Heritage Turkey raising

Today was one of those early fall days, misty and rainy.   We hung out at home and did our favorite homebody fall chores.  We moved and stacked our locust firewood,  mulched the vegtable  bed and planted garlic, and last but not least had a little bonfire.  It was nice to get our hands dirty for a change of pace.  What a nice weekend!!!
One of the big projects this year has been the turkeys.  Last spring we decided to do another batch of turkeys.   The reasoning behind 20 turkeys was we raised 6 last year and we so enjoyed cooking them in our la CAJA China  box, more turkeys, more get togethers.We are also selling some and traded a couple  away.  Blueberries for turkey works for me.   We are keeping 8 or 10 in the freezer.  Yummy.
This adventure has set us on a path of new and amusing perdicaments, none of which I am unhappy about.   

We got 20 turkey poults from McMurray Hatchery this July.  They earned my repeat business by their excellent customer service.    When one arrived dead and another 3/4 dead  they happily  returned the money for the two.

From Left to right, Black Spanish,  Midget White, and Bourbon Red about 13 weeks old 

  Anyway it was a mix and I thought I had received 5 white broadbreasted , and 5 bronze turkeys in the mix, but to my surprise the white ones were the smallest turkeys. Instead I got 5 Naragansetts, and 4 Midget White Turkeys, not to mention, 4 Black Spanish turkeys and 4 Bourbon Red turkeys.   Anyway, the turkeys  are  calm, friendly, and generally amusing.  The most friendly have been the Naragansetts, so today after cleaning their pen and giving them their squash leaves,  we decided  to keep one male and the two hens of the Naragansetts.  We would like to see if we can raise the poults.  Lets see , they will be 9 months April 14th, and maybe they will start laying then. 



From left to right, Bourbon Red , two Naragansetts

 Our set up is one  of those metal carports.  It is 24 by 24 and we have half of it set up for the turkeys.  They also have a 140 sq foot coop for roosting and eating in.    They are pretty happy in there, breezy, not to much sun in the summer, which is a trick here in Underwood.  The highlight of our morning is watching them joyously flap and fly when we let them out of their coop in the morning.    .

We feed them a mix of alfalfa and turkey feed, then any greenery we can.  Also bugs and worms when we can.

 So  improvements today were cleaning up all the uneaten vines, and the most exciting of all was the bamboo gutter leading into our 5 gallon bucket.  So now in the winter we can just expect rain water to fill our bucket from the run off from the roof, okay so it is little Dr Seussy, but oh my how fun.  Here are some pictures of the set up.  Now we have the inside and outside waterer, and the gutter running into the bucket.  The turkeys stay drier and hydrated without turning on the hose. This kills two birds with one stone, so to speak.

Water in the bucket

Happy water drops down to bucket

Needless to say we are pleased with our latest upgrade and our decision to keep three of the turkeys for next spring  breeding experiment.

Option 2 Gravity Flow water options

 Beta Testing Wall at our house

The chicken watering nipples can be used in 3 ways we know of.  One is to be attached directly to a bucket and put in the coop or the yard.   The second way is to  use a bucket to store water outside of the coop, or the third way is to  set up with a nippleator a low flow pressure reducer and a simple garden hose with no bucket  We like and show examples of the second way, with water storage outside the coop and the nippleator inside.  There are several pictures here to illustrate mounting the nippleator, and several pictures to show either inside/outside waterer and simple either one way valves.  We like the shut off valve on the bucket so we can take easily take off the nippleator or move it.  Now we are pictruring the turkeys, and they are sort of messy drinkers.  We happen to be raising 22 turkeys, well 18 now,  after Monday.  They have a waterer in and out.  We like it in both places for night time and early morning sips.  They spend most of their time outside during the day. 
Here are the pictures.  As usual, please feel free to comment on these set ups and if you try something else, please share.


Single hose for water inside of coop

double hose for inside and outside watering 



Mounting bracket is screwed into 2 by 4 in wall of coop.





1.5 inch by 1.5 inch wood with zip ties to hold nippleator in place.



Simple wood block to space out and metal plumbing hanger.


The turkeys really seem to like the fresh water from the nippleator.  We are happy we changed them over to it.  They really learned fairly quick, like in a half hour.  We just had to show them that water came out.  They were curious about it.  The red color is supposed to attract them.  It is fun to see the turkeys race out of their coop in the morning, flapping and flying, then they go over to snack on their alfalfa and take a sip of clean water. Life is good in Underwood.



