaded bed of honest-to-goodness straw litter / compost will also impede the construction ’s movement when the bottom crabbed - board drag against it . Possible result : Enough resistance to come out the bottom crossbreeding - board and side wall off the structure , which is exactly what happened in our case .
3 . Yellow - jacket crown wasps seem to like making their nests in old straw bedding / compost , and when trouble , they get very angry .
4 . Once it begin moving , a big , heavy Meleagris gallopavo tax shelter on skids will move okay . In a straight line . If you seek to reverse it obliquely , it may imperil once again to fall apart . After the wasps empty the neck of the woods and Brett re - attached the wall , we move our three Bourbon Reds and two Royal Palm turkeys in .
Right now , they ’re getting used to their new home before we release them , wings clipped , to start roll the pasture by twenty-four hours .
So what did you see the heavy manner this week ?
Cherie
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