Anyone raising chickens/turkeys etc?

[xxclaro]

Ever since we bought this place a couple years ago I've wanted to get a few animals. I've got an old barn still in decent shape,and a pasture of about 4 acres thats fenced with some cross fencing. The barn has 6 stalls inside, with power and water.

I've found a supplier for the black eastern "wild" turkeys, would like to get 10-12 of those. They should be here beginning of May, and would be butchered in the fall. I would also like a few laying hens, maybe 5-6, which I might keep through winter, not sure yet.

On top of that I am thinking of getting a half dozen weaner pigs,which would also be butchered in the fall. The pigs I'm not too worried about, I think once they are a few months old they will be fairly safe where I am. I have about a half acre that is fenced and will add an electric fence to keep them from digging under, and I plan to let them root around in that area.

The fowl I'm a bit concerned about. I'd like to let them out into the rest of the pasture, but don't know if they would be safe from hawks,foxes and coyotes. For the half dozen chickens it wouldn't take a big coop for them to be comfortable, but the turkeys would need some more space. I've thought about building a portable rolling enclosure that I could move with the quad. Either that, or I would have to leave them cooped during the day, let them out when I get home from work and then get them back inside before nightfall. Is anyone doing this type of thing,and if so how do you keep them safe while still allowing them to have some foraging and scratching space?

[amosfella]

Sounds like you need a cow too... There's a great one for sale in the everything else section of the buy and sell...

As for the chickens, you'll probably need a rolling enclosure. They can nicely be in with the pigs, but the pigs won't be able to protect them from the falcons, hawks, barn cats...

In the old days, a common pasture rotation was cattle, then pigs, then chickens/turkeys, and then let that area of pasture regrow. Chickens seem to do best on grass, insects and mice... At least they seem to taste the best that way... Not like the cardboard they try to pass off as chicken these days...

One thing you have to make sure of is that the chicks are kept warm enough till they get feathers.

[buck]

eastern wilds can and will fly out and bugger off in the spring to mate if adults
and the coyotes will enjoy them as the hens tend to sit right on the nest at night
making an easy meal even with view of the yard a good electric fence helps with 3 strands from you're knees down the Ravens will kill chicks quicker then Hawks and owls and steal eggs non stop my easterns had been locked up for a couple yrs big covered pen now they roam free in the sheep yard and return to big horse shelter on the end of the barn every
night to roost still loose some every spring to flying off but they sure taste good they aren't truly wild but sure as heck aren't tame either the chicken free range in a covered yard and only out when I'm around go for it and enjoy the learning process and good eats that come with it

[xxclaro]

Buck, you ever try clipping their wings? We had the eastern wild kind back in Ontario and they could indeed fly pretty good, although they never went too far. Mind you, we didn't have the coyote issue back there either. I'm not sure if my dad ever clipped their wings or not, but I know he did with some of the smaller chickens.

[Smokinyotes]

I don't like eggs from chickens that are on grass. The yokes get really dark and strong tasting.

[xxclaro]

I guess it depends on what your used to, after eating real free range eggs the store bought ones seem very bland and flavourless.

[Red Bullets]

Just my 2 cents worth....

We used to have 200 broiler/fryer chickens started from 2 day old chicks, 100 laying hens and a couple dozen free range bantam chickens when I was on the farm. A few years we had 20 to 40 domestic turkeys or geese. The best is to have a wire pen on the end of your coop and put a chicken wire roof over it. And dig down a foot or two and put chicken wire underground or page wire to keep the digging animals out. Essentially an aviary. Suitable for unclipped wild turkeys too. Chickens or birds can roost scratch around safely in the aviary during summer. Flying birds don't get let out of the aviary. You can let chickens free range for the daytime...they don't go far from the coop so they can always retreat to the coop if threatened. Good meat birds like turkeys, chickens and fowl should be finished on ground grains besides free range foods.

Most young chicks (turkey, fowl or chicken) need a brooder. Read up on how a brooder is set up. You need constant specific temperatures when they are young. They spook easy and crowd into corners resulting in dead chicks so they need a quiet place for the first couple weeks.

Weasels, skunks and owls cause the most losses. A weasel or skunk will kill as many birds as they can in one night, only eating the heads and brains, where a fox or owl will only take one bird at a time.

Quite a few small town auctions have an odd and unusual sale a couple times a year. You can buy golden pheasants, peahens, guinea hens and other nice birds. Just beware because some are very loud birds.

Pigs are best kept from digging under the fence by burying page wire or heavy chicken wire two feet down. Another thing to consider is pigs in a barn need sewage gutters and regular cleaning. Pigs are work. To finish them nice for butchering you need to feed them good chop/grains.

If you eat a lot of meat... rabbits are easy to feed to maturity, handle and butcher. 4 does and a buck, (Belgian meat rabbits) can produce quite a few rabbits. Building up a 'herd' doesn't take long. Use a hutch with an enclosed wire run for them.

Consider getting some ducks. They can live in a barn for the winter. A friend keeps about 36 year round. Free range in the yard with a little kiddies pool in summer. IMO.... Duck eggs are better than chicken eggs.

All these animals and birds you mention wanting to get require good feeds and good husbandry. Do your homework. Very much worth doing for good quality eating.

[Xbolt7mm]

You defiantly need a net over where the turkeys will be outside.