Directions for putting nipples into pipe

OPTION 1 Starting with chicken watering nipples
The nipples are designed for low pressure systems.  The maximum water pressure is to be 5.5 psi. (pounds per square inch).  There are two ways to get water to the nipples.  The first one, which we do not suggest is thru a hose and a pressure reducing valve put into the connection between the hose and the brass adapter.  The second way is to hook up the hose to a water container like a bucket.  We tried a couple methods and scoured the internet to figure out how to make them not leak in the joints.  We realize this is not necessarily the best method, but it is the best we could think of.  Please add your input.

Here are the supplies you will need to get this part of the chicken waterer built.  Call it what you will, a nippleator, or a canteen, but what it does is deliver the water to the birds.  The supply list is as follows:  

Parts list for assembly for 4 nipples:  3/4 inch pvc pipe, 3/4 pvc end cap, 3/4 slip joint to threaded 3/4 female, garden hose to length, brass threaded male 3/4 inch to garden hose thread le.

Tools List: saw for plastic,  tape measure, pencil, straight edge, drill, 11/32 drill bit, tap and handle with a 10mm x 1mm pitch.  This was bought here at the local hardware store for $12.00,pipe wrench.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   

Step 1.  Cut the 3/4inch pipe so it has 2 inches on either end and then 6 inches between nipples.

Mark a straight line on the pipe.

                                              Step 2   Put a x where the nipples will go.

                                             Step 3  Drill the nipple holes and try to hold pipe still.

Step 4 Use tap to thread the pipe.  Try to hold at a perpendicular angle to pipe.

Step 5 Wrap teflon tape arouond nipples.  Wrap teflon tape 3 or 4 times around nipple in the opposite direction of the threads.

Step 6.  Be careful to only tighten once or twice past hand tight.

Step 7 Glue the ends.  Put primer on first.

  Step 8 Put teflon tape on the male end of the 3/4 inch threaded brass fitting.

                                                        Done!

Coopqueen Waterer Introduction

   Whom here has washed chicken or turkey poop off a waterer on a cold morning?  It ain't fun. Why not try something new?  Below are the results of this very important revelation.
   We looked and saw that nipple waterers for  chickens were being used.  I did not like the 5 gallon bucket which goes directly in the pen, too messy.  The goal was clean feet for me and clean water for the birds.    We bought and tried a couple types of nipples and thought out the plumbing set up.  Steve has  set up watertanks at work.  Those water tanks deal with 100s of fish, frogs, and crayfish.   So we used that experience to put these together, using good fixtures.  There are drips from this kind of waterer.  We still like using it.  95% drips are from the birds drinking     They are eager drinkers. 
   It helped to have a shop to experiment in. The drill press,  the chop saw, the table saw, the marvel#2, flat surfaces to work on, all  helped immensely. For the last month we have refined our waters testing them on 22 turkeys, 4 chukkars and 27 cornish crosses.  It is with much excitement we have done this.  The turkeys and the chickens love the fresh water.
In the next blogs we will be fleshing out the directions to put these together with photos and instructions.  We would like very much any input you can give us from your experiences.  Thanks and have fun!

   We want our birds happy and we are trying to provide them with clean water and food first. I will write more about feed, but did you know they love alfalfa hay?

 The waterer keeps them occupied and they like fresh water. Each option will be a seperate post.  These will be printed in our favorite posts, Option 1, Option 2, and Option 3.   

Option 1. For those do it your selfers that like to experiement there are just the nipples.
 Option 2 is just the pipe with 2 or 4 nipples in it.   This comes ready to hook in a hose and you can figure out the rest.  Just look at three too.
Option 3 is the exact set up we have, all you do is open the box and pull out the screw gun to mount it on the wall and set it up inside or outside your hen house.These we will sell in the 2 and 4 nipple version.  With the deluxe version having.... inside and out waterers.
 
To install this yourself here are the instructions
1.  Nipples only .
 Pick the number of nipples you want to use first.   We suggest 2 for less than 6 birds and 4 for 12 -15 birds. 
Actual plumbing 
Here is a list of what you need  .  Teflon Tape, pvc glue, saw, rag, 2 feet of  3/4 inch pipe , 11/16 drill bit,
fitting joints
3/4" cap fitting
3/4" slip joint to 3/4" threaded female
brass hose fitting
Order some nipples and get started!