Content
Growing turkeys at home is not an easy task. These birds are distinguished by a very difficult disposition, and it is quite difficult to please them. But before you bring the first birds to your site, you need to decide where they will live. If the prospective breeder does not have sufficient territory for growing turkeys, then the only way out is to keep these birds in cages. You can buy turkey cages at specialty stores, or you can make your own. We will tell you how to do this below.
Pros and cons of cellular content
Keeping turkeys in a cage, according to many breeders, is not quite the right decision. Such conditions are not natural for these birds. In addition, such birds, as a rule, are deprived of full grazing in the fresh air. But this is more typical for breeding turkeys on an industrial scale on large farmlands.
If the turkeys are bred for the household, and they spend a sufficient amount of time in the fresh air, then such a content will be quite acceptable. In addition, this method of containment has several more advantages:
- significant feed savings;
- lack of bedding;
- efficient use of space;
- the possibility of keeping more birds.
Large breeds can easily turn it over, causing themselves serious injuries that can be fatal.
Rules for placing turkeys in a cage
In order for the turkeys not to feel strong discomfort from such content, the following conditions must be met:
- Each male must be kept separately. First of all, this is done for their safety. After all, two males in the same cage can fight and injure each other. Secondly, the males are rather large, so they will be very crowded together.
- Up to two females can be placed in each cage. Females are smaller than males and can get along well together. But such placement is possible only if each bird has free access to food and water. Placing more than two turkeys in the same cage can impair their reproductive capacity.
- Only hatched chicks should be placed in a brooder - a special cage that acts as a brood hen. Heating elements and lighting lamps must be installed in it, which create the necessary conditions for optimal growth of each turkey.
DIY turkey cages with photo
Purchased cages for turkeys are almost impossible to find on sale, and their cost can discourage even the strongest desire to breed this bird at home. Therefore, the best way out in this situation is to make cages for turkeys yourself. Moreover, coping with this is not as difficult as it might seem at first glance.
Tools and materials
Before starting work, you need to make sure that you have all the necessary tools and materials at hand.
Of the tools you may need:
- pencil;
- hammer;
- electric jigsaw;
- screwdriver;
- nippers.
If suddenly some tools are not at hand, do not despair. You can always think of how to replace them, for example, instead of a jigsaw, you can use a saw, and a screwdriver can be replaced with a drill and a screwdriver.
As for the materials, they cannot be replaced. Therefore, it will be necessary to prepare in advance:
- slats or beams made of wood;
- plywood;
- plastic panel;
- metal mesh with fine meshes;
- pens;
- loops;
- screws and metal corners.
If the future cage will be used as a brooder for young animals, then in addition to this list, you will also need heating elements, a lamp with a socket, a piece of cable and a switch.
Making a cage for young turkeys
Young turkey poults do not need as much space as adult birds, but they still should not sit in cramped conditions. Therefore, when calculating the size, it is imperative to take into account the number of chicks. Our cage will measure 150x0.75 cm and a height of 0.75 cm, but other sizes can be used if necessary.
The cage itself will consist of a frame made of slats or beams, to which plywood will be attached, which acts as the walls of the cage. There should be doors on the front through which it will be convenient to care for the chicks. The doors should be visible, because young chicks will feel uncomfortable in a deaf cage, and the breeder will not see what is happening there. The floor for young chicks will be in two parts. The first part, the top, is a metal mesh on which the chicks will walk, and through which their droppings will fall down. And the lower part is a sump where the droppings will fall.
First of all, you need to prepare the future walls. To do this, you need to take two sheets of plywood with dimensions of 150x150 cm. They must be cut into two halves. As a result, you will get 4 segments with dimensions of 150x0.75 cm. Two segments will go to the ceiling and the back wall. And the remaining two segments will need to be cut into two more parts, so that you get squares of 0.75x0.75 cm - these will be the side walls. Now you need to make a frame from rails or beams, using self-tapping screws and metal corners for their fastening. The prepared plywood cuts must be attached to the finished frame.
Now that the frame is ready, you can start making the floor. To do this, you need to put together a frame from the slats to the size of the floor. In our case, this is 150x0.75 cm. A piece of metal mesh must be attached to it.
A pallet for the floor is made in the same way, but instead of a metal mesh, a plastic panel is attached to the frame made of slats. If you take plywood instead, it will quickly deteriorate under the influence of the droppings.
The front doors are made according to the same principle: a metal mesh is attached to the frame made of slats. But unlike the floor, handles and hinges still need to be attached to them. Finished doors are hung on the frame with hinges.
The cage is almost complete. It remains only to make lighting in it by connecting the cable, socket and switch.
Making a cage for an adult bird
The principle of making a cage for grown young and adults is very similar to making a cage for chicks. They will differ in some features:
- Cell size. Adults are larger than chicks and need more space. Therefore, the optimal size for such a cage is 200x100 cm.
- The transparency of the walls. Deaf cells are not suitable for adults. They will be very nervous in them. Therefore, for the manufacture of all walls, it is necessary to use a metal mesh, and not sheets of plywood.
It doesn't take long to make these cells. And the purchase of all materials will cost significantly less than the purchase of a finished cage. But when making it, one must focus not on the amount of material, but on the convenience of finding a bird in it.