[pitw]

Once you start eating good food you won't quit. Red certainly hit on most of the good points. Fresh food you produce is so superior to chit from the grocery store. Get used to a few more fly's around the place as one goes with the other. I find hogs easier to keep in a pen they can't see out of. Learn how to take your meat from hoof/foot to the stove/freezer as this as much fun as raising it. Neighbor dogs can be a problem but they soon learn to quit. Hawks/owls and such seem to learn rapidly to leave your flock alone if spoken to properly. Skunks are easily trapped, coyotes can be controlled during daylight but the flock needs a lock up pen at night. Sounds like you may have the perfect spot to get your kids in 4H as well. Dispose of dead critters a few miles from nowhere as you don't want to teach predators to enjoy your wares. In the end you will end up with food like we will enjoy today as we killed this

40lb Bronze turkey yesterday morning. We have never seen the usefulness of Wild Turkeys on the farm.
Did I mention that I'll be smoking bacons that have been bring for a week from a hog we butchered last Saturday. Bought her as a bred gilt and got 8 live piglets from her and then fattened her for this. I'm thinking this may be the way we go for a spell as the meat is superior and with selling 4 piglets for more than the initial price makes the hog meat basically free and we still have 4 to butcher in a couple months.
Fresh is best.

[creeky]

Originally Posted by Smokinyotes

I don't like eggs from chickens that are on grass. The yokes get really dark and strong tasting.

mmmmmm, saffron colored yolks taste the best

[amosfella]

Originally Posted by Red Bullets

Just my 2 cents worth....

We used to have 200 broiler/fryer chickens started from 2 day old chicks, 100 laying hens and a couple dozen free range bantam chickens when I was on the farm. A few years we had 20 to 40 domestic turkeys or geese. The best is to have a wire pen on the end of your coop and put a chicken wire roof over it. And dig down a foot or two and put chicken wire underground or page wire to keep the digging animals out. Essentially an aviary. Suitable for unclipped wild turkeys too. Chickens or birds can roost scratch around safely in the aviary during summer. Flying birds don't get let out of the aviary. You can let chickens free range for the daytime...they don't go far from the coop so they can always retreat to the coop if threatened. Good meat birds like turkeys, chickens and fowl should be finished on ground grains besides free range foods.

Most young chicks (turkey, fowl or chicken) need a brooder. Read up on how a brooder is set up. You need constant specific temperatures when they are young. They spook easy and crowd into corners resulting in dead chicks so they need a quiet place for the first couple weeks.

Weasels, skunks and owls cause the most losses. A weasel or skunk will kill as many birds as they can in one night, only eating the heads and brains, where a fox or owl will only take one bird at a time.

Quite a few small town auctions have an odd and unusual sale a couple times a year. You can buy golden pheasants, peahens, guinea hens and other nice birds. Just beware because some are very loud birds.

Pigs are best kept from digging under the fence by burying page wire or heavy chicken wire two feet down. Another thing to consider is pigs in a barn need sewage gutters and regular cleaning. Pigs are work. To finish them nice for butchering you need to feed them good chop/grains.

If you eat a lot of meat... rabbits are easy to feed to maturity, handle and butcher. 4 does and a buck, (Belgian meat rabbits) can produce quite a few rabbits. Building up a 'herd' doesn't take long. Use a hutch with an enclosed wire run for them.

Consider getting some ducks. They can live in a barn for the winter. A friend keeps about 36 year round. Free range in the yard with a little kiddies pool in summer. IMO.... Duck eggs are better than chicken eggs.

All these animals and birds you mention wanting to get require good feeds and good husbandry. Do your homework. Very much worth doing for good quality eating.

I prefer sprouted to ground grain. Meat tastes better IMHO. ymmv

[357xp]

Originally Posted by xxclaro

I guess it depends on what your used to, after eating real free range eggs the store bought ones seem very bland and flavourless.

X2! Same goes for pork, I've raised pigs for myself now for 2 summers, I feed them from my organic feed mix and now whenever I taste pork that's from a high production barn I just about puke! Can't eat that stuff anymore. Not sure what they feed those pigs anyway, it literally taste like what a hog barn smells like.

[xxclaro]

I always thought it was from having the pigs standing in their own feces all day gave the meat that smell and taste. All I know is that the pork we used to raise ourselves didn't smell like that!

[calvin]

Raising pigs on pasture. 1wire electric fence works. Get a m600 or bigger Gallagher energizer, use insulators on posts, train them first. You will be good to go. You can also run your hens with them but you will need to make sure your nesting boxes are well away and out of reach of the pigs. Facebook has lots of sites in your local for sourcing all kinds of livestock. Butchering for myself is an issue as I hate processing chickens and turkeys. There was an outfit in St. Paul that did birds but they are no,longer in business. Hutterites are awesome resource if you have a colony close.

[Knot Rite]

Wife and I raised Rhode island reds and turkeys in B.C. and Montana but we had a large pen that was fenced and had to net the top as the harrier hawks would make their passer by. We would let the turkeys out daily and chickens just ran free ranged and then roost and I'd lock the gate. When we were in the yard they would eat crickets and grasshoppers and just forage doin whatever they do. It was so much fun in raising them, but then it came the day to axe them. You raise something for months and caring for it and that's the part I did not like. Don't get me wrong, I'm a big time hunter since whenever and I don't have a problem in putting an animal down, I just didn't like the slaughter part of an animal that I had gotten attached too. Just sayin. Enjoy and have fun with it.

Bobby

[xxclaro]

Thanks guys, some great replies here. Hadn't considered Facebook as a source of animals, I will check it out.