Turkey Coop, 10

We had our first rain of the year this week. It was a nice day's worth of rain but I wasn't quite ready for it. The turkey coop just has a plywood roof at this point. I needed to add something to waterproof it. I chose green corrugated polycarbonate. The green color seems so classic to me, it reminds me of my childhood. My uncle had a boat house with a green corrugated roof and I just loved the green light it created inside.

The sheets I got were 26"x12' so I had to cut them in half. The jigsaw did a good job but it melted all the pieces together.


I also got the scalloped support rails and screws with washers and gaskets already on them (spendy).

I had to go back to Home Depot twice because first I got screws that were too long and then screws that were too short. Luckily the HD is close to my house. I can actually see it from the top of the turkey coop.


Once I got back from my third trip the installation when pretty quickly. I screwed down one side of the roof in about an hour.


All the materials for the first half cost $150, about 3 times what I was expecting. The second half will have to wait a few weeks. I don't think we're supposed to get more rain for the rest of the month.

I love the way it looks. The polycarbonate is so sparkly in the sun.

Turkey Coop 9

I spent some time extending the roost for the turkeys today. I went up one evening to check on them and the hen was sleeping on the ground. There just wasn't enough room for all four up there. I framed out what will be the front of the coop and added a 6' long roost. I'm hoping that will be enough.


This is what it should look like eventually. There will be a 2'x4' section on the left for storage and possibly nest boxes and the rest of the space will be for roosting.


I was planning on adding a door to close it all in with an opening for them to get out but I don't know if they care. Maybe it would just make me feel more at ease if they had an enclosed place to sleep.


Once I saw them moving around under it I started to wonder if they would have enough room to jump/fly up to the roost if I closed it all in. They have sort of a giant wing span at this point. I would also like to have the roost up as high as possible to keep them out of reach of critters that might get in. Maybe I should leave it all open so they can fly up. Ugh, decisions.


They do seem to like it though and would probably like it more if it was higher. I've heard of free-range turkeys sleeping high in trees or on top of houses. If I left it open I could provide them with some stair stepped roosts to make it easier to get up.


The two biggest toms were showing off for my friend Drew yesterday. I guess they never do this for me because they are used to me. It was kind of cute the way the puffed up. Their heads and necks changed color too and got more red and blue.

Turkey Update

Luckily the turkeys were unscathed in the dog attack. They must have been pretty freaked out when it was happening but they seemed fine by the time I got up there. I think I even saw one drink out of the new waterer, but maybe she was just pecking at it.


There are few things I still need to finish on the coop. One is enclosing the coop so it has four walls and a longer roost. The turkeys are so big now that the existing roost looks a little small for them.

I'm not sure if they even sleep up there or just use it as a jungle gym.

The Animal Control Officer that came to take the dog identified the turkey breeds immediately. It turns out that he lives in Antelope Valley where I got the turkeys and raises a bunch of animals himself. He also mentioned that it's nice that I've adhered to the set back requirements and have the coops far enough away from the neighbors' houses. I wonder what he would have done if the the coops were too close.

Automatic Bucket Waterer

I've had an automatic waterer in the chickens' coop for a few years but haven't been thrilled with it. It's nice that the chickens always have access to water but it is an open bowl that gets pretty dirty with all the scratching that the chickens do. The little roof that I built to keep the chicken droppings out does nothing to keep the dust out.


I thought I would try to build my own waterer that would keep the water clean. I started with a 5 gallon bucket I got from the doughnut shop. It used to hold hot cocoa mix and smelled great.


I ordered some "360 Super Flow Nipples" from Farmtek. These are more commonly used in big chicken operations but they should work for my little bucket waterer too. The chickens push on the little nipple and that allows water to flow out.


I needed some sort of float valve to stop the water once the bucket was filled up. Most of the valves I found online were more expensive than I wanted to pay so I opted for a vertical toilet float valve. It was only $6 and would fit in the bucket.


I cut the holes for the valve and the nipples in the bottom of the bucket.




The nipples have threads that screw into the hole and seal the opening.




An adapter and toilet connector allowed me to attach the valve to a garden hose.



Here's a video of me trying it out for the first time.

