Last Friday and Saturday Danielle was learning how to
shear sheep, so my work crew and I were left to our own devices. Our Narragansett turkeys have started laying for the season and we wanted to get them moved out onto pasture before the hens started to set. We did not want to move them after they were setting since this would likely be stressful on the hens and eggs, and based on last year, moving them after the poults hatched out would be a lesson in futility since the poults are wary of us and quite quick. We definitely needed to move them since our barn yard area needs to rest over the summer to recoup from having all the animals on it, as well as the fact that the turkeys got into the neighbors grape vines last year, something that will not be repeated.
The kids helped me put some sides and a back onto a simple shelter we used last summer to provide shade for the geese. We used some scrap wood I had left over from the basement remodel we have been doing. The crew got a ride on the trailer out to the turkeys new pen with the shelter, electric poultry netting and some straw for a nest.
We tied the electric netting into the fence I ran last week, giving them a nice sized area to hang out in.
The hens seem to have found the nest in the corner of the shelter acceptable. We moved out 8 eggs and as of last night I counted 11 in the straw. Not sure if they will share this nest, or if one will lay another clutch once the other sets. I guess as in everything we do on the farm, only time will tell.
2 comments:
I will be anxious to see how they do in this set up. Do you ever have varmint problems? Do you keep the grass down around the bottom of the fence? We have always done our broilers and turkeys in movable pens. We would love to try a set up like this.
Marci-
We have been lucky in the past. Last year we had the layers out on pasture in a mobile chicken coop surrounded by this same electric netting. At first we closed up the coop every night because we were worried about predators. After a while we stopped bothering and they did fine. We also raised a couple of batches of broilers as well as ducks and geese out on pasture. We did loose three ducks but they were free ranging (not surrounded by electric netting) when this happened. I am also quick to remove any potentially problematic animals if I find them (see varmints label the blog).
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