[Womble]

OK, so I've managed to find a second hand 6'x4' shed to house our half a dozen or so turkeys. Can anybody give me some guidance on what they need to be happy?

For example, do they need perches to roost on, or will they sleep on the floor?  If they do, how much room should I allow, and how wide a perch, and how high off the ground?

Should they be fed ad-lib, or only at set times?

And finally, we plan to fence off a small area for them to range in outside the house. Although not heavily used by the hens, this is somewhere they have until now had access to, which I've read is a bad idea. Are there any specific precautions I need to take to prevent blackhead disease etc?

Thanks in advance folks, and Happy Christmas! 

Womble.

[manian]

hi
what age are they
we have 2 females that perch but  the other 3 settle on the floor. they may not need to perch if young. we have a sectioned areafor them but we have had to put string above the 5ft fence as they can jump very high!!!!!!!!!
(and thats with clipped wings)
i feed ad lib....... seem to just have what they want
we also feed them orego-stem that helps keep them healthy
good fun watching them dust bath...... they are huge
Mx

[Cinderhills]

When we got our first 5 last year we were told that you shouldn't provide a perch until they are 12 weeks old.  We bought a wooden bar with rounded off edges from our local hardware store.  We fed ad lib too.  Ours did actually free range with the chickens, we didn't have any choice as we wanted them to be completely free range.  No problems last year, and we made sure they were wormed.

Womble - where did you get your second hand shed from?  We are looking for exactly the same thing this year and don't want to pay much for it.

[Womble]

Thanks for the replies. The poults aren't actually hatched yet (hoping Andrew has that one under control somehow!), but I want to be ready in advance for once!!

The shed was an Ebay special - owner buying a bigger one, though I have seen similar on Gumtree too. It's in pretty good condition - just needed some of the weatherboarding replaced around the base, and a section of the floor sorting out where there had been a leak.  I've put it on skids so we can tow it about the place too. Overall, much better value than B&Q etc - I was shocked at how poorly made their cheapest sheds were.