Who knew that water shoots out so hard inside a toilet? Not me. I got a little wet on that one, but the valve worked great and shut off just as expected. I added the blue hose to the outlet which should direct the water down rather than straight at the bucket wall. I guess it won't matter once the lid is on.

And a video of the nipples in action. I guess the chickens are going to have work a little to get enough water.

The chickens will have to learn how to use these before I can take the other waterer out but once one learns the others should pick it up pretty quickly. I'm not quite sure how to teach them how to use it though. Hmm

Update 9/10/11:
I decided to put it in the turkey coop since the chickens already have the automatic dog bowl. I have all the pieces for 3 waterers but I need two more buckets.

I just bought one hose and cut it into peices.

I added new ends and then connected them to a new four spout manifold. I would like to have one water in the chicken coop, one in the run, and one in the turkey coop, so that will leave one spout for another hose.


I hung it up next to the existing waterer hoping that they will be curious about it and peck at the nipples.

It looks high but the turkeys are so tall now they won't even have to stretch to reach the bottom of the bucket.

Turkey Coop, 8

Making a door was one of the last things I had to do for the turkey coop. It just so happens that the chicken coop has two doors. I borrowed one, temporarily, for the turkey coop.


I had a piece of sheet metal that was the original door that came with the shed kit. I screwed that over the opening. It's ugly but will keep predators out until I can replace the door.


The chicken door looks a little twee in the context of the turkey coop.

I also hit my head on the top a couple times. It will be nice to get a taller door in here at some point.


The other things I need to finish before moving the turkeys up was to fill in all the openings that a critter could get through. There were gaps between the rafters above the top plate that I filled with 2x4s


I added hardware cloth at the base to inhibit digging.


And I filled in the gaps between the back wall and the hill.


The mesh was just held on with staples so I covered the ends with particle board to hold it down. I'll replace it later with something more durable and better looking.

My goal was to make the coop safe enough to move the turkeys up. I can paint and finish all the details before the rain starts in the fall.

They aren't crazy about being picked up. Here's one of the blue slate toms.


Here he is in the new coop. I think his head is so red because he was pissed. I still hadn't cleared all of the scraps out yet. I just wanted to get them moved.


Next came the only hen out of the four. She was similarly unsettled by my laying hands on her.


I managed to bring the last two up together. I would guess that they are about half as big as they will eventually get but they already seem so big to me. I'm glad that they have room to flap and run around.


You can see the gaps at the base that I still needed to fill in. I filled in dirt on the inside and added dirt on the outside to the same incline of the hill. Eventually I'd like the floor of the coop to be level but I'll have time to do that later.


Alex has decreed that there will be no more building projects for the rest of the summer. I think he's sick of me spending every weekend, all weekend up on the hill. I'm sick of it too. It will be nice to spend some time in the garden instead :)

Alex has also identified which turkey will be the first dinner. It's the one that did this to him:

We were trying to show the turkeys the roost where they can sleep off the ground. It turns out they have little velociraptor claws. Fine, they can sleep on the ground.

Turkey Coop, 7

Well, it looks like the turkey's are going to have to spend a few more days crammed in the tractor. I just couldn't get it finished. I started to worry that rushing things would endanger the turkeys. I'm still concerned about critters digging their way in, so I would rather take more time and do things right. I've been fortunate with the chickens and they've never been attacked or taken by a predator. I don't want to get sloppy now that I'm so close to being done with the turkey coop.

I got all the mesh up,


and three sides of the coop, which will be enough for now. I can build the storage area after the turkey's are in.


I am looking forward to doing something else on the weekends, like laundry and grocery shopping.

Turkey Coop, 6

My goal yesterday was to get the roof up.


I ended up getting the ridge beam and half the rafters up.


It took me the whole day today to get the rest of the rafters and the sheathing up.

I love how it looks though. The long rafters make it seem kind of luxurious. Like it's a place made to take a moment and rest in the shade.


I was so relieved when I got all the plywood up the hill and onto the coop, but then I had to climb on and screw it all down. My screw gun ran out of juice on the last screw and I decided to call it quits for the day.




It looks like a boat to me. Maybe because it's half submerged into the hill like it's riding a wave.